George North Craig (August 6, 1909 – December 17, 1992) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 39th governor of the U.S. state of Indiana from 1953 until 1957.

Although he made significant reforms, his term ended with a high-profile bribery scandal when it was found that several high-level state employees had been accepting bribes to influence their decision in assigning construction contracts.

At odds with party leaders, and angered by the bribery scandal, he left the state after his term and moved to Virginia where he opened a law office and later became president of an automotive company.

After a decade he returned to Indiana where he retired from public life but resumed activity in the Republican Party as a political adviser until his death in 1992.

After the war he earned a Bronze Star Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster and the Croix de Guerre for his service.

Command of the organization had been a stepping stone to the governorship for previous men, but Craig denied that he had such ambitions after being elected to the position.

He continued his friendship with Eisenhower during his tenure and influenced the organization to support the anti-communist agenda as the Cold War set in.

Craig was considerably less conservative than the party leadership, of whom William Jenner was chief, and knew that any attempt to run would be opposed by them.

Jenner and the party chairman attempted to unite support in favor of one of the other five more conservative candidates, but after three rounds of balloting Craig won the nomination.

Jenner was incensed not only by Craig's position on communism but also on his campaign platform that advocated significant increased state spending and the start of a number of new programs.

His most controversial with the legislation was a proposal to reorganize the states 141 agencies into eleven departments centralized under the governor's control.

The Republican legislature dismissed the request out of hand and accused him of trying to restart the battle over executive power that had been ongoing in the past three decades but had largely been avoided by the previous two governors.

[5] Most of Craig's agenda was never implemented as the legislature accused him of not working with them, but in large part, it was his differences with party leaders that caused the problems.

The state police force was expanded to add fifty new officers, making it the largest in the nation at the time.

The rest of the surplus was spent on school consolidation as one-room schoolhouses were phased out and students bused to larger centralized facilities.

Eisenhower offered to make him Secretary of the Army in 1955, but Craig declined saying he wished to finish his term as governor.

Craig himself was not found to be personally involved in the plot but was required to testify before a grand jury in 1957 after he left office.

When he left the court building, he gave an interview to the press in which he attacked William Jenner and a number of other party leaders for having a political vendetta against him.

[8] In December 1957 Craig and his family left Indiana, largely because of his disgust with the state Republican Party, and moved to Virginia where he opened a law office and later became president of an automotive company.