“I’ve told folks for a long time that I was going to really care about what’s next for the future of Indiana. … I think the 2024 elections are going to be critical and I don’t think it’s a time to be sitting on the sideline,” Hupfer told the Capital Chronicle in an exclusive interview Friday.

“I think the chair has to be neutral. And I’m at a point where I really don’t want to be neutral on that process,” he said.

The party’s powerful central committee selected Hupfer for the position in early 2017 — after Gov. Eric Holcomb made Hupfer known as his first choice.

“Kyle Hupfer’s tenure as chairman of the Indiana Republican Party has proudly been one for the record books,” Holcomb said in a statement Friday, thanking Hupfer for his “Next Level leadership.”

“When he assumed the role in 2017, many believed the Indiana Republican Party had reached its apex,” he continued. “Instead, Kyle pulled together and led a team that was able to defy the annual odds, helping elect and reelect Republicans at every level.”

Hupfer previously served as treasurer for Holcomb’s first successful bid for governor and as campaign manager for the reelection campaign.

Hupfer — also a former general counsel to the Republican National Committee — indicated his future plans involve politics but declined to confirm if he would join the campaign of Brad Chambers, who announced his gubernatorial bid Thursday.

During his six and a half years on the job, Hupfer led the party through four election cycles. The party further tightened its overwhelming grip on power over that time.

That included the defeat of incumbent Democrat U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly in 2018 and the flipping of 19 mayoral offices to Republican administrations a year later.

Most recently, in 2022, the party worked to reelect U.S. Sen. Todd Young by a 20-point margin, win seven of nine U.S. House seats, keep the three statewide offices up for election, maintain supermajorities in both chambers of the Legislature, and get Republicans in more than 90% of all county-elected offices across the state.

“We’ve built a brand in Indiana and voters have given us an immense level of trust,” Hupfer said.

Hupfer focused “extensively” on data, training, intra-party coordination and other strategies to support candidates, elected officials, supporters and constituents, according to the news release.

And under his leadership, the party has also moved to grow its ranks by other means: hiring its first diversity and engagement director and launching a diversity leadership training program that has had three graduating classes now.

Governors, as the top leaders in their parties, usually play a central role in naming the next chair.

Hupfer said he expects that Holcomb will weigh in on his successor, and that the governor’s thoughts will carry weight with the central committee.

But Holcomb is term-limited as governor, sparking a highly competitive and expensive race between the five serious GOP gubernatorial candidates for their party’s nomination.

“That [successor] needs to express an openness to exercise the will of whoever wins the Republican gubernatorial primary in May, to ensure that the working relationship between the Republican nominee’s campaign and the state committee is seamless,” Hupfer said.

He expects a caucus of the state central committee to be held in late August or early September to make a selection.

“We just have to be dedicated to continue to deliver results for Hoosiers,” he said. “… While we continue to do that, I believe that voters in Indiana will continue to elect Republicans. But it’s a precious trust that exists that could go away very quickly if you don’t continue to think boldly and execute and deliver.”