Briggs: Mike Braun haters are restless. The governor's race is about to go nuclear.

Republican Sen. Mike Braun is the frontrunner to become Indiana's next governor. He has name ID, cash and endorsements from Donald Trump and Americans for Prosperity — a winning formula for a Republican primary contender.

Whoever wins the Republican primary will probably win in November, as well. Indiana power players across the political spectrum are apprehensive about the prospects of a Braun administration, but time is running out to stop him.

The Braun freakout is getting real — and the Republican primary is about to turn nuclear with two months to go before Election Day.

The Indiana Capital Chronicle reports IU Health CEO Dennis Murphy has written to 25 of his heavy-hitting industry peers, urging them to donate money to Republican Brad Chambers. Murphy writes that Braun and Eric Doden, another wealthy Republican, "have gone on record to put forward ideas that would be very harmful to our industry and to our individual institutions."

Considering that Doden is a longshot candidate, Murphy is essentially talking about Braun. Murphy’s view seems to be that Braun will force health systems to reduce costs to an unreasonable extent and Chambers will be friendlier. The health care industry is not alone in concerns about Braun’s posture toward businesses.

There’s a debate to be had over nonprofit hospitals and their finances. Nonetheless, many influential Hoosiers, from mayors to business leaders, view an impending Braun administration as a train wreck, likely to be as polarizing as Mike Pence's, yet less competent.

Braun's tenure as a U.S. senator, by his own admission, has been less than inspiring. Despite being a nonfactor in the Senate, Braun for some reason told Politico, "I think I can do more by going back home."

Yeah, probably not.

Braun has lacked any apparent guiding principle while also demonstrating little interest in helping people "back home." In the course of interviewing many people over the past few years, I've heard plenty of examples of how Sen. Todd Young's office has offered assistance in a multitude of ways, but I can't think of a single person who has volunteered a similar anecdote about Braun's office.

To the extent that Braun has a reputation, it's for pettiness. Many business-centric Indiana leaders fear a Braun administration will be more about score settling and picking political fights than growing the state’s economy.

The problem for people who feel this way is no one has stepped up as a clear challenger to Braun. Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch has built up a large roster of key Republican supporters across the state, but she lacks the firepower of wealthier opponents. Chambers is rich, and has demonstrated the willingness to spend his way to the finish line, but he has been a corpse of a candidate since leaving his job as commerce secretary last year.

That's the curious part about Murphy's solicitation of cash on Chambers' behalf. Chambers doesn't need money. He needs a personality. Or, at least, he needs to bludgeon Braun's image to the point that voters might prefer a generic rich Republican running for no particular reason over Braun.

That might be the play.

Murphy's letter suggests fellow health leaders slip some cash to the Indiana Innovation Council, a new dark money entity, which Murphy describes as "promoting Brad's economic agenda," per the Indiana Capital Chronicle. That is likely a euphemism for "annihilating Braun in TV ads."

Murphy clearly intended for his letter to go public, which tells us two things: Braun's legions of detractors are restless and they want to go on the attack. All the health care executives in the world can't help Chambers become more appealing, but they can pool resources to redefine Braun as an amoral failure obsessed with being a career politician.

Is there a market for that message in a state where Trump's word carries immense weight? Maybe.

The Republican primary for Indiana governor mirrors the presidential primary in some ways. Dissatisfaction with Braun runs deep among establishment Republicans, but that doesn't matter if no one else knows how to beat him.

Unlike in the presidential primary, though, Braun's opponents appear poised to at least try to take him down before it's too late.

Contact James Briggs at 317-444-4732 or [email protected]. Follow him on X and Threads at @JamesEBriggs.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Brad Chambers gets IU Health CEO's help to take down Mike Braun