Wells seeks to remake ‘culture and climate’ of Indiana attorney general’s office

Editor’s note: This story is the second in a two-part look at the race for Indiana attorney general in 2024. A look at Republican Todd Rokita’s reelection bid may be found here.

For Destiny Wells, it was a 13-month tour of duty in Afghanistan that spurred her into politics. 

“I flew in with Barack Obama, and I flew out with Donald Trump,” said Wells, a U.S. Army Reserve lieutenant colonel and Indianapolis attorney. “There was obviously a shift.” 

She recalled writing a letter to a friend working for then-Sen. Joe Donnelly’s reelection campaign about volunteering. Donnelly was no longer accepting new volunteers, but Wells found a rudder with Democratic leadership academy Hoosier Women Forward. She rose from volunteer to deputy chair for the Indiana Democratic Party after the 2020 cycle, hosting Zoom calls and working to get out the vote. 

“I really felt like I needed to do more when I got home,” said Wells, who is now in the thick of her second consecutive statewide campaign — a challenge to the state’s entrenched but oft-controversial attorney general, Todd Rokita. 

Having defeated a serious challenger for the nomination at the Democratic state convention in July, Wells, 40, cemented herself as part of a new guard of young leaders looking to guide the party back to respectability on the statewide stage. 

“She brings a lot to her campaign,” Indiana Democratic Party Chair Mike Schmuhl said of Wells. “This is a tremendous opportunity for us. Todd Rokita has been very extreme and partisan in his approach to the job.” 

Wells hopes the lessons learned from a heavy defeat in the 2022 secretary of state race will serve her this time around, but Rokita holds almost every discernable political advantage — more money, better name recognition, experience in the position, an Indiana voter base that leans to the right.

“Destiny Wells continues to advance a radical agenda that’s out of touch with Indiana,” Indiana Republican Party Chair Randy Head said. “Rokita has a solid record to stand on and is in a great position to win in November by a large margin.”

From Martinsville to the military

Wells was born and raised on a farm in Martinsville, where her family has lived since the town’s founding in 1822. She attended Indiana University, where she enlisted in the U.S. Army National Guard during her freshman year. 

After graduation, she worked full-time in the military and subsequently earned a law degree from the University of Texas School of Law. After time spent stationed in Germany, she ran a private practice in Martinsville before being reassigned to what was then Fort Hood in Texas. 

Wells eventually worked as a deputy attorney general under then-Attorney General Curtis Hill and served as associate corporation counsel for the City of Indianapolis and Marion County. 

Defeat in 2022

Wells brought her politically desirable background into a 2022 race for secretary of state against Republican Diego Morales, who had defeated incumbent Holli Sullivan at the Republican State Convention. 

Morales, a former aide to Gov. Mike Pence, was accused of inflating his military service record, supporting unfounded claims that President Joe Biden was not duly elected in 2020 and several other controversial actions during the campaign. 

Nevertheless, he easily defeated Wells by nearly 14 percentage points. 

Wells told State Affairs her campaign was caught “flat-footed” in some areas, including expecting a higher Marion County turnout and fewer Republicans to vote straight along party lines.

“What we proved in ’22 is that we had a winning strategy,” Wells said. “We just didn’t have the money to put behind it. I raised almost $1 million, and we overperformed five points ahead of the ticket.”

Recalibrating the party

Wells faced an unexpected challenger for her party’s attorney general nomination in former Marion County Clerk Beth White, who campaigned as the more experienced choice. 

Wells treated the Democratic nominating convention as a referendum on the party, appearing alongside fellow up-and-coming Democrats in state Sen. Andrea Hunley and Terre Haute Mayor Brandon Sakbun. 

“What we’re doing is trying to recalibrate the party at large to be oriented on winning,” Wells said, “because it’s our generation that’s living the public outcomes that don’t align with our values. 

“We live in a Republican supermajority,” she continued. “That doesn’t align with my values. That doesn’t align with the life that I want for my children.”

Hunley told State Affairs that Wells’ recent history of overperforming Democratic expectations was a determining factor for her endorsement.

 “She had a recent proven track record of making people see there’s an alternative choice,” Hunley said of Wells. 

Wells won the nomination with 69% of the vote. 

“It was really important to me to take this opportunity to get the others [Hunley and Sakbun] onstage so that people can see we’ve already arrived,” Wells said. “And that’s why we asked the question, if not now, when?”

Wells’ vision

Wells hopes to use her military leadership background to “change the culture and climate” of the attorney general’s office, which she said has grown far too partisan under Rokita. 

She cited two examples: Rokita’s statements last year attacking an Indianapolis physician who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio, and his creation of a “Parents’ Bill of Rights” that includes an online portal to report complaints against teachers.

“Todd likes to use our children as a wedge issue more than actually protecting them,” Wells said. 

The Indiana Supreme Court reprimanded Rokita for his comments on the abortion doctor. Rokita has insisted his comments were accurate and said he agreed to the reprimand to save taxpayer money that would otherwise be used on disciplinary hearings. 

If elected, Wells plans to create a workers’ rights task force that would help other agencies and prosecutors with labor issues, such as wage theft and worker misclassification. 

Her other platforms include safeguarding the medical privacy of women who seek abortions in Indiana and “restoring integrity” to the attorney general’s office. 

Wells would also seek to recruit more experienced attorneys to the office. 

“There has been an exodus of institutional knowledge in that agency,” she said.

Rokita’s camp pushed back on Wells’ claims.

“Destiny Wells is the deputy chair of the Indiana Democratic Party,” campaign adviser Brent Littlefield said. “She has literally spent the last two years, after losing her last campaign, working for partisan gain. Todd Rokita is doing the work Hoosiers elected him to, including defending the laws passed by the Indiana General Assembly.”

Path to victory

Raising money and educating voters is at the heart of Wells’ campaign, she said. Last week, her campaign  released a poll of 600 likely voters that showed Wells was trailing by 3 percentage points initially and then leading the race once respondents were read statements critical of Rokita and supportive of Wells. 

These polls, often called push polls, are meant to show candidates whether their political messaging is effective in swaying voters. 

Another poll, by Emerson College Polling/The Hill, surveyed 1,000 likely voters and found Rokita well ahead. He received 49% of support to Wells’ 35%; 16% of respondents were undecided. 

Hunley agrees that money will be key to Wells’ chances. “Destiny is clearly the better choice in every aspect of policy,” she said. “For women, for teachers, for families, for doctors, for our economy. That does not matter if we can’t get her message out.”

Wells ended June with about $98,000 in her campaign account. She has received $65,000 in large donations since.

Fall fundraising will be key. In 2022, she pulled in more than $750,000 during the second half of the year. 

Even if a strong late push materializes, it will take a lot to outraise Rokita. He finished June with more than $1.3 million in the bank, and he’s received $430,000 in large contributions since. 

‘One to keep an eye on’

Paul Helmke, Republican former mayor of Fort Wayne and director of Indiana University’s Civic Leaders Center, believes Rokita has the clear advantage. 

“Generally, the rule is Republicans win statewide elections,” Helmke said. “The only time that doesn’t happen is when someone does something very controversial.” 

In 2012, Democrat Joe Donnelly defeated Republican Richard Mourdock in a U.S. Senate race after Mourdock made controversial statements about rape and abortion.

Democrat Glenda Ritz also upset incumbent Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett after he riled teachers, Helmke said. 

Wells should enjoy some additional name recognition from her 2022 campaign, and she may be helped by Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential bid, Helmke said. But Rokita has endeared himself to former President Donald Trump’s voter base. 

“If Kamala is running stronger than Biden or [former Secretary of State] Hillary [Clinton], then maybe there’s a chance,” Helmke said. “This is one to keep an eye on.”

Contact Rory Appleton on X at @roryehappleton or email him at [email protected].