Max Engling was a twenty-something Republican staffer for an obscure congressional committee when Kevin McCarthy first encountered him more than a decade ago.

McCarthy soon hired Engling for his office while working his way through Republican leadership positions to become speaker of the House.

McCarthy praises the work ethic of Engling, whom he promoted within a few years to a role overseeing funding for the 435 congressional offices and orientation programs for newly elected House members.

“I would get a lot of accolades based upon his reflection of how he managed and how he worked with people,” McCarthy told the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

Engling moved back to Indiana with his young family in 2023 after a dozen years in Washington with his eyes set on becoming a congressman himself, only to see his campaign fail to gain attention and fall short the following year.

He now has a huge chance for political redemption as he’s leading the Republican ballot as the party’s secretary of state candidate with the charge of keeping Beau Bayh — and Indiana’s best-known Democratic name — from winning a statewide office for his party for the first time since 2012.

Conservative drive and congressional ambitions

Engling spent most of his teenage years living with his family on a small farm near the rural Illinois town of Congerville, about a half hour drive from Peoria

He was mostly homeschooled there and was 19 when he moved in 2006 with his parents and seven siblings to the Hamilton County town of Cicero after his father, who worked in hospital administration, started a new job in Indianapolis.

Engling says he worked construction, restaurant and other jobs to pay his way through college, graduating from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis in 2010.

He became inspired by the tea party movement that developed in reaction to President Barack Obama’s administration and decided to move to Washington.

“I was very invested in that strong conservative policy and the folks who were going out to Washington to make real change at the federal level,” Engling said in an interview. “I told my boss at the time — he knew how I was wired — and I said, ‘I’ve really got to try and serve where all these conservative folks are going.’”

The first reply to his resume was for a job on the House Committee on Administration staff. Engling started there in 2011 and advanced over the next few years working for the committee that handles federal election legislation and oversees internal operations of the House.

He credits his time on the committee staff with giving him a background in election and voting policies, which are key functions of the secretary of state’s office.

McCarthy was the top congressional Republican as House minority leader when he brought Engling onto his office staff in 2019. The California congressman promoted Engling to member services director as he became House speaker in 2023.

Niki Kelly

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Indiana Capital Chronicle

Engling, however, was soon planning a return to Indiana after Republican U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz announced in February 2023 that she wasn’t going to seek reelection.

That opened up the congressional district where Engling had lived and where he and his wife Kelcey were married at a Noblesville church in 2011.

McCarthy said he wanted Engling to stay on his staff but believed Engling could be a good House member.

“The one thing I did know is he was going to go back to Indiana, regardless,” McCarthy said. “That’s home for him. He’d been away, which I consider kind of serving his country by working in Congress, and he wanted to take his family back there. So, I was encouraging.”

Engling, his wife and four children moved to suburban Indianapolis in the summer of 2023 as a Republican rebellion was growing against McCarthy, which resulted in his ouster from the speakership that October.

Engling jumped into the congressional race, only to see his chances torpedoed when Spartz reentered the race in early 2024. He ended up finishing third in the Republican primary with about 10% of the vote.

Becoming a statewide candidate

After the congressional campaign, Engling worked several months for the Beck’s Hybrid agricultural company before landing back in the political world in early 2025 as central Indiana regional director for newly elected Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Banks.

The job had him representing Banks at community events and meeting with community leaders — and in contact with Republican activists.

Trouble was soon brewing with the prospects of current Republican Secretary of State Diego Morales winning reelection in the face of a Bayh campaign preparing to highlight numerous controversies over office spending, hiring and travel by Morales.

Engling says some Republicans suggested he enter the race, but that he held off until Banks withdrew his endorsement of Morales about a month ahead of the state Republican convention where the nomination would be decided.

“He said to me, ‘Well, if you are prepared to go, we can’t do this anymore as far as the current secretary of state, and if you’re ready to go I’m fully behind you. Let’s go,’” Engling said.

Banks quickly endorsed Engling, calling him “a key member of my team” and “a strong conservative.”

Banks touted Engling at the state convention ahead of Engling’s victory over Morales. The senator has since then stayed in the background of Engling’s campaign and his Senate office and campaign staff haven’t responded to numerous phone and email messages from the Capital Chronicle seeking an interview with him about Engling.

Engling makes his pitch

Engling arrived by himself for an interview at a downtown Noblesville coffee shop, about a 15-minutes drive from the rural Cicero home he and his wife own.

He makes the argument that he would be more vigilant than Bayh in enforcing voting laws, seeking to tie Bayh to controversies elsewhere in the country.

“States run by Democrats end up in positions like Los Angeles, counting for weeks at a time after the election day is over, or New Jersey, where they have 6,600 people on the voting rolls that are not eligible to vote,” Engling said. “Pointing out directly something that’s happening now, and how we in Indiana continue to strengthen our election integrity and not go that direction is important.”

He points to his time in Washington as giving him the experience to navigate proposals through the General Assembly.

“Putting all of those things together, being able to build the coalition to get priorities accomplished is something that none of the other candidates can say,” Engling said. “They don’t have that experience.”

Bayh refutes arguments over his election integrity positions, emphasizing that he supports Indiana’s law requiring state-issued identification to vote.

“If anyone knows about making our politics and making our government look more like California, it should be Max Engling,” Bayh said. “He worked for the people of California in Congress, working for Kevin McCarthy for several years. So it’s just pretty hypocritical coming from him trying to make this race about national issues when he’s been in charge, working for the people of California and representing their interests in Congress while I was in the United States Marine Corps.”

Bayh has aired television ads labeling Engling as someone who became a millionaire while working for Congress and trading tech stocks.

Those claims are based on Engling’s 2024 congressional candidate financial disclosure showing a net worth between $1.2 million and $2.7 million — including a Virginia home he and his wife sold last year for $1 million.

Engling also reported owning stock in four individual companies, one of which was between $15,000 and $50,000 of shares in the artificial intelligence company Nvidia.

Engling calls claims against him of insider trading “unequivocally false,” saying “the four stocks I own are worth less than $50,000 total, and I have never sold them.”

“Appreciative of all of the opportunity”

Engling has traveled around Indiana in his attempt to go within a matter of months from being a little-known political staffer to a statewide office holder.

A recent poll showed that nearly half of likely voters had not heard of him, almost double the percentage who had not heard about Bayh.

Engling makes appeals on his conservative stances and cites his government experiences, such as working for Banks while often not mentioning McCarthy as a D.C. mentor.

“I’m very appreciative of all of the opportunity that he’s given me,” Engling said of McCarthy. “He knows that. I think it’s more of, you have a pretty limited window to say to folks here what you did and how you did it and how it makes sense in the secretary of state’s role as far as what you’ve done.”

McCarthy, for his part, said he didn’t mind Engling not bringing up his name.

“Why would he? He’s running for office,” McCarthy said. “His last job was working for Senator Banks. In Indiana, who is someone going to have more ability to know or interact with: Senator Jim Banks. Why wouldn’t you do that?”

Minor fame for making “Most Beautiful” list

Max Engling gained a bit of attention soon after starting work in Washington when he landed on The Hill news outlet’s 2012 list of the “50 Most Beautiful People.”

The article cited the then-25-year-old’s time with a side gig modeling for print-ad campaigns for Kohl’s, Carson Pirie Scott, Sears and American Crew before he moved to D.C.

Engling seemed sheepish about the designation when asked about it by the Capital Chronicle.

“I think it was an interesting story,” he said. “If you would ask 2012 Max if that would be a good repeat, I think it would probably be better just to stick in my lane of working on policy and keep your head down and work hard.

“I did work in restaurants, I was working construction,” he said. “There was, I think, two semesters where I was working between 60 and 70 hours a week, while pulling 15 credit hours at IUPUI.”

Indiana Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com.