Industry Veteran Braun to Take Reins as Indiana Governor – RVBusiness – Breaking RV Industry News
Current U.S. Senator and former RV industry executive Mike Braun’s victory in yesterday’s (11/5) Indiana gubernatorial election was almost a foregone conclusion for many observers in the historically conservative Hoosier State.
And although Braun did face some pretty strong opposition from Democratic contender Jennifer McCormick, a former Superintendent of Public Instruction, it was a race that the Associated Press called fairly early in the evening when Republican Braun had accrued 54% of the vote, McCormick 41% and Libertarian Donald Rainwater 5%.
As such, Braun, 70, the founder of 37-year-old aftermarket parts and accessories distributor Meyer Distributing Inc., based in Jasper, Ind, succeeds term-limited GOP Gov. Eric Holcomb, a popular governor who had appeared at RVB’s annual Power Breakfast on more than one occasion.
Now it goes without saying that Braun’s new role won’t have any impact on Meyer’s business affairs. In fact, Braun told RVBusiness during his campaign that he’d retained only “a very small sliver” of equity in Meyer since his election to the U.S. Senate in November of 2018, having turned much of it over to the “next generation.” And he also stepped away from day-to-day management, although sons Jeff, now CEO; Jason, chief technology officer; and daughter Kristen, head of human resources and real estate, are still very much in the full-time mix at Meyer Distributing.
Braun told the crowd at last night’s Indiana GOP Watch Party not long after his electoral victory was announced that his time in the Senate – along with his business experience — had prepared him to become governor as he addressed details regarding his transition team, policy development, agency reviews and planning for an inaugural event and celebration.
All of those initial tasks can be distracting, he told WSBT-TV. “But the one thing, the way we were raised, is if you’ve got good principles and you stick to them – regardless of what you pursue – you’ll end up in the long run doing OK,” said Braun, the endorsed candidate of again-incumbent President Donald Trump. “It all comes back to faith, family and community.”
Indeed, Braun, has frequently cited in a generic sense the lessons learned in his business career and how they continue to apply to his governmental work.
“If you’re good at business, government’s a lot easier. And if you’re an entrepreneur, you can do a lot of good things in government and do it running a business as well,” he confided previously during a telephone interview. “And that’s what happened after I came back home (to Jasper) after business school at Wabash College. So, it’ll be because I learned a lot in the real world before I decided to get into government.”
Looking back, Braun, who also got an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, recalled how he ultimately “went with a little business that was struggling selling mostly to the farm market.” To keep the doors open, he started selling (RV) bumpers and running boards and other componentry made up in the Elkhart area, which, he said, didn’t amount to all that much at the time as Meyer Body Inc. in Haysville, Ind.
The end result, long story short, was Meyer Distributing.
“Over 17 years,” he told RVB, “we built that into a kind of regional business. And now it’s (Meyer) a national business – a company that I started from scratch, a distribution business selling auto and truck accessories, then moving into RV parts and accessories. And now we do a host of other things. And I had one little office in a used mobile home for 17 years. And now we have 90 locations in 40 states and three in Canada. So that’s the American dream. It took a while to really get going, though.”
Braun’s goals as Indiana’s next governor, a job previously held by Republicans Mike Pence and Mitch Daniels, include improving state finances, reforming healthcare and tackling high energy costs plus issues like child care, affordable housing and rural broadband.
“I think that Eric’s done a decent job,” said Braun. “Pence did a decent job. Mitch Daniels fixed it after we had 20 years of Democrats running it. And then I’ll take it, as an entrepreneur, to that next level because I’ve got more business experience than any of them when it comes to small, medium and large companies. And I come from a very entrepreneurial community and have the values of faith, family and community and have an agenda out there that’s going to emphasize freedom and opportunity. So, I’m going to roll all that into a way to take a dynamic state like Indiana and make it even better.”
