Centrist PAC endorses Democrats for governor, attorney general to offset one-party rule

Jennifer McCormick and Destiny Wells agree that Hoosiers overall are worse off because of two decades of Republican domination of Indiana state government.

The political action committee of ReCenter Indiana agrees. The bipartisan organization is endorsing McCormick for governor and Wells for state attorney general in the November election. Both are Democrats.

Jennifer McCormick and Destiny Wells are shown in screenshots from an online rally hosted by the ReCenter Indiana PAC Sept. 29.

A former state superintendent of public instruction, McCormick envisions “inclusivity, progress, and common-sense governance,” the ReCenter PAC said. “Her focus on enhancing educational opportunities, supporting teachers, and fostering economic growth makes her the ideal candidate to lead our state into a brighter future, which depends of the human capital of a well-educated citizenry.”

Wells has served as a lawyer for the city of Indianapolis and as a deputy attorney general. As a military officer as well, the ReCenter PAC said, “she has demonstrated leadership, resourcefulness, and resilience, qualities that will serve her well as attorney general. Her priorities – safeguarding medical privacy, protecting workers’ rights, and restoring integrity to the office of attorney general – are exactly what Indiana needs.”

“We need our wages to go up. We are 47th in the nation in annual wage growth,” McCormick said during a statewide online rally hosted by the ReCenter Indiana PAC Sept. 29. But, she added, Hoosiers’ costs keep climbing. That imbalance is “a reflection of one-party rule in the Statehouse for far too long.”

“Like so many Hoosiers that I talk to, we don’t like extremism, and I refuse to turn Indiana over to extremism. That’s not who we are,” McCormick continued. More than 60% of Hoosiers support her goal of “restoring reproductive rights and freedoms for women,” she said. “Women want choices, and most Hoosiers trust women.”

“When I am elected Indiana attorney general and you walk into that office, you won’t know the politics of the office,” Wells pledged during the online rally. “We’re going to get out of the classroom. We’re going to get out of doctor’s offices.” 

This is not just about abortion, Wells said. “We already have medical care deserts. We already have reproductive health care deserts.”  

“The supermajority and the attorney general and basically the whole slate of Republican statewide candidates this year are after women’s rights,” said Wells, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve. “I served in Afghanistan. I saw the worst of it. And what it taught me is that women’s rights really are the barometer of a healthy democracy.”  

“Increasingly, the party in control of our state government demonstrates that it doesn’t care what most Hoosiers think,” Adrianne Slash, a Republican and president of the ReCenter PAC, said during the online rally with McCormick and Wells.

Some legislative districts are so gerrymandered that “there’s no meaningful contest” this fall, Slash added. But in statewide races like those for governor and attorney general, “literally every vote counts.” 

Indiana’s one-party rule even drew criticism this summer from former Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican. Prior to and during his two terms, 2005-2013, neither party could take power for granted, Daniels wrote in The Washington Post. So, he said, his campaign stressed “people’s commonality, and the need for every part of the state to participate fully in its better future.” Competition, Daniels said, “fosters innovation. In politics, it also compels a sensitivity and an outreach to the widest possible audiences.” 

More information on these endorsements and the candidates is at ReCenterIndiana.org.

Voter registration ends Oct. 7. Early voting begins Oct. 8, leading up to election day, Nov. 5.