Indiana Governor candidates flesh out campaign plans after Tuesday primary

INDIANAPOLIS — After years of campaigning, the state of Indiana has picked the two candidates that will represent the Republican and Democratic parties in the state’s gubernatorial race.

After Tuesday’s primary election, U.S. Senator Mike Braun, R-Ind. was voted as the Republican candidate for governor while Jennifer McCormick, the state’s former superintendent of public instruction, was elected as the Democratic candidate. Both Braun and McCormick are expected to face Donald Rainwater, a Libertarian candidate, in November’s general election.

Braun received more than 39% of the vote in Tuesday’s primary, defeating other Republican candidates including Suzanne Crouch, Brad Chambers and Eric Doden. McCormick ran unopposed in the Democratic primary.

In an interview on Tuesday after the primary, McCormick said that she believes it is going to be a tough race, stressing that voters should focus on her campaign’s optimism and focus on bipartisanship and common sense.

McCormick highlighted her campaign’s bipartisan nature, focusing on issues she believes Hoosiers are focused on, including:

• Restoring reproductive health care and freedoms
• Being a champion for education, childcare and universal Pre-K
• Focusing on obtaining good paying jobs for the state
• Being a champion for Indiana’s water supply.

“We know we have the majority of Hoosiers across the political aisle who really support those issues and we are going to work hard to bring that focus right back to where it needs to be and that is the issues impacting our daily lives,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of Republicans helping us with donations. We’ve got a lot of Republicans helping us volunteer. We just saw that 60% of the voters did not choose Senator Braun so we welcome them to join our efforts and we’ve got a lot of work to do but again, we are on the side of the issues that impact us on our daily lives and people are concerned.” 

When asked about the 60% figure, Braun said after the primary that it reminds him of the same position he was in running for the U.S. Senate six years ago. Braun went so far as to say that he has “a lot of experience” with that percentage, stressing that this is not his “first rodeo.”

“That’s almost exactly where I was six years ago,” he said. “…You’re going to bring folks on board. You’ve got to remember that competition is good and not everybody’s going to think alike. I’ve already had calls from all the players and they’re wanting to circle the wagons to take on the challenge in November. So, I feel really good about that.”

Now that Braun won the primary, he said he will start to focus on specific issues that impact the daily lives of Hoosiers, including:

• Healthcare costs
• Property taxes
• Workforce
• Affordable housing
• High energy costs
• Rural broadband expansion

“In this state, if you come out with policies that are conservative in nature, but yet, as I always say, entrepreneurial, that fits our state,” Braun said. “For (McCormick), she’s going to have to deal with a lot of the kind of stuff that comes along with her national party,” which he believes is “clearly” not working well for many Indiana residents.

In a statement on Tuesday evening after the primary election results were tallied, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb stressed the importance of uniting in November “to keep Indiana on the fast track.” Holcomb did not endorse any Republican candidate in the primary.