Cory Grass picked as Monroe County GOP chair, already recruiting for 2026 sheriff's race

Cory Grass has been elected chair of the Monroe County Republican Party.

Grass confirmed the outcome to the B Square in a telephone interview on Saturday (March 1). The GOP caucus was attended by around 40 precinct chairs and vice chairs, which was held at 10 a.m. at the Ellettsville town hall, according to Grass.

Other GOP officers elected at Saturday’s caucus were: Noelle Conyer (vice chair); Elaine Thomsen (secretary); and John Arnold (treasurer).

Grass is taking over the party chairship from William Ellis, who most recently served in that post, when he stepped up from vice chair, after Taylor Bryant resigned. Bryant moved out of Monroe County. Ellis had also previously served as chair, before Bryant was chosen in 2021 to lead the party.

Grass’s name will be familiar to readers who have followed the planning for the new Monroe County jail. In late 2023, Grass was named transition director for the new jail. It was his 20-year career as a special agent with the FBI, which he concluded in late 2022, that made him a good fit for the jail transition job.

But Grass has now left the work as jail transition director, to take a job as governmental affairs director in the office of Indiana’s newly elected lieutenant governor, Micah Beckwith. Beckwith was elected in November 2024 as part of the Republican Party ticket, headed by Mike Braun as governor.

Working as an FBI agent had precluded any political activity for Grass. But in the short time since he left the bureau, Grass has made a quick transition into the political world.

Grass put it like this: “So, I retired right at two years ago, and it's crazy to believe that now I'm on the lieutenant governor’s staff, and the chair of the party,…getting phone calls from Todd Young on a Saturday.”

Young is the senior U.S. senator from Indiana. Grass said the two talked about ways the state party can be supportive of Republicans in Monroe County.

Monroe County connection to the lieutenant governor’s office

Beckwith’s choice of Grass to work in his office as governmental affairs director was not an accident.

Grass ran in May 2024 as delegate to the state GOP convention. After the primary, at the state convention, is when the lieutenant governor candidate is picked. As a delegate, Grass was in a position to help determine the party's choice of nominee for lieutenant governor.

That's because it’s not up to the winner of the gubernatorial primary to choose their running mate—even if delegates have traditionally referred to the primary winner's choice. In fact, Braun’s preferred running mate had been state representative Julie McGuire, not Beckwith.

The AP news report of Beckwith’s convention victory described him as “a podcasting pastor with far-right views” who has “uncompromising positions on abortion, gender and sexuality.”

Beckwith’s effort to become lieutenant governor started well before the convention. Grass said, “[Beckwith] hustled for a year and a half, and it kind of rocked the boat. People were not used to somebody being that honest and upfront and opinionated and sticking to their guns.”

Before the state convention, Grass said he reached out to Beckwith’s campaign, and that’s how he got to know the eventual lieutenant governor. Grass traveled with Beckwith around the state, trying to “scoop up delegates as much as we could.”

After the convention, having driven across the whole state and spending a lot of time with Beckwith, Grass said he decided he wanted to try to be a part of the lieutenant governor’s team. The job offer came in December, Grass said. He called the experience a “whirlwind.”

Even if they are at sharp odds with Grass on his political views, some local Democrats see in the former jail transition director at least a familiar point of contact that might help to serve local interests.

Though he wasn’t named, Grass got a reference at the most recent meeting of the Monroe County council on Feb. 25—as councilors deliberated on a resolution that opposed the biennial budget bill as it stood at the time.

County council president Jennifer Crossley said at the Feb. 25 meeting: “I hear we have friends that are from Monroe County that are now in the… lieutenant governor's office.”

Crossley continued, “If anybody knows them, and if you're watching, please let them know that we are asking for them to show up to us, too. It's not just good to just go talk to people who are in the same voting block as you…”

Grass indicated to The B Square he’d gotten word of the reference at the county council meeting to him and his connection to the lieutenant governor.

But Grass said while the state legislature is in session, the schedules for both the lieutenant governor and the governor are very constrained—when it comes to traveling to other parts of the state.

Grass noted that a trip by Beckwith last week, to visit The Warehouse on Rogers Street in Bloomington was an exception, because the legislature was on a one-week break. The weeklong break came after the crossover of bills from one side of the legislature to the other.

The Warehouse is a faith-based non-profit that offers sports and recreation activities for youth. Grass said it's where his son plays lacrosse, and does indoor golf practice.

After the legislative session concludes at the end of April, Grass said that, even though he could not give an exact timeline, “I feel confident we will schedule something either in Monroe County or in the area where Monroe County would be participating in the event.”

GOP looks to challenge Democratic Party in Monroe County

In the Monroe County government and city of Bloomington government, there is a lone Republican who currently holds elected office—that’s the long-serving county councilor Marty Hawk. (The situation is basically flipped for township officials outside Bloomington, and for the town of Ellettsville.)

Grass is looking to improve that picture for the GOP. The 11 Democrats and zero Republicans among Bloomington elected officials is an “unhealthy” balance, he said. City elections are on the calendar in 2027, which is a long way off.

But for 2026, it’s not too soon to think about the offices that are up for election, which include county sheriff. Grass told The B Square that his work to recruit Republican candidates to run for county office in 2026 has already started—with a potential GOP nominee for sheriff.

About the morning of the GOP caucus, Grass said, “I left Ellettsville town hall about 11:30, and I made my first phone call to someone asking if they would consider running for sheriff next time.”

Grass said, “I want to give them plenty of time to think about it. I don't want it to be a rushed decision.”

The B Square asked Grass whether it felt awkward to recruit someone to run against Monroe County sheriff Ruben Marté, on whose team he had served as jail transition director, until just recently. Grass responded by saying, “I feel like I do a very good job of separating personal friendships from politics and from doing what I think is best.”

Thoughts on partisanship in elections

The B Square asked Grass about the possibility that for the 2027 elections, the GOP might back independent candidates for city of Bloomington races, on the idea that some voters would never vote for someone with an R next to their name, even if they might vote for someone with no letter on the ballot.

Grass responded by saying, “I would say I have not thought that far ahead on that topic.” But Grass did say, “My first instinct is, no, we would not. I don't want someone to run on something that they're pretending to be what they're not.”

That includes having no party affiliation on the ballot, when a candidate believes most things that Republicans believe. “I don't believe in masquerading as an independent, when you believe a lot of things Republicans believe,” Grass said.

Grass applies the same kind of thinking to partisan school board seats, which are the subject of some legislation [SB 287] that has already made it through the state senate during this year’s legislative session, and could have enough momentum to be passed by the state house.

The bill would make school board seats across the state subject to partisan elections. In the state of Indiana, school board elections are currently nonpartisan.

Grass said, “I like people to identify where they stand.” He allows that there’s an argument to be made that it’s not necessarily well defined, what it means to have an R or a D next to your name.

Still, Grass said, “If you put a letter next to your name, as lazy as that sounds, people at least have a general concept of where you stand on some major issues in life.”