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Request a DemoTreasurer Elliott explains his plans to keep the new ESG policy from becoming a ‘witch hunt’
He calls himself the “nerdy cowboy” — wearing boots with his suit and winning his election, in part, by driving his truck to far, less-populated corners of the state.
State treasurer Daniel Elliott, a farm owner from Morgan County, took over the Indiana Treasurer of State office at the start of the year, but he’s been involved in politics for about a dozen years. First as a precinct committeeman and then as a GOP county chair, county councilman and president of the local redevelopment commission.
Still, he viewed himself as an underdog when seeking the Republican nomination for treasurer last year against three other candidates because he came from a less-populated area, just outside of Morgantown.
During his first legislative session in office, Elliott has drawn attention for his more controversial focus on cracking down on environmental, social and governmental investing — known as ESG — in the state, but he’s also spent some time highlighting issues important to Hoosiers from rural parts of the state.
State Affairs sat down with Elliott to talk about his first few months in office, how the state’s new ESG policy will work and his 2018 fight against party insiders regarding the GOP’s platform.
The conversation has been edited for clarity, brevity and length.
Why should the average Hoosier care about what the state treasurer does? It sounds fairly wonky.
It is. I jokingly call myself the nerdy cowboy because I am.
You look at the main role of the treasurer, chief investment officer. Some of the issues that are going on right now in the nation, in the world and in our country really require someone who's willing to dig into the details. Being a software engineer by trade, that is my nature. I find elegance in numbers.
[One example that benefits Hoosiers is we work with] 911. I’m the only treasurer in the country that chairs the 911 system.
[Another example is] the Indiana Bond Bank. Coming from rural Indiana, big communities don't worry about financing. You take Hamilton County, my friends over there, great people. They have such great credit. They have so much revenue coming in. They are very well suited to work on what they need to get done.
Rural small towns need resources like the Indiana Bond Bank to help them be able to accomplish some of their goals, whether it be trying to get broadband into their communities or trying to fix a water supply situation.
Can you explain what the Indiana Bond Bank is?
Bonds are loans for municipalities and local governments. The Indiana Bond Bank is oftentimes the lender of last resort. One of my goals is to make the bond bank one of the first tools that local governments come to.
When session started, I naturally assumed my role was to go and talk to legislators about the issues that my office found important. I found people telling me, wait a minute, you're not supposed to do that. You're supposed to go through lobbyists. I’m like, ‘Why? Why can’t I?’ And that's something I tend to always ask is, ‘Why?’ So I started saying, ‘Well, these are the issues that I find important.’
One of the things I was concerned about when it comes to rural Indiana was not just the rural communities, but also hospitals. Health care is a big issue these days, and rural hospitals have a hard time competing with the big monopolistic nonprofits. So I started saying, ‘How can we help rural communities through the Bond Bank?’ The Bond Bank only had the ability to do bonds or loans for 10 years. Most big projects need a much larger runway— 20 or 25 years. So I presented that idea to the leadership. That bill passed.
You wouldn’t think the treasurer’s office would be involved in finding solutions for health care problems.
That's what's fascinating about this job, and now you see why I'm having so much fun.
[We also offer] 529 plans, helping kids go to college. To me that's really important because I grew up in Nebraska, Indiana. I'm the first one in my family ever to go to college and I grew up really poor. I didn't get the chance to do Little League or swim practice or [Boy] Scouts like other kids, like my own kids got to do.
I spent my weekends and my summers helping my dad, who was a laborer. I remember one day, pushing a wheelbarrow of cement. I was 11 years old, the age of my youngest son right now, and I remember thinking, this stinks. There's no way I want to do this the rest of my life. I need to go to college. Now 529 plans give kids an opportunity and parents an opportunity to actually start saving for that.
You see there's a Millennium Falcon [model on my desk]. So if I'm not pointing out how geeky I am, I am 100% a geek. The reason I have that is we're a small office and we say we're a ragtag group of rebels. Our mission is to blow up Death Stars because we're smaller, more nimble.
There was a community in Fulton County; they spent all this money on a new 911 center, but they couldn't get it to work. We got ATT and Motorola and everybody in the same room and said, ‘What's going on?’ In two weeks, they got it resolved. I want to say it was because our office is super smart. All we did was get people who weren’t talking to each other, and kind of cut through the red tape.
That's the blowing up of the Death Stars.
What's been the most surprising part so far of your role five months in?
Honestly, it surprised me how much bureaucracy and red tape there is. I always ask, ‘Why?’ since I grew up in poverty. Why can't I do this? And as a software engineer, you learn to ask why. You'll have 15 mistakes before you get to the right solution, but that's part of the process.
I find that in state government, people are not always comfortable when a statewide elected official says, ‘Why are we doing it this way? Is there a reason?’ Sometimes there's a very good reason, but if not, why can’t we do it differently? It's gotten me in trouble a little bit. But we've also gotten some things done.
When you say that's gotten you in trouble, what do you mean?
What I mean, is people [say] that's not the way you're supposed to do this. I think people expect me to sit behind that desk and then go to a few dinners and shake some hands. That's not my style. I wear the suit because I want to be respectful to the state of Indiana, but generally if you want to see how Daniel normally dresses right there in jeans and cowboy shirt, me on my horse. When I’m not doing interviews, I'm usually wearing jeans. This weekend I spent my time brush hogging a field, because that's just who I am.
One new law you haven't touched on yet was the law limiting environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) investing. Why do you think it was important for House Bill 1008 to pass?
I truly believe in that issue. If we look at the markets you have a lot of investment fund managers who have been pushing policy, not just looking at the fiduciary reasons for why to invest. I am uncomfortable with that. Since I grew up in poverty you don't ever escape that even though it's not my experience now. You always know that’s in the back of your mind. I see family members, I see relatives, they're surviving on pensions, that's if they're lucky. Many of them are surviving on just Social Security.
If you're a wealthy person, you can afford to say, ‘I'm going to invest in such a way that maybe I won't make as much money, but that's okay because I'm going to feel good about my investments. I want to invest in the environment.’ That's a great, absolutely worthy goal. I'm an outdoorsman. I love taking care of our planet, but at the same time, when you're looking at somebody who has driven a highway truck for the county, someone who's been a teacher, someone who has worked in these halls. I've got people in my office who have worked here for 30 years that are hardworking, great people. But they're not millionaires. They're not rich.
If they had to choose between paying for a mortgage and paying for medicine, then we're doing something wrong. So in my mind, we all need to focus on what is the best return on investment; anything beyond that, then we're not doing our duty.
Unfortunately, that's been a trend the last decade or so, where there have been a lot of these ESG funds focusing on other issues, and I'm not saying those issues aren't worthy. And if an ESG-focused fund makes money, it’s still the best return on investment.
That's my role. I'm the chief investment officer, and I should be out there advocating for bringing the best return to the state of Indiana, and best return to [the Indiana Public Retirement System] as one of the board members.
Can you explain how this will work? What will the state do differently?
We have to be looking first and foremost at what's the best return.
I always use a figurative ACME investment fund manager. If they say, ‘Hey, we have an ESG commitment. We're part of XYZ ESG Alliance.’ They want to be carbon neutral by 2030 or something like that, we're going to say since you've made that commitment, what you're saying is you're not looking at the financial [aspect]. You're willing to take a hit on the return because of your political views. Your political views are, hey, we don't like coal, or we don't like fossil fuels. Okay, that's fair. Lots of people have that philosophy, but the reality is, that means you're going to get less of a return on your overall investment.
What we're going to simply do is we're going to present that to the [Indiana Public Retirement System] board members. Now, INPRS will look at who are the other companies that get similar returns and have similar fees. So let's say ACME has a 6.2% return on their investment, but we can find a company that is similar that has a 6.8% return. That's a better return. So we're going to stop using ACME and we're going to use the new company.
Now it could be that ACME company may actually have the best return and we say, ‘Sorry, we can't find anybody comparable.’ That's perfectly legitimate. So since we are focusing only on the financial return, then we're going to say, ‘Well, we're going to continue with ACME.’
Have you started compiling a list of investment fund managers the state shouldn’t be using?
We're working on the process first. The law doesn’t take effect until July 1, so we can't do anything until then. I don't want it to be a witch hunt. I want to say here's the policy, and then this is how we're executing the law. I want it to be fair across the board.
In 2018 you led the fight to keep the language in the Indiana Republican platform saying that marriage should be between a man and a woman. Is there a place for you to voice your opinion on social matters while serving in the treasurer's office?
The office itself doesn't get into social issues as much. It is a lot of numbers. But at the same time, I am who I am. I'm the first Latter Day Saint to hold statewide office.
I'm definitely not afraid to talk about my faith. I chose my faith. In fact, if you look in my office, there are lots of things about my faith here. That leatherbound book right there is a Book of Mormon in Spanish, the one that I used as a missionary in South America. I'm still bilingual which really freaks people out a lot. The last thing they expect is the cowboy from Morgan County to be bilingual.
Yes, I have my beliefs that I feel very strongly about. And I do believe that marriage is important. I do believe that just as a regular citizen I have the right, and I will exercise that right, to speak what I believe in.
Now, I also believe that while I have the right to speak about what I believe in, so do other people. One of the things that people especially talk about in 2018 that they forget is my whole point was advocating for having the discussion because there wasn't going to be a discussion. Let's have that conversation out in public.
There's no doubt I'm a conservative. I'm not going to hide that.
That was a pretty bold push back then because you were fighting against party leadership on a controversial issue.Were you worried that it was going to impact any future political aspirations?
I wasn't and here's why. Obviously I want to try to serve. I want to try to be involved.
Honestly, I don't expect to be in politics my whole life. This is my first time ever having politics as a full-time role. This might be the first and last moment I ever do that. If I go back to my farm, ride my horses and I start a new business when I'm done doing this, I'm perfectly content doing that. I'm not making any plans for the future either. I just want to be a really good treasurer right now. I'm having fun with this.
You’ve talked in detail about your rural Indiana roots. How important do you think it is to have an elected state official that comes from rural Indiana to give a voice to those portions of our state?
I think that's really important. People who get elected, usually it's a numbers game. They're from Fort Wayne or Evansville or Indianapolis. They come from these areas where there are a large amount of people. We didn't have anybody from rural Indiana.
That gives me the opportunity to be a voice for issues that folks who don't live in rural Indiana or haven't lived in rural Indiana since they were children [may not understand]. Like rural broadband, that is one of the most important things we as a state can be doing. Fortunately, we are working really hard at that. Take a child like me who grew up in rural Indiana, if they have broadband and they have the dreams to go to college someday, the tools are there. But if they don't have broadband they're already starting behind.
I look at it like electricity was 100 years ago. Can you imagine people living without electricity now? Of course not.
Everyone can now work from home. You could work for Google and live in Posey County and think about how that also is an amazing opportunity for small businesses to get started. When I started my business as a software engineer in Martinsville, Indiana, people were like nobody in Martinsville needs you. Well of course. My clients weren't in Martinsville.
But at the same time, what did I get out of Martinsville? I got the ability — I remember when my wife and I picked our little farm 21 years ago — to raise my children. I always wanted my kids to be able to drive an old pickup truck to school and nobody would look at them sideways. My older son got to do that. He thought it was the coolest thing in the world to drive the old farm truck. It was rusty. It was loud. But he would drive that and he was just proud as punch. I will talk about horses all day long. My kids all got to show in 4H. My 11-year-old still shows in 4H.
Those of us who enjoy and choose a rural lifestyle, there's no reason we can't also be able to provide and have successful careers.
We obviously have a gubernatorial election coming up. Do you plan to endorse anyone?
Honestly, so far, the people running, I know them. They’re friends. So I'm going to let them have all the fun that I did and just focus on their races; and me, I'm going to focus on being state treasurer. At this point in time, I am not looking at getting involved in any races right now because I'm frankly kind of busy doing this.
Contact Kaitlin Lange on Twitter @kaitlin_lange or at [email protected].
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6 races to watch in the Indiana primary election
The first openly competitive contest for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in a generation will end with Tuesday’s primary election, as will crowded races for several open congressional seats.
The primary won’t officially decide any political race — only the Nov. 5 general election can do that. But Republicans hold major advantages in statewide and many district-level contests, and who secures which nominations will go a long way toward deciding who may lead the state in the years to come.
>> Related: How does voting by political party work in Indiana?
Here are six key primary contests to watch on election night.
Governor
The race to be Indiana’s next chief executive has been perhaps the most noteworthy of the election cycle, with six Republicans bringing a variety of experience and outsider credentials to the competition.
Sen. Mike Braun has led in the polls from day one, including running up a 34 percentage-point lead in an April State Affairs/Howey Politics Indiana survey.
The other five candidates are: Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, former Attorney General Curtis Hill, Indianapolis mom Jamie Reitenour and two former state secretaries of commerce in Brad Chambers and Eric Doden.
The winner of Tuesday’s Republican primary will face Democrat and former state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jennifer McCormick, who will advance for her party unopposed.
Republican candidates spent tens of millions of dollars in an attempt to stand out in their crowded pack. The primary race also featured four televised debates, including a chaotic final display on April 24.
U.S. Senate
Two Democrats are vying for the chance to replace Braun in the U.S. Senate: Former state Rep. Marc Carmichael and Valerie McCray, a clinical psychologist.
Carmichael has outspent McCray in the race by a margin of nearly $63,000 to $15,000.
Both are attempting to become the state’s first Democratic senator since Joe Donnelly’s election in 2012.
Rep. Jim Banks is running unopposed in the Republican primary.
3rd Congressional District
Banks’ entry into the Senate race leaves his seat in Congress open, and a bevy of Republicans are seeking to replace him: Grant Bucher, Wendy Davis, Mike Felker, Jon Kenworthy, Tim Smith, Marlin A. Stutzman, Eric Whalen and Andy Zay.
State Affairs has identified Stutzman, a former congressman; Smith, a self-funding former Fort Wayne mayoral candidate; and Davis, a former Allen County judge, as candidates to watch in the crowded race.
Kiley Adolph and Phil Goss are running against one another in the Democratic primary.
5th Congressional District
After initially deciding against another run, Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz reversed course to seek re-election in 2024.
Eight other Republicans are running against Spartz: Raju Chinthala, Max Engling, Chuck Goodrich, Mark Hurt, Patrick Malayter, Matthew Peiffer, L.D. Powell and Larry L. Savage Jr.
Goodrich, a member of the Indiana House of Representatives, has spent more than $2 million on TV ads as he seeks to unseat Spartz, according to AdImpact.
Two Democrats, Ryan Pfenninger and Deborah A. Pickett, are on the ballot.
6th Congressional District
Seven Republicans are attempting to replace retiring Rep. Greg Pence: Jamison E. Carrier, Darin Childress, Bill Frazier, John Jacob, state Sen. Jeff Raatz, Jefferson Shreve and state Rep. Mike Speedy.
Shreve, who ran unsuccessfully for Indianapolis mayor in 2023, has spent nearly $4 million — predominantly through TV advertising — in his bid.
Cynthia Wirth, whom Pence defeated by 35 percentage points in 2022, is running unopposed in the Democratic primary.
8th Congressional District
Republican Rep. Larry Bucshon is also retiring, and a dozen candidates in both parties are seeking to fill his seat.
On the Republican side, former Rep. John Hostettler, state Sen. Mark Messmer, former President Donald Trump White House staff member Dominick Kavanaugh and frequent Bucshon primary challenger Richard Moss are each making a push.
Fellow Republicans Jim Case, Jeremy Heath, Luke Misner and Kristi Risk are also running but trail the above pack in campaign spending.
Four Democrats are also seeking a nomination: Erik Hurt, Peter FH Priest II, Edward Upton Sein and Michael Talarzyk.
Contact Rory Appleton on X at @roryehappleton or email him at [email protected].
What happens after the primary election?
Hoosiers will narrow their choices for governor, U.S. Senate and various other state and federal races during the Tuesday, May 7, primary election. Winners of the primary election races will represent their respective party in the Nov. 5 general election. If a contest features only one Republican or Democrat, that candidate will automatically move on. …
Newcomer Clay challenges longtime incumbent Young for state Senate
A central Indiana state Senate race may soon serve as a barometer for state Republican politics, as a young upstart groomed for leadership faces down a longtime incumbent in the upcoming primary election.
The race for Senate District 35, which includes parts of Marion and Hendricks counties, revolves around similar conservative beliefs held by wildly different candidates.
State Sen. Mike Young, 72, is a Statehouse fixture who refuses to attend his committee meetings or caucus with his fellow Republicans but nonetheless offers nearly four decades of legislative experience to his district.
Philip Clay is a 29-year-old retail banker with a young family and no political experience. He seeks to bring more collaboration to the role.
If elected, Clay would be the only Black Republican in the Indiana General Assembly.
“Unpopularity in the Statehouse doesn’t always translate to being unpopular in the district,” Mike O’Brien, president of 1816 Public Affairs Group and former Hendricks County Republican Party chairman, said of Young.
“You have a young guy working hard, and that’s kind of what it takes to beat a long-term incumbent,” O’Brien said. “We see examples of that every cycle. Maybe this is the one this time.”
Young no longer caucuses
Young, who served in the Indiana House of Representatives from 1986 to 2000 before moving to the state Senate, made headlines in summer 2022 when he decided to no longer caucus with his party.
“I won’t caucus because I don’t trust our leadership,” Young told State Affairs. He stressed his decision had nothing to do with his failed amendment to the state’s abortion ban, saying he wrote a letter expressing his intent to leave before the abortion bill was heard.
Young said he remains part of the caucus, as he is a Republican senator, but simply does not attend meetings.
He has also stopped going to most meetings of his assigned Senate committees: Corrections and Criminal Law, Elections, Family and Children Services, and Pensions and Labor.
“I go to them if they affect my district,” Young said.
He attended a Jan. 17 Pensions and Labor Committee meeting to argue down Senate Bill 54, which Young said would have hurt Wayne Township firefighters by forcing them to consolidate with the Indianapolis Fire Department.
Young said all senators are asked to pick five committees they’d want to serve on, but Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray did not select him for any of his listed options. Young informed Bray he did not intend to attend future committee meetings.
Bray also replaced him as chair of the Corrections and Criminal Law Committee and removed him from the Judiciary Committee. Attempts to reach Bray for comment were unsuccessful.
“You don’t have to be on committees to get things done,” Young said. “When the bill comes to the floor, you have the opportunity to amend just like you would in committee. So there’s nothing really lost or harmed by it.”
Clay’s push for office
Clay, who has lived within the district in Plainfield for most of his life, said Young’s decision to no longer caucus motivated him to get into the race.
“There’s a lot of things Mike and I agree on, but after Mike left the Republican caucus and voiced some personal grievances with the Senate … it’s kind of like watching your favorite player not show up to the game,” Clay said.
Clay said one of his primary campaign platforms is improving workforce development within the district as. He co-founded Arthur Clay and Co., an organization focused on preparing men of color for their future careers.
Like Young, Clay is anti-abortion. Whereas Young seeks to eliminate property taxes, Clay believes reform is the more prudent path. Clay also hopes to improve education, make adoption easier and increase public safety if elected.
Clay trained with both the national and state GOP in 2022, completing the Republican National Committee’s Rising Star and Indiana Republican Diversity Leadership Series training programs geared toward recruiting minority conservatives for public office.
“There are so many well-qualified minority conservatives that we’ve not done a good job in either messaging to or helping them explore the Republican Party,” Clay said.
“There are Black conservatives across the country,” he said. “To have the opportunity to be the only one in the state is an incredible honor. It’s absolutely something I don’t take lightly.”
Support from Indiana Chamber
Both candidates have spent tens of thousands of dollars on their campaigns as of March 31.
Clay spent just under $34,000 in the first quarter of 2024, leaving him with about $30,000 left for a final push.
Young has spent around $29,500 and has about $45,000 remaining.
While Young has raised from various sources — including other lawmakers, small-dollar donors and $22,000 in personal loans — much of Clay’s backing has come from one source: the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.
The Chamber’s political action committee, Indiana Business for Responsive Government, has given Clay almost $21,000, plus another $11,000 from in-kind donations.
Jeff Brantley, the Chamber’s senior vice president for political affairs, said Young’s voting record does not often align with his organization.
“He talks a lot, but he can’t get things done in one of the more rapidly growing suburban districts in the state,” Brantley said of Young. “Constituents aren’t being fully served.”
Brantley said Clay could bring both a fresh perspective as the Legislature’s only Black Republican and new life to the seat.
“The district needs and deserves someone who really has the energy and the engagement,” Brantley said.
Young said the Chamber was “beating up on him,” even though he has worked to get Chamber-supported legislation through the Statehouse. He listed reducing the state’s license plate tax as one example.
The senator has been endorsed by the Indiana Family Action PAC, Indiana Right to Life, Hoosier Conservative Roundtable, American Family Association of Indiana PAC and the Indiana State Police Alliance.
Taxes key to Young’s reelection bid
If reelected, Young hopes to end property taxes for all Hoosiers, particularly those over 65.
“Speedway has neighborhoods where most people have lived in their homes for 50 years, and they’re on fixed incomes,” Young said. “And when they get a 48% [tax] increase, that’s killing them. They can lose their house.”
Young has pushed the idea for more than a decade, and he believes momentum and money exist to get it done next year, when the Legislature will set the state’s budget.
Indiana could be the first state to end property taxes for seniors “with no strings attached,” Young said.
He said he would also work to “stand up for conservative values”: supporting tax cuts, opposing a plan to give “illegal immigrants” driver’s licenses and creating a rule in the state senate requiring 24 hours’ notice to changes in the state budget.
O’Brien, the former Hendricks County GOP chair who has followed Young’s career for years, said the senator’s long incumbency will be tough to beat. He added that Young’s reputation as a thorn in leadership’s side isn’t necessarily a detriment in the May 7 primary election.
“Go-give-’em-hell gets you a lot of votes,” O’Brien said. “That’s why [former President Donald] Trump is doing what he does. It’s just the mood of the electorate right now.”
Contact Rory Appleton on X at @roryehappleton or email him at [email protected].
Bringing back barnstorming: Curtis Hill and his run for governor
A week after Hamas attacked Israel, Chris Just attached American and Israeli flags to the back of his Gladiator and drove to the second-annual Central Indy Jeep N’Vasion at the Johnson County Fairgrounds.
Wind blew over tents, and grim clouds approached. There, in Franklin on Oct. 14, 2023, a volunteer with former state Attorney General Curtis Hill’s gubernatorial campaign approached Just. Asked if his vote was already decided, Just said he hadn’t thought about it yet: “I know I’ll vote Republican, but I just don’t know who.” (Four years ago, Just voted for Libertarian Donald Rainwater after losing faith in Gov. Eric Holcomb.)
The volunteer brought over Hill, who introduced himself to Just. The two chatted about Jeeps, the event and topics unrelated to politics. After several minutes, Hill and Just posed for a picture in front of the Gladiator — flags prominently displayed behind them. “It gave me an introduction to who he was,” Just told State Affairs.
Presumptive voters like Just are the Hoosiers Hill’s campaign hopes to sway ahead of the May 7 primary. Polling in single digits, Hill will likely need them to prevail. In the six-candidate race, he has placed fifth in every poll conducted this year. And Hill has spent only a fraction (about $290,000) of the millions spent by other wealthy, self-funded candidates through the first three months of 2024.
In absence of the same financial treasures enjoyed by his opponents, Hill’s campaign has adopted a different approach, shunning pricey TV ads in favor of in-person events. His campaign chair since November, Jackie Horvath, said Hill, 63, flourishes in front of crowds. “Whether it be in front of thousands or in front of hundreds or tens or one-on-one, he just has that gift,” she said. Lincoln Day Dinners, for example, have been staples for the campaign, which believes enough voters will be convinced of Hill’s message to make traversing the state worth it. “You just have to be more targeted,” Horvath said.
Ahead of the primary, Hill has already earned political victories. In January, he was the first to call for the Indiana Department of Health to resume releasing terminated pregnancy reports to the public. The department had halted their release, arguing the individual reports could be reverse-engineered to identify women who have had an abortion. (The department still shares quarterly roundups with aggregate data of the individual reports.)
Hill, in a news release, said the department was “arrogantly disregarding the law” and its decision “directly contradicts the previous treatment” of the reports. He insists releasing them is the only way to ensure the state’s near-total abortion ban can be enforced.
Attorney General Todd Rokita’s office earlier this month issued an official opinion contending individual abortion reports are not medical records and can be released to the public. In a news conference announcing the opinion, Rokita credited Hill for highlighting the issue. Hill’s former opponent said voters should ask other gubernatorial candidates “where they stand on this.” During an April 23 debate, other Republican candidates said they would push for the reports to be released after Hill questioned them.
And in February, Hill implored Holcomb to deploy Indiana National Guard members to Texas, as more than a dozen other states have done. Days later, Holcomb committed to sending 50 members. He justified the decision by blaming the federal government for not properly enforcing immigration law at the border with Mexico.
Yet, despite his continued influence on Indiana politics, Hill has struggled to win over Republican voters.
“He’s kind of like that pain in your side that just won’t go away for Republicans, and I wonder if his campaign is more about spite than anything else,” said Julia Vaughn, executive director of Common Cause Indiana, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for transparent governance.
The fall
Perry Township Republicans held a Lincoln Day Dinner April 2 at The Atrium, an unassuming banquet and catering facility tucked away in a strip mall off of Thompson Road in Indianapolis. U.S. Rep. Jim Banks was scheduled to be the featured speaker, and the event drew many of the state’s most notable conservatives.
Before the dinner started, Hill told State Affairs he doesn’t believe Hoosiers want “elite candidates.” He believes there is still a place for barnstorming around the state and delivering a message in person.
In 2016, Hill was elected state attorney general. Before that, he spent 14 years as the elected prosecutor for Elkhart County, where he was born and raised. The youngest of five children, Hill earned a Bachelor of Science in marketing and a Doctor of Jurisprudence at Indiana University, where he met his wife, Teresa, according to his campaign website. They are now parents of five.
During his time as attorney general, Hill was a champion of socially conservative causes, taking to Fox News to opine on national anthem protests, crime and homelessness in San Francisco. Many considered him a “rising star” in the Republican ranks.
But Hill’s once-promising political career derailed when the Indiana Supreme Court suspended his law license for groping four women at a party marking the end of the 2018 legislative session.
The court found “by clear and convincing evidence that [Hill] committed the criminal act of battery” against three female legislative staffers — ages 23 to 26 at the time — and a Democratic legislator. Hill has maintained his innocence, saying he never inappropriately touched the women.
Prior to the court’s decision, a special prosecutor declined to file criminal charges against Hill. The women filed a civil lawsuit in July 2020, claiming Hill committed battery against them. In early April, a Marion County judge called off a jury trial for the case, which remains pending. (Attorneys representing the women did not respond to a State Affairs request for comment.)
Following the state Supreme Court’s decision, Democrats and many Republicans — including Holcomb — called for Hill’s resignation. But Hill did not resign. Instead, he fulfilled his term and lost a close 2020 Republican attorney general nomination to Rokita.
Hill has since kept a mostly low profile. His most notable foray came in 2022, when he launched an unsuccessful bid to replace the late U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski. (He lost to U.S. Rep. Rudy Yakym, who was backed by Walorski’s family.) In 2022, Hill was also supposed to be involved in a mock trial of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Hill said an episode was filmed, but technical difficulties caused it to “fizzle out.”
Hill has kept busy with his namesake law practice and a consulting business, Maverick Consulting LLC. He has worked with the anti-vaccine nonprofit Children’s Health Defense and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a consultant on “some post-pandemic matters.” And he participated in a senior fellowship at the conservative-leaning think tank Center for Urban Renewal and Education.
When he spends the weekend at home, Hill tries to make time for tennis with friends. They call themselves the Brandy Boys. Their Saturday routine: tennis, then breakfast and “a celebratory bottle of brandy that goes a long way.”
Hill told State Affairs the fallout from the court’s decision to suspend his license has been an “unfortunate chapter.” He said it was “a sign of the times when you’re a popular, particularly conservative figure, and knives come out.” Asked whether he would have done anything differently that night, Hill said he “probably would have gone home.”
His vision
On the campaign trail, Hill has advocated for a comprehensive tax plan. His proposals include cutting Indiana’s corporate income taxes and the state gas tax while also eliminating state income taxes for residents who are 18 to 35, according to his campaign website. But he says “wasteful spending” must be addressed before the tax breaks can be realized. (Hill has criticized Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch’s proposal to eliminate state income taxes for all residents.)
In addition, Hill’s campaign centers on stopping “the flood of illegal immigrants” and preserving “medical freedom.” At the COVID-19 pandemic’s zenith, Gov. Holcomb implemented a mask mandate in Indiana. Hill pounced on the decision, arguing Holcomb overstepped. “We had a government that failed us in many respects by providing misinformation, wrong information,” Hill said, pointing to guidance on mask usage changing as the pandemic progressed.
Hill maintains the damage done by government lockdowns “far exceeded the damage that was done by the virus itself, and we’re still seeing that a lot of businesses were scuttled. A lot of school kids have some learning and social behaviors that are offset because of the time that was taken away from the education process.”
Leah Wilson, executive director and co-founder of the nonprofit Stand for Health Freedom, said Hill “wasn’t tricked like others were” during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Most of the others you talk to say it was justified to cancel freedom for at least a few weeks,” she said of the other gubernatorial candidates. Because of that, Wilson’s organization endorses Hill. She said he is “not excitable, which allows him to be unwavering.”
Asked during debates about his other policies, Hill has compared the federal government to a “crack dealer” that attaches programmatic “entanglements” to its financial support of schools. If elected as Indiana’s next governor, he wants to do away with the entanglements, cut government regulations to help more child care facilities enter the market, empower locals to make their own economic development decisions, corral the Indiana Economic Development Corp. and end diversity, equity and inclusion practices in state government as well as “radical gender ideology” and “critical race theory” in classrooms.
“Objective truth is under assault on a regular basis,” Hill told State Affairs. “I think the manipulation of the justice system, the weaponization of race, the sexualization of our children call upon us to have a new administration of freedom.”
Asked about his chances of winning after several poor showings in recent polls, Hill said, “The only poll that matters is the poll on May 7.”
State Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis, said Hill had “managed to bring discredit to his office in an unusual and particularly terrible fashion.” In 2019, DeLaney authored a resolution urging the House to conduct an investigation of the allegations against Hill, but it wasn’t taken up.
Hill came into the gubernatorial race as a “hard-right, pro-Trump” candidate, DeLaney said, “but he hasn’t had money to send that message. And when, essentially, almost all of the candidates are sending that message, how does he distinguish himself? So, sadly for him, this distinction is the one that I pointed to: He got himself in this horrible situation.”
Horvath, Hill’s campaign chair, sees his situation differently. She described the allegations against Hill as a “he said, she said” scenario that has only been brought up sparingly on the campaign trail.
In The Atrium lobby, Hill spoke with his team, surrounded by bustling conservatives. Just, the Gladiator owner, walked through one of the facility’s entrances — he was there to support Andrew Ireland in the House District 90 race — and spotted Hill. The pair reminisced about the Jeep show. “He remembered exactly what the Jeep was; he remembered everything about it,” Just told State Affairs of his conversation with Hill.
Hill asked Just to “remember” him during the upcoming primary election, Just told State Affairs. Yet, after their April encounter, Just said he is “still kind of closed” on the candidate he plans to vote for.
“I still haven’t made up my mind yet,” Just said. But he acknowledged Hill “definitely left a mark.”
About Hill
- Age: 63
- Hometown: Elkhart
- Education: Bachelor of Science in marketing and Doctor of Jurisprudence from Indiana University
- Family: Wife, Teresa, and five children
- Job: Attorney, consultant
- Work history: Indiana’s 43rd attorney general (2017-2021), an attorney since 1988, consultant with Maverick Consulting LLC, Elkhart County prosecutor (2003-2017)
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