In exclusive interviews with The Bachelor, the Indiana gubernatorial candidates spoke about issues relevant to Wabash students
Question 1: How will your term as governor help support college students preparing to enter the workforce?
McCormick: “I’ve heard that question from a lot of young people. Having been an educator, I was around young people my entire life and I’m a mom of a 26-year-old. We’ve traveled the state, done a lot of listening and what I’m hearing that’s on the mind of so many is that next step of, ‘Can I get a job?’ And not just any job, but a good paying job. There’s a lot of concern about housing — not just the availability, but the access of it — because even rent is extremely high.
Young people are voicing concern about health care, and honestly, a lot of concern about the direction in which Indiana is going. From the young people I’ve talked to, they embrace education. They like that well-educated and healthy quality of life, but they also understand the power of diversity and inclusion, and they just are not liking the direction in which Indiana is going.
I’ve made it clear to them that I agree with them 100%, but it’s [an issue of] leadership. You have to bring back common sense and a balance to the State House.”
Braun: “Being a scrappy entrepreneur who ran a little business for nearly 20 years before it scaled into a regional and national company, you have to really make sure that when it comes to education, you’re being honest with parents and students. I want to make sure that there’s a lot of information and a lot of transparency on the high demand, high wage jobs. Two-thirds of them are most likely going to need nothing more than really good skills and trades preparation. But when you go to a place like Wabash or one of our other great colleges or universities, you need to make sure you’re getting a degree, especially if you want to live in Indiana, where there’s actually a demand for it. We generally produce an adequate number of degrees, but the one we under-produce is a STEM degree, which pays some of the highest wages and salaries of any out there. You have to remember: If somebody’s wanting to stay in-state and you’re doing too many of a degree that does not have an underlying job for it, you just consciously shipped a kid out of state. That is how we pour extra income into the state and [produce] a GDP that can grow faster than what we’ve got.”
Question 2: What will you do as governor to help unite the people of Indiana and bring an end to divisive politics?
McCormick: “We’re already doing it. I’m not waiting until after the election. I’ve made it clear since the beginning of the campaign that this is about bipartisanship and this is about finding common ground to make those initial steps. We have had a great response from Republicans and Democrats and Independents and even some Libertarians. When we’ve had events, we’ve opened our tent and welcomed everyone. It really has been refreshing, from what we’re hearing from a lot of people across those 92 counties. We are all Hoosiers in the end. We’re all better if we’re together.
Having been a school administrator, a local superintendent, a teacher and then state superintendent, I am well aware that there’s no room for rhetoric that causes division, because unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there who feed off of that, and it creates even more extremism. It’s about our actions. It’s about our messaging. It’s about our willingness to truly mean what we say and bring people together. I have been clear since day one: We’re going to do this together. There is no room for divisiveness, and I’m saddened that my opponent continues to use rhetoric that is divisive — so much so that we have the Ku Klux Klan in two towns right now. It doesn’t happen by accident. The rhetoric has to be toned down. There’s no room for hate. I know we’re not going to agree with everything. I understand that. I know we’re all going to have our differences, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s how we approach it and how we treat each other, just making sure we’re being good listeners. But it doesn’t start after an election. It started yesterday.”
Braun: “Some divisive issues are a wrestling match on a national basis. When it comes to a state, you can’t escape them, but state government is going to be a lot more focused on practical issues like education, workforce and high healthcare costs. Now energy, electricity with chip factories, battery plants and data centers. There’s such a demand for it. Just two years ago, it was a flat demand. We don’t have water evenly dispersed across the state — that’s another key resource. Issues, like affordable housing, child care and rural broadband are all things that hopefully won’t keep your focus on the more divisive ones. You can’t escape them. When it comes to the protests that have been circling around the country, that’s on a very international issue.
Are we making the right moves in the Middle East and, more broadly, are we getting entangled in too many foreign escapades? We have to be the leader of the free world, we just have to make sure that we’re not paying all the bills. We’re borrowing a trillion dollars every six months, and it was annually when I came in six years ago.
At the place where you’d want it to be working well and efficiently, I think we produced poor results. We borrowed a lot of money from our kids and grandkids, and my focus is going to be not encroaching on our own Hoosier context in state government. I feel really good about how to make sure that we’re engaged in the issues, [so we] don’t have that stuff coming in to impact us, so it distinguishes Indiana as a place where people want to move, where kids want to come back to and one that is talked about the same vein as places like Texas, Florida or Tennessee.”
Question 3: What aspect of your platform do you believe will be most impactful to young men?
McCormick: “I think young men and young women share a lot of their future concerns. But I also think — for young men who are paying attention to what’s going on with women’s reproductive freedoms — they have to be asking themselves, ‘What freedoms are next?’ So many of them are supportive of their sisters and their significant others and family and friends, and when they see that happening, [they ask] what role they play.
I think a lot of young men are trying to figure where that goes and what that looks like. I have a 26-year-old son, and at some point he’s family planning, he’s into that career space and the biggest issue for a lot of young people I talk to is making sure we all have a great quality of place, regardless of male or female.
Everybody deserves a good quality of place and making sure everybody has equal and equitable access to good jobs and housing that is fair and making sure that we are embracing a state that is one that people want to come here, be here, live here, play here, love here. That’s the state you all deserve. I don’t think it’s necessarily dependent upon male or female. It’s more so about Hoosiers.”
Braun: “I think the thing that is most unique about our country is freedom and opportunity. That’s the agenda I’m running on, and I think we had more of it back when I was at Wabash than we’ve got now. We’ve grown a federal government that I think the founders would be astounded at. It’s staffed with career politicians, and on the other side of the aisle, they acknowledge it honestly. Our side is flat-footed and a lot of times accommodates it. States have to be especially careful that they don’t buy into it. You’ve got several states that do, and people are moving out of them. I want to make sure that, for folks choosing to invest four years at Wabash like I did, this is a place that’s going to embrace those basic ideas and look at how different the size of government was back then and how much less it encroached upon our daily lives. I’d be really worried about that in this day and age, because it’s at the breaking point. When you now have federal government at 25% of our GDP and it’s never been more than 20 outside of a war and you’ve got one side of the aisle that wants to give us more of that and another side of the aisle that has not even made its own point of view understandable and that doesn’t want to engage, you ought to be looking to leaders who are going to be embracing limited government, freedom and opportunity and especially not borrowing money from our kids and grandkids.”
Question 4: What is your message to undecided voters at Wabash?
McCormick: “Wabash is a great college. The students who are admitted into Wabash are really good students, they’re getting an excellent education and we rely on them to have a voice in the future of our state. It is smart, it is responsible and we rely on that. At this point, for individuals to either choose not to vote — which is their voice — or not to do their homework on voting is, in my opinion, not acceptable.
There is a responsibility in doing your homework. Both candidates have websites set up. Mine is mccormickforgov.com. It’s been well-covered at the state level, and I’ve gotten a lot of national coverage as well. There’s a lot of information out there, and they just need to take the time to be informed and then go inform others. I would encourage people to go learn, but also to understand that responsibility and how they play into our future. If they can vote, part of that is not just voting for themselves, but it’s voting for the generation behind them, and the generation behind them and those who can’t vote right now.
It’s not just about today, it’s about eight years down the road. If you’re 20 years old, and you add eight, there’s a lot that’s going to change in that time period. This is their chance to weigh in and make sure they have a voice. I just really encourage those who haven’t decided yet that there’s still time to do their homework. Reach out if they have questions, but do their due diligence and exercise that right to vote.”
Braun: “If you’re wanting someone who has built his credibility in the real world, moved back to my hometown, had to survival-mode build a company into a regional and then national one, who certainly signed the front side of a paycheck for 37 years, my opponents definitely have not been that.
When you’re called the most effective freshman senator of any over the last six years and more effective than some of the senators, you have to roll on after two or three decades in arenas like healthcare, education and agriculture, that’s a lot of experience.
I’m a big believer in term limits at the federal level, along with a balanced-budget amendment. I’m a lifelong Hoosier. I think I know what our state is about. We’re all blessed to either be here, getting educated or building businesses, raising families. I just want to take us to those new horizons that put us out there as a place that people want to move back to and come to, and I think that’d be a good reason to vote for me as opposed to my two opponents.”