Jennifer McCormick: “My values were not aligned to what I saw happening in the Republican Party”
Jennifer McCormick: “My values were not aligned to what I saw happening in the Republican Party”
Now the Democratic nominee for governor, in 2016 she upset the incumbent Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction running as a member of the GOP
If any Indiana Democrat knows what it takes to beat Republicans in a statewide race, it’s probably Jennifer McCormick.
After all, she used to be one.
McCormick is the Democratic Party’s nominee for governor this fall, but in 2016, she ran for Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction as a Republican. Despite polling at only 38% in mid-October of that year, she upset incumbent Glenda Ritz by five percentage points on Election Day.
McCormick, who was in Fort Wayne for a fundraiser last night at the Fort Wayne Country Club, told me she was able to make up so much ground in the superintendent race in large part because of how much she traveled the state to campaign. “We did a good job in that final stretch of getting name recognition, getting really grassroots support,” she said.
She also acknowledged the boost she and every Indiana Republican got from the man at the top of their ticket that year: Donald Trump.
Soon after taking office, however, McCormick said she began to feel uncomfortable being a part of the GOP.
“My values were not aligned to what I saw happening in the Republican Party,” she told me. “Then with everything [that] happened nationally, I’m like, I taught kids for 20 years that character mattered and that’s not it.”
McCormick said she valued being fiscally conservative, empowering people, and opportunity for all. “When I got in, I did not see that [from Republicans in the statehouse],” she told me. “So I was like, this is not a good fit.”
Across the aisle, she saw something different. “I watched the Democrats, and I was like, okay. I saw them worrying about waste, worrying about people, worrying about prioritizing, and I was just like, I’m aligned to that.”
After her term ended in 2021, McCormick publicly switched parties. Two years later, she declared herself a candidate for governor and was the only Democrat to collect enough signatures to get on the primary ballot this spring.
Her decision to become a Democrat meant forfeiting the financial advantages of running as a Republican. In recent years, Indiana Democrats have struggled to raise the millions of dollars required to be competitive in statewide races, something McCormick has experienced firsthand.
At the end of March, she had just $222,424 in the bank, according to her most recent campaign finance report, though an April 25 donation of $250,000 from the Indiana State Teachers Association’s political action committee has helped.
Still, her financial situation is a far cry from that of her 2016 campaign, which was managed by Anne Hathaway, the current Indiana GOP state chair. “[If] you needed a hundred thousand dollars,” McCormick recalled of that race, “a hundred thousand dollars appeared.”
She told me there are lessons she learned from Hathaway and others eight years ago that she thinks can help her pull off another upset. Chief among them are understanding the importance of the final stretch from Labor Day to Election Day and the need to publicly campaign across the state.
“I think a lot of experts will tell you, do what you can do behind the scenes. I disagree with that. I’m like, you’ve got to get to the people and you’ve got to make it a statewide race, a truly statewide race,” McCormick said.
“I learned a lot because that‘s what I did [in 2016]. And I won a lot of people over.”
Another well done, well written, inside story. Continue your good work, Nathan!