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Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita claimed victory in his bid for re-election shortly before 7:30 Tuesday night at the GOP Watch Party at the JW Marriott.
By 8:50 p.m. the Associated Press also declared him the winner, with 48% the statewide vote counted. Results showed him with 60% of the vote compared with 40% for Democratic opponent Destiny Wells.
“My opponent spent hundreds of thousands of dollars running false negative TV ads and radio ads. She’s part of the far left of the state, which does exist in Indiana,” Rokita said Tuesday night. “I am proud to tell you my fellow Republicans that I did not run a negative campaign.”
“The people of Indiana have rejected this push to the left, and because of this overwhelming vote tonight, I will continue to put us first, to put Indiana first,” Rokita said.
Emotion filled Wells’ voice as she described to supporters her concession call to Rokita.
“He said it was a good fight, right? And I also said to him, I very much look forward to a peaceful transition of power, no matter the presidential outcome. That’s what is important,” Wells said.
Wells’ spent much of the campaign reminding voters of Rokita’s frequent diversion into social issues, especially abortion, that she believes stretches the bounds of the office.Among Rokita’s recent efforts have been: a call for the federal government to help investigate the citizenship of 585,000 registered Hoosier voters; an advisory opinion that says the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission is duty-bound to prevent the closure of coal-powered power plants until a utility finds a “dispatchable” replacement power source; suing some local communities over their “sanctuary city” policies; joining a lawsuit with 14 other states to challenge federal protections for transgender care; and issuing an advisory opinion that says neither state nor federal law requires the usage of preferred pronouns in the workplace.
Rokita’s biggest hot-button controversy came in 2022 when he strongly criticized OB-GYN Caitlin Bernard for publicly discussing a medication abortion she performed on a 10-year-old rape victim, who was forced to come to Indiana for the treatment because her home state of Ohio prohibited it at that time.
In an interview with Fox News, Rokita called Bernard an “activist acting as a doctor” and said his office would be investigating her.
Rokita was publicly reprimanded by the Indiana Supreme Court for the comments, which the court said had “no substantial purpose other than to embarrass or burden” Bernard.
The court later unsealed the conditional agreement with Rokita which contained the reprimand.
That decision came after the state disciplinary commission complained that Rokita’s statements following the reprimand were inconsistent with what he committed to in the conditional agreement.
While attorney general, Rokita said has attained a 94% success rate in keeping criminals behind bars and collected a record $1 billion from corporate wrongdoers over three years.
He was first elected to public office as Indiana secretary of state in 2002 and served two terms. He then was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives where he served for eight years. Then he lost the GOP primary for U.S. Senate to Mike Braun in 2018.
University of Indianapolis political science professor Laura Merrifield Wilson said Hoosiers should expect a continued pursuit of social issues from Rokita.
“Rokita has been very consistent throughout his political career, both in terms of the policies he supports and the means he pursues. Certainly, the issue of abortion was most notable for his administration in the last four years and legal challenges will likely continue,” Wilson said. “Rokita solicits and enjoys bringing attention to the issues that matter to him, specifically socially conservative issues, and he has had a long career doing just that.”
Rokita told supporters Tuesday night that he would continue to put criminals behind bars and “ensure boys do not compete in girls sports.”
“Because of your great General Assembly, we were able to make sure that those surgeries on minors, those transgender surgeries, are stopped and prohibited,” Rokita said. “They need therapy, they don’t need child abuse.”
IBJ’s Mickey Shuey and Taylor Wooten contributed to this report.
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