Ex-Indiana schools chief McCormick enters governor’s race

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Former Indiana state colleges Superintendent Jennifer McCormick launched a 2024 marketing campaign for governor Thursday, taking over the daunting purpose of flipping the state’s high workplace from Republican to Democrat after making the identical political swap herself.

McCormick broke with Statehouse Republicans over schooling coverage within the years after her profitable 2016 marketing campaign because the GOP candidate for state colleges chief. She modified her celebration affiliation after her time period resulted in early 2021 and has traveled the state for a number of months talking at Democratic and public faculty advocacy occasions.

She’s the one publicly energetic potential Democratic candidate for the 2024 race to switch Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, who can’t search reelection due to time period limits.

Any Democrat will face substantial challenges to capturing the governor’s workplace. Republicans have dominated the state, successful 5 straight governor elections since 2004. The final time a Democrat gained any statewide race was in 2012.

Throughout an interview forward of her marketing campaign announcement, McCormick criticized the Republican-controlled Legislature for what she mentioned was an absence of assist for conventional public colleges and for pushing a nationwide conservative agenda on social points.

“In all places that I go to, the widespread thread is that they (voters) don’t acknowledge the out-of-touch, divisive, mainly nonsense that’s popping out of the Legislature,” McCormick instructed The Related Press. “They anticipate a pacesetter who’s going to carry widespread sense again and bipartisanship and actually sort out the true issues that we now have.”

McCormick launched a marketing campaign launch video Thursday by which she denounced Statehouse Republicans for pushing “excessive concepts,” invoking subjects such because the statewide abortion ban and the repeal of the state’s handgun allow requirement authorized final yr, whereas retaining Indiana’s gasoline taxes among the many highest within the nation.

Indiana Republican Occasion Chairman Kyle Hupfer mentioned in a press release that McCormick “has determined to proceed her well-known streak of deceptive Hoosiers. However they’ve come to know that’s simply who she is — somebody who will say or do something to get elected.”

Republicans are poised for an costly battle for his or her nomination for governor with three candidates within the race: U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch and Fort Wayne businessman Eric Doden. All of them began this yr with marketing campaign financial institution accounts approaching or exceeding $3 million, whereas McCormick’s exploratory marketing campaign reported about $40,000 in money.

“I do know what I’m up in opposition to.” McCormick mentioned. “I’m very clear-eyed on that and I’m additionally very dedicated to securing the assets and the assist to win.”

McCormick, 53, of New Fortress, was a particular schooling and language arts trainer earlier than changing into an elementary faculty principal, then superintendent of the Yorktown faculty district close to Muncie forward of her first political marketing campaign for state superintendent of public instruction.

As a Republican, she defeated Democratic incumbent Glenda Ritz in 2016 after pledging higher relationships with Republican Statehouse leaders following quite a few coverage clashes between Ritz, then-Gov. Mike Pence and high GOP lawmakers.

However McCormick quickly confronted open disputes with Holcomb and Republican legislators on points together with using standardized testing to charge colleges and lecturers, in addition to her assist for elevated scrutiny of constitution colleges and personal colleges that obtain taxpayer cash by way of the state’s voucher program.

She determined in opposition to looking for reelection and totally broke with Republicans by endorsing a number of Democrats within the 2020 elections, together with gubernatorial candidate Woody Myers, who misplaced badly to Holcomb.

McCormick’s three-minute announcement video by no means describes her as a Democrat, however she mentioned was assured she might safe assist amongst celebration members.

“If there are Democrats on the market which can be not sure, I simply hope that they listen,” McCormick mentioned. “I’ve not made a secret of how I really feel on many of those points.”

Copyright 2023 The Related Press. All rights reserved.