INDIANAPOLIS — Mike Braun is the projected winner of the Indiana gubernatorial race.
Braun, a Republican, faced off against Democrat Jennifer McCormick and Libertarian Donald Rainwater to succeed exiting governor Eric Holcomb.
The three often had very different ideas on how Indiana should move forward as a state.
One top-of-mind topic was education. Rainwater and Braun wanted to see an expansion of school choice, while McCormick did not support Indiana’s definition of school choice.
"I don't think you can have too many choices and options,” Braun, the Republican Candidate for Governor, said. “You can never have too much choice, too much competition, or too much transparency. If you are railing against them, you are probably trying to hide something that you know is not up to snuff."
"My plan is to try and give education back to the parents, the teachers, and the children and get it out of 200 West Washington Street,” Rainwater, the Libertarian Candidate for Governor, said.
McCormick said she does support families’ decisions on how and where they want to educate their kids – just that Indiana's current school choice system isn't working.
"The data shows us that academic performance is not being reflective of the amount of money put into it,” McCormick, the Democratic Candidate for Governor, said. “Right now, $1.6 billion is going away from traditional public schools where 90% of our kids attend into a very small percentage of our kids, and the program is just not showing results."
Another hot-button issue that each candidate campaigned on is property taxes. Many Hoosiers have seen their property taxes increase as property values have gone up. Each candidate has released their own property tax plan, which vary drastically.
Democratic candidate Jennifer McCormick wanted to expand property tax deductions for senior citizens and disabled veterans. She also proposed an increase to the homeowner property tax deduction and renters' tax deduction, all while capping the increase in property tax bills by 10%. She said her plan would not take any money from local branches of government.
Braun's plan would cap the increase in property tax bills at 2% for seniors and low-income Hoosiers and families with kids under 18. It would cap property tax bills at three percent for everyone else. Braun's plan would require a referendum if local governments wanted to exceed that cap.
Rainwater also had a plan that would cap all property taxes at 1 percent, sunsetting after seven years. He said local governments would be able to manage because there are other sources of funding.
Families of children with complex medical issues and seniors are impacted by budget issues related to the family and social services administration. All three candidates said they planned to address FSSA.
“Health care is what I have spent a lot of time and we are going to figure that out,” Braun said. “I am going to find out who is doing well and who isn't within the agencies and then get a plan to make sure they are running better, simple as that."
Rainwater said he believed the issue is funding. He would like to see more state dollars focused on helping Hoosiers rather than corporations.
"I think that we need to be serving our citizens before we are giving the Indiana Economic Development Corporation $600 million of new funding or more to go out and bring new corporations to Indiana,” Rainwater said.
McCormick says the state needs to look at caregiver regulations and prioritize helping the state’s most vulnerable.
"How can we look at that federal matching grant to say where do we have some wiggle room to self-correct,” McCormick said. “So, it goes back to doing a deep dive to look at all the angles that we can to make sure Hoosiers get what they deserve."
Find the latest general election results from Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana here.
