One thing I learned early while studying political science in college in the mid-1970s is this: politics is a rough game. It is not for the faint of heart. It often does unfair things to good people.
That’s what first came to mind Friday when I learned that Indiana Senate President Pro Tem Rod Bray will not seek re-election to his leadership post when lawmakers reorganize in November.
Sometimes a man can be judged by what others say about him.
House Speaker Todd Huston of Fishers issued a statement after Bray’s announcement, calling him a great friend and legislative partner over the past six years. “I admire his many legislative accomplishments, but what I admire most is his commitment to family and to our state,” Huston wrote. “I look forward to continuing to work alongside him as a senator and continuing our long friendship.”
Another measure of a man’s reputation is what his political opponents say about him. “From my years in the State Senate, I have personally known Rod Bray as a decent, thoughtful and honorable man,” said Indiana Democratic Chair Karen Tallian. “So it was particularly sickening for me to watch as the MAGA zealots put on the pressure and reviled this brave man during Trump’s gerrymandering crusade last fall.”
It was redistricting that drove Bray’s decision. Last fall, President Trump and Gov. Mike Braun pressed Indiana lawmakers to redraw the state’s congressional maps mid-decade to favor Republicans. Bray voted against the new maps, and 21 of the Senate’s 40 Republicans joined Democrats to defeat the plan. Party leaders then threatened to recruit and fund primary challengers against any senator who backed Bray’s bid to remain leader. Bray said he would not put his members in jeopardy from their own party simply for supporting him. He will remain in the Senate, where his District 37 term runs through 2028.
I worked part time at the Martinsville radio station while in college in the mid-1970s and full time there for a year in the late 1970s. A Bray has held elective office in Indiana continuously since 1951 — the year I was born.
Rod’s father, Richard Bray, served 18 years in the Indiana House (1974–1992) and 20 more in Senate District 37 (1992–2012), when Rod succeeded him — roughly 38 years in the General Assembly in all. He was also Morgan County prosecuting attorney from 1958 to 1970, chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee and practiced law in Martinsville.
Rod’s grandfather, William G. “Bill” Bray (1903–1979), a decorated World War II Army tank officer, served 12 terms in the U.S. House from 1951 to 1975, representing Indiana’s 7th and later 6th districts, before losing his seat to David Evans in the post-Watergate Democratic wave of 1974. He, too, had been Morgan County prosecutor.
I did not know Richard Bray well and have never met Rod, but I spoke with Bill Bray on several occasions. He once told us he spent more time socially at the White House during John Kennedy’s presidency than any other, because the two men — from different parties — had struck up a personal friendship.
During Watergate, I interviewed Bill Bray about the impeachment hearings, knowing he was a staunch Nixon supporter. When I asked whether the Democratic chairman of the committee was handling the hearings fairly, he declined to comment. The chairman was a personal friend.
Big changes are sweeping our politics at both the national and state levels. Rod Bray’s decision is one of them. Where they take us is a question yet to be answered.