Swamp Creature vs. Scandal Magnet: Why Conservative Delegates Are Holding Their Noses for Diego Morales

By Hoosier Enquirer Staff | June 7, 2026

Indianapolis, Indiana — As Indiana GOP delegates gear up for the chaotic June 20 state convention in Fort Wayne, the Secretary of State race has turned into a true conservative nightmare. The establishment’s pretty-boy pick, career DC insider Max Engling, is getting the hard sell from Sen. Jim Banks and AG Todd Rokita. But grassroots conservatives are having none of it.

Max Engling? Absolute hard pass. This guy is establishment as they come — a 15-year Beltway barnacle whose resume is a greatest-hits album of Swamp service:

Regional Director for Sen. Jim Banks (2025–present)

Member Services Director for House Speaker Mike Johnson (late 2023)

Same gig under Kevin McCarthy right before his humiliating ouster (2023)

Deputy Outreach Director/Member Services Adviser to McCarthy as Minority Leader (2019–2023)

Staff Director roles and committee gigs under various House Republicans dating back to his 2011 internship.

Former male model turned professional staffer? No thanks. Delegates see him as the ultimate DC import who’ll keep the machine greased, not the fighter Hoosiers need on election integrity.

Dave Shelton? Respectable on paper, but a cultural non-starter. The Knox County Clerk and local GOP chair brings real election admin experience. Many delegates like his steady, no-drama background. But here’s the problem that keeps coming up in conservative circles: his wife Rachel’s long-running Pure Romance business. For nearly a decade, she’s been selling adult products, lingerie, and “relationship enhancers” (that’s code for sex toys) out of a branded party bus — and Dave reportedly helped build it. In a party full of Conservative Christian Hoosiers who value traditional family values, that doesn’t sit well. At all. It’s become major fodder for attacks, and plenty of delegates quietly say it’s a bridge too far for a statewide office like Secretary of State. Solid clerk? Sure. But the sex toy bus baggage makes him tough to rally around enthusiastically.

Enter Diego Morales — the incumbent whose administration has been plagued by scandal after scandal: nepotism hires (including family at big salaries), massive staff bonuses, lavish travel, no-bid contracts, and more. He’s handed Democrats attack ads for years, and even many loyal Republicans are exhausted by the baggage.So where does that leave principled conservative delegates? In a rock-and-hard-place spot.

They won’t touch Engling with a ten-foot pole — too much establishment slime. They’re lukewarm on Shelton thanks to the family business optics. That leaves Diego Morales. They don’t love him. They’re holding their breath, pinching their noses, and planning to vote for him anyway — not out of excitement, but because he’s the least-worst option in a field that feels rigged against real reformers.

The convention floor is going to be tense. Will the insiders muscle through their DC favorite? Or will fed-up conservatives rally behind the flawed incumbent to block the Swamp?

Hoosiers deserve better than this mess. The establishment never sleeps — but neither does the grassroots. Fort Wayne is going to be one for the books.