Randy Head steps down as Indiana Republican Party chair. What role do state party chairs play?

Indiana Republican Party Chair Randy Head stepped down from that position this week, returning full-time to his lobbyist position ahead of the legislative session.

State party chairs are barred from lobbying the legislature.

Head served just five months in that role after taking over for former chair Anne Hathaway last June.

Vice Chair Erin Lucas will take over for Head in the interim, until a new chair is chosen.

Michael Wolf, Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics acting director, said political party chairs provide leadership and coordination across their state organizations.

“Bring together local party leadership along with recruitment of candidates and have those people really be able to optimize and win elections,” Wolf said. “So, it’s an extraordinarily important position.”

Wolf said, historically, party chairs are more moderate voices as they try to get factions within their party to work together. That’s less true now, as politics is increasingly polarized.
 

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But Wolf said the next chair of the Indiana GOP will still need to work toward that purpose.

“Try and have somebody that can work across, again, a very diverse ideological regional state like Indiana,” Wolf said.

Party chairs are often selected by the highest elected state official in the party — in this case, Gov.-elect Mike Braun.

The chair is officially elected by the state party's state committee.

Brandon is our Statehouse bureau chief. Contact him at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.