A majority of Indiana voters disapprove of Gov. Eric Holcomb’s (R) decision to veto a transgender sports ban bill, a move which “will begin the big sort-out of who will be running for governor and U.S. Senate in 2024,” a Herald Bulletin political columnist observed Monday. 

Roughly 53 percent of Indiana voters strongly disapprove (42.1 percent) or somewhat disapprove (11 percent) of Holcomb’s decision to veto a bill that would ban boys who think they are girls from competing on girls’ K-12 sports teams, a Spry Strategies Indiana General Election poll found. The weighted poll was conducted from March 28- April 3 among 1,012 likely 2022 voters and has a margin of error of ±3.1 percentage points. 

Only 28.1 percent of those polled “strongly approve” of Holcomb’s veto, and 11.3 percent somewhat approve. Seven percent are unsure or have no opinion on the matter.

Holcomb angered conservatives in late March when he vetoed HEA 1041, legislation designed to protect women’s sports from transgender activism. Holcomb said in a letter to legislators that he found “no evidence” to support the idea that sports are suffering from a lack of fairness in his state.

“The wide-open nature of the grievance provisions in HEA 1041 that apply to all K-12 schools in Indiana makes it unclear about how consistency and fairness will be maintained for parents and students across different counties and school districts,” Holcomb wrote in the letter.

“The presumption of the policy laid out in HEA 1041 is that there is an existing problem in K-12 sports in Indiana that requires further state government intervention,” he added. “It implies that the goals of consistency and fairness in competitive female sports are not currently being met. After a thorough review, I find no evidence to support either claim even if I support the overall goal.”

Holcomb vetoed the bill even though Indiana voters overwhelmingly oppose boys who identify as girls from playing in girls’ sports. More than 60 percent of voters strongly support or somewhat support banning males who identify as females from playing in girl’s sports in both K-12 schools and college, the poll found.

According to the Herald Bulletin, the General Assembly’s supermajority Republican caucuses are “expected to easily override that veto” on May 24 during technical corrections.

“But the more telling day on where the GOP stands could be June 18 at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum in Indianapolis when the Indiana Republican Party convenes,” columnist Brian Howey wrote.

Howey concluded:

In addition to his transgender veto, Holcomb has taken GOP hits on the way he conducted the pandemic shutdowns in 2020. Holcomb won reelection in landslide fashion in November 2020, so he’s on stable ground with most voters, but not with the GOP’s socially conservative wing.

So when Hoosier Republicans gather at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in June, it will be about much more than November’s midterm elections. The coming veto override will still be fresh in the minds of many delegates. It will begin the big sort-out of who will be running for governor and U.S. Senate in 2024.

Holcomb has a decent approval rating for now, according to the survey. Out of 1,012 voters, 36.7 percent say they “somewhat approve” of “the job Eric Holcomb is doing as Governor for the state of Indiana,” and 19 percent “strongly approve.” Nearly 22 percent “somewhat disapprove” and 17.7 percent strongly disapprove.

Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Twitter.