INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Terry Goodin and Destiny Wells easily bested challengers on Saturday to win the Democratic Party’s nomination for lieutenant governor and attorney general, respectively.
Wells, a former deputy attorney general, army reservist and the 2022 Democratic nominee for secretary of state, won nearly 70 percent of delegates’ votes in her bid against Beth White, a former Marion County clerk and deputy prosecutor. Wells and White said little against each other in the months leading up to the convention, instead directing their barbs at incumbent Todd Rokita, a Republican. Rokita was unopposed at last month’s Indiana Republican Party convention. Speaking to delegates ahead of Saturday’s vote, Wells called attention to multiple disciplinary proceedings against Rokita by the Indiana Supreme Court and pointed to recent polls suggesting weakening support for him.
“Office culture? Professional development? Succession planning? Goodness, we have a lot to fix in that office come January,” she said. “An attorney exodus is in full swing and yet Todd continues to chase Fox News like a fox in the henhouse.”
Democratic governor primary winner Jennifer McCormick’s selection of Goodin as her preferred running mate raised eyebrows in Democratic circles. During a 20-year career in the Indiana House of Representatives, Goodin took positions against same-sex marriage and in favor of abortion restrictions, views that put him at odds with today’s Democratic Party. Goodin has said his views on both issues have evolved and he will work to protect LGBTQ+ rights and abortion access as lieutenant governor. Those promises weren’t enough to prevent a challenge from three progressive Democrats, including former Indianapolis mayor candidate Clif Marsiglio. Still, Goodin walked away with nearly 80 percent of the vote.
“Those in charge of our state want you to think everything is just okay in the state of Indiana,” he told delegates after the convention. “Well, I’m telling you folks here right now today, just getting along is not good enough for the state of Indiana.”
Saturday’s convention means all of the fields for Indiana’s statewide offices are now set. McCormick and Goodin will face the Republican ticket of Mike Braun and Micah Beckwith and the Libertarian ticket of Donald Rainwater and Tonya Hudson. Wells faces Rokita in a race that lacks any independent or third-party candidates.
With the conventions concluded, all attention now turns to the general election on Nov. 5. McCormick, the state’s final elected superintendent of public instruction, and Goodin, a former school superintendent, said education will be their campaign’s number-one priority. They said they plan to push for better teacher pay and universal pre-k. Goodin said their administration also would push for union jobs and living wages if elected. For her part, Wells said she would restore integrity to the attorney general’s office and focus on serving the needs of the state no matter which party controls the governor’s office or the General Assembly.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita’s Advisor Brent Littlefield provided the following statement on Wells’ nomination:
“Destiny Wells was rejected by the voters of Indiana less than 24 months ago due to her radical and extreme views.
As the partisan Deputy Chair of the Democratic Party, Wells cheerleads for the Biden-Harris agenda of dangerous open borders, job-killing inflation that puts less money in Hoosiers’ pockets, and moves to force girls to accept boys in their locker rooms and sports teams. Hoosiers oppose this radical and extreme agenda.
That’s why Todd Rokita was elected with the largest number of votes for any statewide office in Indiana history and Hoosiers will re-elect him in 2024.
Todd invites all those Hoosier Republicans, Democrats, and independents who support common sense to join his campaign.”
Brent Littlefield, advisor to Attorney General Todd Rokita
Below are the final results for attorney general:
- Destiny Wells – 1,057
- Beth White – 475
Below are the final results for lieutenant governor:
- Terry Goodin – 1,209
- Tamie Dixon-Tatum – 162
- Clif Marsiglio – 145
- Bob Kern – 9
Saturday evening’s attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump cast a pall over the day’s proceedings. Convention chair and former Indiana Democratic Party Chair Robin Winston announced the shooting as delegates were casting their ballots and condemned it.
McCormick said the risk of political violence is never far from her mind as a political candidate, though she added the attempt on Trump’s life will not deter her from her own future campaign events.
“You’ve got people out there that sometimes are more radical and more extreme and they take it to a whole other level,” she said. “I’m not going to run scared of it but we’re just very aware of our surroundings.”
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