Can this red state Democrat and political heir win back the working class?

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear sat across from Beau Bayh in tan cushioned chairs on a January episode of the "Andy Beshear Podcast" filmed in Louisville.

The sons of respected former Democratic governors in bordering ruby-red states both donned dark blazers, dressing up the dull with colorful button-down shirts. Beshear wore pale pink. Bayh, who is running for Indiana secretary of state, wore baby blue.

"Congratulations!" Beshear proclaimed, praising Bayh for raking in $1.8 million in a recent fundraising haul, a mammoth amount for a lower-level statewide seat.

"There was always a sense in my family of some obligation to give back to the community, and I knew whatever I was going to do in my life, it was going to take that path," Bayh said, noting there are other ways to serve besides running for office. His father, former Sen. Evan Bayh, was elected near the end of the Clinton era, and his grandfather Birch Bayh's tenure in the Senate began 10 months before President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

Bayh, 30, serves as a test case for Democrats as the party seeks to win back support among working-class voters and young white men ahead of the 2028 general election. Seeking the office that kick-started his dad's 25 years in public service, Bayh is running for Indiana secretary of state against scandal-plagued incumbent Diego Morales.

The U.S. Marine veteran is among several heirs to storied American political dynasties running for office this year, including Kennedy's grandson Jack Schlossberg, who is campaigning for Congress in New York, and Nancy Pelosi's daughter Christine, who is seeking a seat in the California Senate.

Three generations of the Indiana men are tethered by heartache. They all lost their mothers to cancer at a young age.

Bayh's father, Evan Bayh, recalled his final conversation with his own mother, Marvella. She told him that what she would regret most is missing out on meeting her future daughter-in-law and grandchildren. "And now the same thing has happened to my sons," Evan Bayh told USA TODAY, referencing the loss of his wife and Beau Bayh's mom, Susan Bayh.

Beau's elders include two US senators, a collegiate basketball coach

Beau Bayh is the fourth Birch Evans Bayh, the newest comer in an American political dynasty. Lesser known than the Kennedys, Bushes or Clintons, the Bayhs still boast widespread influence within their state of nearly 7 million people. The first Birch Evans Bayh was the head basketball coach at Indiana State, where NBA legend Larry Bird got his start.

His son, Birch Evans Bayh Jr., authored the landmark Title IX civil rights legislation centered on gender equity as a Democratic senator from Indiana. The third Birch Evans Bayh, "Evan" Bayh, is Beau Bayh's dad and was also a U.S. senator like his father.

Bayh has criticized Morales, the 47-year-old incumbent, for hiring his brother-in-law and using $90,000 in taxpayer funds to buy a GMC Yukon Denali SUV from a high-dollar donor.

The nominating process in Indiana is decided at a convention, not the ballot box. Bayh, a moderate like his father, is running in the June primary against a progressive small business owner, Blythe Potter, who is an Army Reserves veteran.

Potter, 42, has slammed Bayh for accepting campaign contributions from supporters linked to President Donald Trump, including his father's associate, Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan. Evan Bayh joined Apollo shortly after retiring from the Senate.

Handed money on a 'silver platter'?

Whoever prevails at the convention will likely face off against Morales. The Indiana race for secretary of state will top the ticket in November rather than a presidential, gubernatorial or Senate contest. Rather than casting a separate vote for each office, Indiana voters can select a single party’s candidates for every race, also known as straight-ticket voting.

"That's going to always – at this moment, in this culture, in this climate – always benefit Republicans," said University of Indianapolis political science professor Laura Merrifield-Wilson.

The Democratic nominee must woo voters to put their primary winner, either Bayh or Potter, over their political party. Bayh will face the additional balancing act of promoting his family's political dynasty while finding ways to separate himself from the prestige of his surname.

Morales and Potter have each seized on his privileged upbringing.

The Morales campaign said in a statement to USA TODAY that Bayh "is being handed his money on a silver platter." Potter said in an interview that "my mom voted for Donald Trump and donated to me, and other people have too, but not tens of thousands of dollars, and not people who are actively financially involved with Donald Trump."

Bayh responded to the criticism by saying that he wants "to be the secretary of state for all Hoosiers," including Republicans, Trump supporters, Democrats and independents.

Citing his family legacy and military background as a strength, University of Indianapolis political science professor Ted Frantz, Merrifield-Wilson's colleague, said Bayh is a "guy who looks like he's from central casting."

'Indiana's Favorite Sons': Beau Bayh is a twin, Harvard alum

Bayh and his younger twin brother Nick were born Nov. 8, 1995, to then-Gov. Evan Bayh and first lady Susan Bayh. She had disclosed she'd previously miscarried. An Indianapolis Star front page headline days later called them "Indiana's Favorite Sons."

Evan Bayh was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1998, days before the boys turned 3. The family later moved to Washington and the boys attended The Beauvoir School at The Washington National Cathedral.

A centrist Midwesterner who pressed for bipartisanship, Evan Bayh was reelected in 2004. He considered and ultimately skipped a 2008 presidential run, and during that same cycle, he was the runner-up choice for Barack Obama's running mate before Obama selected Joe Biden.

Two years later, in 2010, Sen. Bayh announced that he wouldn't seek reelection, but the Bayhs remained in Washington. The twins graduated from St. Albans School in 2014. The college prep academy's illustrious alumni include their dad and former Vice President Al Gore, whose own father served for nearly two decades as a U.S. senator from Tennessee. The brothers attended Harvard University, where Beau Bayh played lacrosse.

Then a familiar grief struck.

The mother of Sen. Birch Bayh died of uterine cancer when he was 12. Marvella Bayh, Birch Bayh's wife, died from cancer when their son, Sen. Evan Bayh, was 23. Evan Bayh's wife and Beau Bayh's mom, Susan Bayh, a former lawyer at pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, underwent surgery in 2015 to remove a benign brain tumor.

The grief they know

Evan Bayh returned to politics the following July. He surprised Hoosiers with a late entrance into the Senate race against then-Rep. Todd Young, less than four months before Election Day. The Bayhs faced an onslaught of attack ads about their roots in Indiana, including their ownership of two high-end Washington homes and questions raised about how much time he'd spent at an Indianapolis apartment.

Evan Bayh defended his Hoosier roots during the race. He starred in commercials alongside the boys and flexed his middle-of-the-road reputation. "I've taken on the extremes of both parties, and I always will, to get things done," he said in one basketball-themed spot.

He lost by 10 points to Young on Election Day 2016 with Trump on the ballot. It was his first defeat.

The Bayh twins later graduated from Harvard with both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Beau Bayh has a law degree, and his brother earned a degree in business.

Nick Bayh went to work for the Indianapolis Colts. Their father, 55 years old when he left the Senate, was inching toward his 70th birthday. Their mom had died in 2021.

On Oct. 6, 2025, Evan Bayh's eldest son introduced himself to the state in his own words.

"I'm a seventh-generation Hoosier and I served our country as a captain in the United States Marine Corps," Bayh says in a video announcement. "And now, I'm running to be our next secretary of state." Elections should be secure and fair, he has argued. Bayh vowed in an interview to audit the office on day one.

"Hoosiers work hard for our money. It's being wasted. There's no accountability," he says. "The secretary of state has a pretty good thing going for himself and his buddies, and they won't give that up easily," Bayh added. "But I'm a Marine, and we don't run from a fight."

A family photograph of the Bayhs flashes on screen in the ad.

After Susan Bayh's death, a lasting gift to city

Susan Bayh died at 61 of glioblastoma on Feb. 5, 2021. Her sons were 25. The same incurable brain cancer claimed the lives of Arizona Sen. John McCain and President Biden's eldest son, Beau. "I would have given anything to not have them have to go through that, and I told them that," Evan Bayh said to USA TODAY.

Biden spoke at a memorial service for the Bayh matriarch held Sept. 29 at the National Cathedral in Washington. Beau Bayh delivered a eulogy. He told the attendees that his mom struggled to open her eyes in one of her last days. In the hospice room, as they held hands, he said his mother's blue eyes met his own.

"I love you, Beau," she mouthed silently.

"I know you do. I love you too, mom," Bayh replied, squeezing her hand.

"When we are brave and stand up for what is right, she will be there," he told memorial attendees.

The Susan Bayh Outdoor Classroom was dedicated days later on Oct. 2. The covered gathering shelter, tucked within towering trees, lives on the sprawling grounds of Indianapolis' grand Holliday Park.

Beau Bayh leaves flowers there on her birthday each year. Bayh followed his mother, father and grandfather into the legal field after Susan Bayh's death. He was sworn in as an Indiana lawyer in 2024.

Beau Bayh's opponents continue 'carpetbagger' claims

Since he hit the trail this past fall, Bayh's campaign has provided steady reminders of his father's 2016 bid.

Indiana Republicans are seizing on the same rumors that sank Evan Bayh's Senate bid against Young. "It's a long way from the East Coast for him," the Morales campaign statement said. The Indiana GOP has called Bayh a "carpetbagger," a candidate who runs somewhere with no connections, writing online that "I'm sure daddy can find you a job back home next time around."

Morales comes from Guatemala. His family immigrated to Indiana in 1999. He graduated from Silver Creek High School in small-town Sellersburg.

"That shouldn't disqualify him from serving our state, of course not," Bayh said. "But I mean, if you want to make this a contest of who's really from here, that doesn't seem really fair to me." Bayh is close to his father and looks like him – 6 foot 3 with a coiffed haircut – but his campaign for Indiana secretary of state may hinge on what sets the two men apart.

A graduate of Indiana University in Bloomington, Evan Bayh hit back at criticism of his son. "He's way more – I was never a Marine Corps captain. I was never a varsity athlete in college. I didn't go to Harvard," he said.

'He's got that Marine spirit' and a familiar love of ice cream

Indiana Democrats have faced a string of statewide losses since Beau Bayh's father left the Senate in 2011. Their last statewide victories were Sen. Joe Donnelly and former public instruction superintendent Glenda Ritz in 2012.

Past state party chair Ann DeLaney, a former adviser to Evan Bayh, said that more than twice as many people filed to be delegates this time than at the previous convention, a metric she said reflected people's "enthusiasm" for Beau Bayh.

He has been crisscrossing the state, wearing a mix of weathered boots, work jackets and blue jeans, underscoring his ties to Indiana. He's cast himself as an ordinary Hoosier, using a familiar playbook to bond over their way of life and folksy love of ice cream, like the generations of Bayhs before him.

Sen. Evan Bayh once shared Dairy Queen Blizzards with Hillary Clinton, then the junior senator from New York, at a 2008 campaign stop in South Bend during her first run for president. And at a 2019 memorial service for Birch Bayh, Bayh’s grandfather, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett recounted the elder Bayh’s love of ice cream, saying he knew every Dairy Queen location in Indiana, according to a Terre Haute Tribune-Star article. As for Beau Bayh, his go-to DQ order is an M&M Blizzard.

When his campaign took him to Frankfort recently, Bayh made a point of stopping at The Milky Way, an iconic local ice cream shop and eatery.

Terre Haute Mayor Brandon Sakbun is a close friend of Bayh. The 29-year-old Army veteran and Democratic rising star said in November that he spends any "little spare time away" from work, or raising his daughter, helping Bayh. "He's got that Marine spirit, he's all over the place. He's meeting as many people as possible," Sakbun said.

'She loved Indiana'

For Beau Bayh, the race to be Indiana's secretary of state also seems like a quest to be seen as himself.

Evan Bayh spends his days supporting both sons. The more private Nick Bayh left the Colts, married and settled down. Candidate Bayh is doing his best to live as his mom did, something he lauded in her eulogy.

"When we offer help to a person in need, she will be there," he said at the National Cathedral in 2021. "When we smile at a passing stranger, she will be there." Bayh sneaks away to Holliday Park almost once a month. He spent the fifth anniversary of her death on the campaign trail this year.

"Nothing would make her happier than me doing this and trying to do everything I can to help the people of our state because she just, she loved Indiana with everything ... in her being," he said.

Whatever happens Election Day on Nov. 3, Bayh knows where he will be later that month. He will bring flowers to Holliday Park on Nov. 28, her birthday.

(This story was updated with new information.)

Graphic by Stephen Beard. Contributing: Hayleigh Colombo and James Briggs, The Indianapolis Star; and Kayla Dwyer and Maureen Groppe, USA TODAY.