Democrats Respond To Report That Braun’s Company Sells Foreign Products

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By Shelby Mullis
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Democrats are responding to a report from The Associated Press that revealed one of the issues Rep. Mike Braun prides his campaign on may not align with the facts.

The report, published Aug. 10, found that Braun’s automotive parts brand, Promaxx Automotive, sells products that were manufactured abroad — something that has not been disclosed during his campaign.

The Associated Press traced several products from Promaxx Automotive back to their Chinese origin, some of which were labeled “Made in China” in several places on the product and packaging.

“Rep. Braun has said repeatedly on the campaign trail that his business is entirely made in America and that his business is ‘never involved in anything overseas,’ other than some third-party manufacturers,” said John Zody, chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party, during a press conference Monday.

The Republican Senate nominee has repeatedly criticized his Democratic rival, Sen. Joe Donnelly, for owning stock in his brother’s business that operates a factory in Mexico. Donnelly, also a critic of outsourcing jobs to foreign countries, sold the stock in 2017 after The Associated Press reported it manufactured some products in Mexico.

But United Auto Workers Region 2-B Director Rich Rankin said there is no comparison between Braun’s decision to sell foreign goods and Donnelly’s involvement in his brother’s business because Donnelly was “not in a place to make that determination.”

“The way I see it is Mike is a CEO,” Rankin said. “CEOs make those decisions where he can decide where the parts for his company are built.”

Andrew Downs is a political science professor at the Indiana University-Purdue University of Fort Wayne, and he said this is more than just a matter of where products are coming from.

“The issue here is that Mike Braun has set himself up as made in the USA,” Downs said. “When it’s possible to bring that into question, it’s one part bringing into question his business practices. Another is actually bringing into question him as an individual.”

He said it spirals into an issue of character — “‘I might agree with you on several issues, but you told me everything is made in the USA when in actuality, it’s not, so now I don’t trust you.’”

Braun’s campaign spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication.

With less than 85 days until Election Day, Downs predicts the back-and-forth between the two candidates will only continue to increase in intensity.

“We have not seen the end of these things yet,” he said.

Braun, Donnelly, and Libertarian candidate Lucy Brenton will face each other at the Toby Theater at Newfields, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, at 7 p.m. on Oct. 30.

FOOTNOTE: Shelby Mullis is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

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4 COMMENTS

  1. CCO archived polls show that Donnelly and Tannos are even or ahead of their opponents. People want Trump kept in check. That isnt happeneing today. Voters remorse? many now realize how trouble some Trump is.

  2. CCO polling shows Tanoos and Donnelly are even or ahead of their opponents. People want change

  3. INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An Indiana senator railed against Carrier Corp. for moving manufacturing jobs to Mexico last year, even as he profited from a family business that relies on Mexican labor to produce dye for ink pads, according to records reviewed by The Associated Press.

    Joe Donnelly, considered one of the nation’s most vulnerable Democratic senators up for re-election next year, has long blasted free-trade policies for killing American jobs. He accused Carrier, an air conditioner and furnace maker, of exploiting $3-an-hour workers when it announced plans to wind down operations in Indiana and move to Mexico.

    However, an arts and crafts business Donnelly’s family has owned for generations is capitalizing on some of the very trade policies — and low-paid foreign labor — the senator has denounced.

    https://www.apnews.com/6d7d48ba7ae3420982c313192549805f

  4. See a clear victory for Braun and another landslide for Buschon. Liberals are just not setting well with Hoosiers. Hoosiers know that a vote for a democrat is a vote for open borders, sanctuary cities as crime containment areas, loss of gun ownership thereby creating a new group of victims, severely restrictive 1st Amend rights, unvetted hordes of illegals, job losses, increased criminal activity and higher tax. Conservatives, liberals think you are fools, please disappoint them.

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