He took another job in the secretary of state's office, under Charles P. White in 2011, but was fired after a month for "poor execution" and not completing his work.

[10] During the campaign, Morales was criticized for using campaign funds to purchase a $43,000 Toyota RAV4 and describing himself as a "veteran" even though he only served in the military for three months and he was in the Indiana Army National Guard and never deployed on active duty (the federal definition of a "veteran" only includes Active Duty service)[11][12] Morales joined the America First Secretary of State Coalition, a coalition of secretary of state candidates who endorsed President Donald Trump's false allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

[4][13] After winning the Republican nomination, he changed his stance on the 2020 presidential election, telling The Washington Post that he believed Biden won legitimately.

WTHR commented that Morales received the most negative press of any statewide candidate in Indiana since Richard Mourdock in the 2012 Senate race.

[14] Morales defeated Destiny Wells, the Democratic Party nominee, in the November 8 general election.

[16] Although Morales won by a large margin, he underperformed all other statewide Republican nominees in Indiana by 5–7 percentage points.