06/03/2026
My INsnyde Take: Jim Banks Errand Boy Wants to Run Your Elections
Max Engling (Project Runway), a former Kevin McCarthy staffer and self described Model from Chicago, whose entire political identity seems to be “whoever Jim Banks tells him to be,” jumped into Indiana’s secretary of state race the moment Banks gave him the green light — because apparently he couldn’t make a move until his boss stopped endorsing the other guy. The 39-year-old finished a distant third in his only previous race, proudly offices out of his car, and still believes the 2020 election was stolen — which makes his sudden ambition to oversee Indiana’s elections a special kind of audacious.
Engling is now sprinting to introduce himself to 1,800 delegates in under a month, leaning heavily on his Capitol Hill résumé while conspicuously avoiding the detail that his big boss McCarthy got unceremoniously booted from the speakership. His pitch to voters essentially boils down to “I worked in Washington, I know Jim Banks, and Jim Banks said go” — a ringing endorsement of his independence that should inspire tremendous confidence in absolutely no one.