Republican Senate primary candidate John Rust, who is running against Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, was revealed to have filed an amended financial disclosure detailing his holdings in large woke companies with a recent history of harming and exploiting hard-working Hoosiers. The disclosure raises questions about Rust’s commitment to the well-being of the Indiana residents he seeks to represent and his ability to hold those conglomerates accountable while having a personal stake in their success.
Rust, a longtime Democrat voter and businessman who is running in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Indiana this year despite challenges to his ballot eligibility, has up to a half a million dollars invested in PepsiCo, Inc. food company, which shut down its Muncie plant in November 2023 and laid off dozens of hardworking Indianans, according to his amended personal financial disclosure. In addition, he has received up to $50,000 in the company’s dividends.
Rust was also revealed to have up to $550,000 invested in McDonald’s Corporation, the multinational fast-food chain, which faced hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines last year for child exploitation, including in Indiana. In addition, he has received up to $15K in the corporation’s dividends.
The disclosure even revealed that Rust has up to $100,000 invested in the Target Corporation — the American retail chain that went “all-in on woke merchandise,” and infamously marketed “tuck-friendly” transgender swimsuits for children.
Based on his disclosure, Rust’s net worth is between $38.4 million and $113.5 million. It is also worth noting that he had to file an amended version because his initial report failed to meet several Senate ethics guidelines.
The Indiana businessman’s campaign did not respond when asked for comment by Breitbart News.
Earlier this month, Breitbart News reported that in a recent ad, Rust used former President Donald Trump to attack Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) — the state’s actual Trump-endorsed candidate — while attempting to compare himself to Trump.
The ad, available on Rust’s X account, repeatedly shows images of Trump as Rust ironically compares himself to the former president and then shows images of Banks while Rust argues Banks does not align with Trump.
A Trump campaign spokesman, asked by Breitbart News for a response to Rust’s ad, said he should “cease and desist” using any likeness of Trump in any of his campaign ads and reiterated Trump’s endorsement of Banks for Senate.
Banks, who is running for the seat that Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) is vacating due to his run for governor in Indiana, received one of the first major endorsements from Trump of the 2024 cycle. In fact, Trump backed Banks’ Senate bid over a year ago, in a move that helped deter a potential challenge from former Gov. Mitch Daniels.
Nonetheless, despite having a generally clear path to the GOP nomination, Rust decided to run against Banks. Rust has family ties, as Breitbart News reported, to an egg empire accused of inflating egg prices in an antitrust lawsuit — and a facility that also has ties to cold case victims.
In September, Rust filed a lawsuit in a last-ditch effort to get on the Hoosier State’s Republican Senate primary ballot as he does not meet the voting record criteria to run for the seat under state law, an observation first made by Breitbart News in July.
On Thursday, the Indiana Supreme Court issued a stay on a lower court decision that temporarily allowed John Rust to run for a U.S. Senate seat as a Republican, despite opposition from the state GOP.
Rust, whose family founded a top egg producer in the country, called Rose Acre Farms, argued in the filing that he did not vote in the 2020 GOP primary because the date was moved due to the coronavirus pandemic. It also noted that many Republicans on his county’s ballot that year were running unopposed.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
