INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch formally began her 2024 campaign for governor on Monday and said she wouldn’t shrink back from Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb’s record despite discontent amongst many conservatives over his COVID-19 policies and other actions.
Crouch announced her campaign in a web based video message released just hours ahead of Braun’s campaign kickoff luncheon with supporters at a downtown Indianapolis steakhouse. Braun filed paperwork on Nov. 30 with state election officials allowing him to lift money for the governor’s race, a move that can forego him looking for one other Senate term when that seat also goes up for election in 2024.
Braun, 68, was a little-known wealthy businessman before fueling his successful 2018 Senate campaign with greater than $11 million in personal loans. He presented himself as a political outsider, defeating Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly.
Crouch, 70, said her campaign to develop into Indiana’s first female governor would highlight her decade as a neighborhood government official in Evansville before joining the state Legislature in 2005. She then served three years as state auditor and have become lieutenant governor in early 2017.
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“I feel should you put me on a stage with the opposite announced candidates, the differences are obvious,” Crouch told The Associated Press ahead of her announcement. “But once you have a look at the resumes, there isn’t a candidate that has the local, state, legislative and executive experience that I even have. There isn’t any candidate that knows higher how government works and the way it will probably work higher for people.”
Crouch has already raised greater than $2.5 million for her campaign and Fort Wayne businessman Eric Doden, who was a state economic development official for then-Gov. Mike Pence, has raised an analogous amount since he kicked off a campaign last 12 months for the Republican nomination.
Crouch has been a loyal administration member under Holcomb and appeared at his side during several of his near-daily news conferences throughout the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Crouch said Indiana’s economy and state funds had continued to enhance during Holcomb’s time as governor.
“We’ve got achieved an excellent deal and I’m pleased with that record, not only over the past six years, but over the past 17 years being an element of turning this state around,” Crouch said.
State campaign filings show no other Republicans are actively raising money for the 2024 governor’s race, but that doesn’t mean the GOP field is about.
Republican U.S. Rep. Trey Hollingsworth alluded to a possible run for a unique office when decided to not seek reelection this 12 months — and a few Republicans are hoping that former Gov. Mitch Daniels will seek a Statehouse return after he steps down as Purdue University’s president at the tip of December.
Discussions of possible 2024 statewide Democratic candidates have centered on Donnelly, who’s now President Joe Biden’s ambassador to the Vatican, and former state schools superintendent Jennifer McCormick, who won election as a Republican in 2016 but has since switched parties after disputes with GOP Statehouse leaders over education policies.
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