The Indiana GOP held a virtual convention on July 18 where Republican candidates made their cases to delegates.
The attorney general race will be one to watch with Attorney General Curtis Hill, the incumbent, squaring off against three challengers—John Westercamp, an attorney, Nate Harter, the Decatur County prosecutor, and Todd Rokita, a former congressman.
The Indiana GOP cancelled the in-person event due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as reported by IndyStar.
Hill received the most votes in the history of state elections. Recently, Hill’s license to practice law was suspended for 30 days by the state Supreme Court which found evidence he inappropriately touched four women, ABC News reported.
Rokita, who jumped into the race recently, is one of Hill’s top contenders having served as secretary of state for eight years, and represented Indiana’s 4th District from 2011 to 2019.
Whether Rokita can get enough support from Republicans to win the nomination remains to be seen, and he has also deal with negative stories including claims he berated staff and that he accessed a donor database in violation of ethics laws, the Chicago Tribune reported.
“Let’s start with one very important number – 62%," Andrea Bozek, a top Republican operative in the country, told Indiana Business Daily. "That is what Curtis Hill got for a vote share in 2016. President Trump got 56% and Todd Young got 52%. So not only did he outrun the top of the ticket, but he received more votes than any candidate in the history of Indiana elections.”
Bozek, served as communications director at the National Republican Congressional Committee when Rokita was a member of Congress, was the communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee and most recently served as a consultant on Mike Braun's campaign.
“That tells me that he has a very strong base, a professional organization, and is a dynamic campaigner. I certainly have seen time and again where those factors help a strong candidate push past issues that might stop a weaker candidate in his or her tracks,” Bozek said. “I think because of that Hill remains the most formidable Republican general election candidate.”
As for Rokita being a strong nominee, Bozek said from her vantage point he “is an average candidate that hasn’t won a competitive general election in nearly 15 years.”
But, she indicated that’s not to say that he wouldn’t win.
"This is Indiana and a generic Republican is usually going to have an advantage," Bozek said. "But he was a congressman for one of the safest Republican congressional districts and didn’t particularly get much traction in the 2018 Republican primary for senate. So despite being in politics for decades, he really hasn’t gotten to experience a modern general election campaign with the mainstream media amplifying every piece of opposition research that Democrats send their way.”
While Hill will also have to deal with Democrats and the mainstream media, his issues have been in the press for almost a year.
“Sure, but Hill’s issues have been litigated in the press for close to a year. Rokita has been able to fly under the radar a bit, but he has his own ethics and staff treatment issues that came out during the 2018 campaign,” Bozek said.
“You can bet that Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media are going to wrap those issues around Rokita and find everything he’s ever said over the past 20 years and use that against him. Does he have the base of support and the campaign skill to fight through that? We really have no idea."