Former Indiana Republican who soured on party launches bid to lead state as a Democrat

Jennifer McCormick, a former Indiana Republican who soured on her party during her tenure as the state’s last elected schools chief, announced Thursday that she’d seek the governorship next year as a Democrat.

McCormick, who would be the first woman to lead the state, currently has no intra-party opposition in sight, but she faces a challenging task prevailing in a state that Donald Trump took 57-41 and where Republicans have had a lock on the governor’s office since the 2004 elections. Republicans, meanwhile, have a three-way primary between Sen. Mike Braun, wealthy businessman Eric Doden, and Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, who also would be Indiana’s first woman governor. Also in the running is Libertarian Donald Rainwater, who took 11% in the 2020 race after appealing to conservatives furious at Holcomb’s statewide mask mandate.