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The board of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation receives an update on the READI program. (Credit: Mark Curry)
Six candidates are seeking the Republican nomination for Indiana governor in the May 7 primary. State Affairs is providing looks at their stances on several issues. Jennifer McCormick is unopposed for the Democratic nomination.
Business and economic development backgrounds have been key points as the Republican candidates for governor pitch themselves to voters.
Brad Chambers and Eric Doden tout their years as real estate developers before becoming top officials of the Indiana Economic Development Corp. — the state government’s main agency seeking to attract business growth. Doden worked in then-Gov. Mike Pence’s administration, and Chambers was Gov. Eric Holcomb’s state commerce secretary.
U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, meanwhile, talks frequently about his years growing a Jasper-based auto parts distributor into a national company before winning election to the Senate six years ago.
Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch cites business development experience by pointing to her work leading several state agencies, including the Department of Agriculture, the Office of Community and Rural Affairs and the tourism agency.
A central point of contention among the candidates has been the state’s role in attracting businesses to Indiana. Former Attorney General Curtis Hill and conservative activist Jamie Reitenour have joined other candidates in criticizing the LEAP Lebanon Innovation District, the planned 9,000-acre tech hub that Chambers spearheaded when he led the IEDC before stepping down last summer.
Here are the candidates’ views on how the state should be involved in economic development:
Mike Braun
“I can tell you most people don’t think [economic development] is being spread around the state. … It costs a lot less when you create an environment for all of us who have small businesses to nurture them. It gets very tricky when you’re spending a fortune to try to get the biggest in and everybody is trying to land it. You don’t rule that out categorically. But from everything I hear, we want something that’s working more broadly for the entirety of the state.”
Brad Chambers
His state economic plan includes completing the LEAP District. He argues having it available could help attract major investments such as the $20 billion computer chip factory that Intel is building near Columbus, Ohio. Chambers points to the IEDC’s tally of attracting a state record $51 billion of new business investment during his two years as commerce secretary.
“We spread that to Kokomo and to Allen County, into New Carlisle in St. Joe County, and to Vigo County. And guess what? Those large investments are supporting small and medium-sized businesses. … Economic development is about lifting all tides, all boats, and we did that with abandon the last two years. We’re competing against North Carolina and Arizona and Texas and China and Ireland. We are competing against states that want our economic development. It’s incumbent on us to go play to win.”
Suzanne Crouch
“As governor, I will change the approach that we have to economic development, empowering our local and regional economic development organizations. We have a state-driven, paternalistic, top-down approach to economic development and have for the last 20 years. It’s time to have more collaboration with our local partners to be able to allow our economy to grow and no part of Indiana is left behind.”
Eric Doden
“The IEDC should not be acting like a developer, buying 10,000 acres and then finding out that we have a $2 [billion] to $3 billion water problem ... spending billions of dollars in one county. We need a 92-county strategy where all businesses can grow. … It’s very important to me that the IEDC be about being the Indiana Economic Development Corp., not the LEAP Economic Development Corporation.”
A centerpiece of Doden’s campaign has been a proposal for redevelopment projects in rural communities of fewer than 30,000 people.
“We have a plan for our small towns for 50 years. We’ve ignored our small towns and forgotten them, and we have a plan to put 10% of our economic development budget into our small towns and transform them all over the state of Indiana.”
Curtis Hill
“What’s going on with the LEAP project is a disaster because it’s a top-down strategy. … Boone County is one of the fastest-growing communities in the state, and so we’re spending billions of dollars to target an area that’s growing anyway. If the project was so wonderful, why don’t we take it to Gary or take it to one of the targeted communities that’s not doing well? … We should be assisting locals who have ideas on how to grow their own economies locally. … I think that the Economic Development Corp. certainly was well intended, but it’s become a shadow government. It’s basically taking control of the economy and wagging the dog, if you will.”
Jaime Reitenour
“The Indiana Economic Development Corp. needs to go away. We need to focus on the economy in a manner that requires the private sector to get involved without giving a whole lot of government money. … We want to maintain our status as a business-friendly state, not hindering growth with taxes and regulations. We can do this by promoting internship programs in our high schools and colleges/universities, giving the next generation an early start at impacting the economy for good.”
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Tom Davies is a Statehouse reporter for State Affairs Pro Indiana. Reach him at [email protected] or on X at @TomDaviesIND.
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Here’s how to vote in Indiana’s primary election
Thousands of Hoosier voters will head to the polls Tuesday, May 7, for Indiana’s primary election. This year’s ballot includes a competitive contest for governor, as well as dozens of state and federal legislative races and a few school referenda. The primary will decide which candidates will represent their respective parties in the Nov. 5 …
$15B in 72 hours: ‘Our economy is on fire,’ says Commerce chief
A banner week for investment within Indiana has capped off the state’s biggest financial quarter in recent history, as three major companies agreed to deals estimated to bring in billions of dollars.
The state has long advertised itself as business-friendly, and its chief executive appeared thrilled by the week’s news.
“This is about $15 billion in about 72 hours,” Gov. Eric Holcomb told reporters on Friday. “This used to take four years to achieve.”
One announced project, an $11 billion Amazon Web Services data center in north-central Indiana, is the biggest single investment in the state’s history.
Google also broke ground on a $2 billion data center near Fort Wayne, while Toyota announced a $1.4 billion investment in its Princeton plant.
“Our economy is on fire,” Secretary of Commerce David Rosenberg said.
His agency, the Indiana Economic Development Corp., negotiated the deals. The state is offering millions of dollars in tax incentives in order to create some 1,500 new jobs.
“These industries bring generational change for families, putting more money in their pockets and allowing them the opportunity to have a better quality of life on their own,” Rosenberg said.
The projects
Amazon’s new data center will be built near New Carlisle. It’s expected to bring in at least 1,000 new jobs in the artificial intelligence and cloud storage sectors. No timetable for completion of the project was given.
According to Amazon, the company has invested $21.5 billion in Indiana since 2010, creating 26,000 full- and part-time jobs.
Google’s new data center will hire up to 200 new workers, the tech giant said, “in the coming years.”
Toyota will build a new assembly line that will assemble battery-operated SUVs by the end of 2025. It expects to add up to 340 new jobs to the plant, which Toyota said now employs more than 7,500.
The company has spent $8 billion on the Princeton plant since breaking ground in 1996, Toyota said.
The new projects’ figures represent early estimates and could change as they move forward.
Incentives aren’t the only factor
Rosenberg praised the Indiana General Assembly for passing legislation that allows the state to offer sales tax exemptions as a lure for new businesses. Both Amazon and Google will receive such boosts, and the Amazon project could receive up to $100 million in additional credits based on various incentives.
But Rosenberg stressed tax breaks are only part of the equation as the state looks to compete internationally.
“We don’t have to have the highest offer because we bring the university partners, the state and local governments, utilities — everyone around the table to make sure that company has what they need,” he said.
The Google project, for example, includes partnerships with Ivy Tech Community College on a new job training program and Indiana Michigan Power to bring clean energy resources to the local grid.
Recruiting new industries
Rosenberg said tech recruitment has been a particular focus for the IEDC, as Indiana is looking to provide an “ecosystem” for these companies to thrive off one another. The state’s semiconductor facilities will provide the materials needed for these new data centers, he noted.
Recruiting new business takes anywhere between six months to several years. Zoning, road construction, utilities and more need to be worked out ahead of time.
The IEDC has been on a hot streak, Rosenberg said. During the agency’s first 11 years, it secured just under $50 billion in new projects. It has now pulled in more than $71 billion since the beginning of 2022.
In the first four months of 2024, $20.68 billion has been pledged to projects in Indiana — the most for a quarter since IEDC’s founding in 2005.
‘Strong partners for the Indiana economy’
“The key is that these investments represent long-lasting and continued commitment to being strong partners for the Indiana economy,” said Andrew Butters, an associate professor of business economics and public policy at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.
Large companies came out of the pandemic looking to reorient their supply chains, Butters said, and some states have reaped the benefits of projects that might have previously moved overseas.
Indiana has been able to compete by selling its location, workforce, labor force participation in addition to offering incentives, Butters said.
“I would not be shocked to see more of these as the state attempts to transition toward more high-tech and high-skill industries,” Butters said.
Contact Rory Appleton on X at @roryehappleton or email him at [email protected].
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.
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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].
State Republicans keep spending to protect House incumbents in primary
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