Micah Beckwith under fire: This video reveals the character of the man who will be Indiana's next lieutenant governor

On Saturday, June 15, delegates to the Indiana state GOP convention nominated conservative activist Micah Beckwith for Lieutenant Governor, setting off a panic on the Left and in some Republican circles as well.

Beckwith is the pastor of Life Church in Noblesville and for the last four years has been a standout member of the medical liberty movement in the state, speaking out against lockdowns and mask and vaccine mandates.

In January of 2022, he went to Indianapolis to testify before a committee of the state House of Representatives on a bill to guarantee protections from onerous corporate vaccine mandates.

The situation was dire. More than 100 employees of Ascension St. Vincent hospitals — including at least three doctors and the head of one rural hospital — had been denied exemptions and fired. Many employees at Crane Naval Base were hanging on by a thread, facing termination after being denied exemptions by the U.S. military.

Conservatives in the state were shocked that the Republican leadership in Indianapolis had closed down churches, declared most mom-and-pop business non-essential, imposed a statewide mask mandate (initially with jail time for non-compliance), and pushed an experimental vaccine on infants as young as six months old.

The speakers that day were varied and several gave extraordinary testimony — almost none of it reported on by our corrupt state media.

But one truly stood out — Micah Beckwith’s — not just because of what he said in his testimony to state legislators, but because of the exchanges that followed with three legislators — two Republicans and one Democrat — all three of whom tried to trip him up.

Beckwith fielded their questions deftly, showing no particular reverence for any of them and refusing to accept what was intended by one to be a scolding.

It was quite a thing to see.

He started off by telling legislators:

“I feel like I’ve been thrust into the front lines of defending the freedoms of Hoosiers all over this great state. And I’ve constantly asked myself time and time again, ‘How did we get here? How has it become that the government and businesses think that they can tell somebody to stick something into their body that they may not otherwise want?’”

Indeed.

He went on to rap the Republican leadership in the state, saying:

“I maybe could understand if this was New York or California. But this is Indiana. This is a great conservative state, a beacon of freedom and liberty that should be across this entire nation. But we dropped the ball in many ways.”

He said he appreciated what the legislature was trying to do with the bill, ensuring that citizens of the state could get exemptions from their employer’s Covid-19 vaccine mandates, and took a swipe at the Chamber of Commerce, whose longtime president - Kevin Brinegar - had testified that he thought corporations had the right to force a vaccine on their employees and that the Indiana General Assembly can’t infringe on the freedom of business owners.

“Well let me be very clear, that property never trumps the freedom of the life of the individual,” said Beckwith. “The Founders never wanted it to be that way. They knew that property was going to take third place. The pursuit of happiness before it was changed to pursuit of happiness was property. First, because the Founders believed you could not have happiness if you did not have property. But they never in a million years thought that property should trump life, and then liberty. You have to have those in that order. So when the businesses, the business community, the Chamber of Commerce says: ‘You gotta protect the freedom of the business owner.’ Yeah, we will. But you don’t have the right to own the life of the person working for you. If you can’t make your own health decisions, if you can’t choose what goes into your body, you don’t own your body, and that’s what’s at stake here. And I’m thankful we’re dealing with this right now, because if we don’t get this right, I fear that our children will not be able to stand up against this tyranny that exists in our nation 20, 30, 40 years down the road.”

When he’d finished, Rep. Joanna King, the Republican assistant majority floor leader, asked if he knew the exact dollar amount the state would be giving up if it no longer accepted the extra Food Stamp money from the federal government it had gotten during the pandemic. Beckwith didn’t know the exact dollar amount, but wasn’t thrown off by the question.

Then Rep. Ryan Hatfield, a Democrat from Evansville and a former deputy prosecutor, tried to twist Beckwith’s argument about individual liberty to mean that you have a right to mandate that your caregivers be vaccinated. But struggling to make the argument, he ended up asking if Beckwith thought people should have a choice of caregivers.

Beckwith said he absolutely believes people should have a choice of caregivers, and that he thinks that Hoosiers do have that — with hospitals mandating vaccines and several alternative doctors not mandating them.

Hatfield tried again, asking if someone shows up in the emergency room, should they have the right to be cared for by someone who is vaccinated with the Covid-19 vaccine.

Beckwith responded:

“Is that where we’re going with our society where we’re basically saying, ‘I want to know the health status of every person on staff, in a myriad of ways,’ So — Covid, do they have AIDS, the flu, are they smokers…”

Hatfield persisted:

“I appreciate that. But you’re here talking about individual rights, and I’m trying to understand: Do you also apply those same rights to patients?”

Beckwith responded:

“That’s right, you do. And they can find that. I believe they can find the myriad because of hospitals that have those mandates…But the mandates, when a corporation steps in and says: ‘Our business and entity is more important.’ That’s where I have an issue with that. We’ve got to protect the individual rights.”

Hatfield kept trying:

“My question to you is, should the patient be able to be cared by someone that they know is vaccinated?”

Beckwith came back with:

“I think you’re making a slippery slope argument because now I’m going to start asking, ‘Hey, I want to know the history of all of your vaccine status…’ We’re not going to be able to take care of anybody.”

It went on, with Hatfield badgering the witness, or trying to, and Beckwith maintaining his relaxed demeanor, telling Hatfield: “At some point we just have to say there’s an element of this that’s just stupidity right now.”

At that, the medical liberty activists in the back of the room exploded in applause, only to be scolded by the Republican chairman of the committee, Rep. Heath VanNatter.

Hatfield tried again. When Beckwith mentioned the slippery slope argument again, saying if patients in a hospital can ask about a nurse’s vaccine status, who’s to say they can’t ask about their sexual history or whether they’ve had STD’s, Hatfield saw his chance to make things political.

“Is it your contention then that the sexuality of healthcare workers can be passed on…?” asked Hatfield.

Beckwith objected:

“STDs. The Sexual history. STDs! See, this is ridiculous,” he said, half-laughing at Hatfield’s attempt to twist his words.

It then went to a Republican legislator, Rep. Cindy Ziemke.

“Sir, it appears that you find this pretty amusing, which is a little disappointing to me,” she said.

“Amusing how so?” asked Beckwith.

“Well, that you continue to laugh and smile about all of this,” responded Ziemke.

“Well, some of these questions are pretty stupid questions…” Beckwith said.

“Excuse me, Sir,” she said loudly, annoyed that she was interrupted by the witness she was badgering.

“No, you work for us, Ok?” said Beckwith. “So you can ask the questions. Not the other way around.”

The crowd in the back of the room again broke out in applause.

Hatfield jumped in, saying, “Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, this guy can’t be given a platform for running for office up here.”

“If she’s going to be making snide remarks like that, I’m going to defend myself,” said Beckwith.

Ziemke continued:

“I simply state that unlike you who it would appears is trying to make this into some political rally, I am an elected member of the General Assembly doing my due diligence, driving up here to listen to people like you who are making fun of our institution. So, go run for office, but not on my time.”

“Making fun? Making fun of our institution? Can I respond to that, Mr. Chairman? Making fun of our institution?” asked Beckwith.

Hatfield jumped in with a Point of Order, saying there was no question on the floor for the witness.

Beckwith continued, unfazed:

“I have a huge respect for this institution. I love this nation dearly. What I don’t have time for is for people to trump the individual God-given rights of people in our state. That’s why I’m here today. So for you to accuse me of having a lack of respect, Madam, is totally inappropriate. I’m here because I respect the institution. That’s why I’m doing what I’m doing right now.”

It’s worth noting that now, just two and a half years later, Micah Beckwith is on track to become the next Lieutenant Governor of the state of Indiana, and that as Lieutenant Governor, he’ll preside over the State Senate, the upper chamber of the Indiana General Assembly.

Both Hatfield and Ziemke have since left the legislature, Ziemke for retirement, and Hatfield to run for circuit court judge in Vanderburgh County.

A new day really is dawning in Indiana.