Candidates are in the home stretch as early voting continues

Just over a week left until Election Day! We’ve been covering Indiana’s major elections for months, but the political action is really heating up now as early voting gets underway and candidates make their final pitches to voters.

The main race is the Indiana gubernatorial contest between Republican Mike Brown, Democrat Jennifer McCormick and Libertarian Donald Rainwater. But the attorney general race between Republican Todd Rokita and Democrat Destiny Wells is also one to watch.

We’ve been bringing you important election news throughout the 2024 cycle. Keep checking this space this week as we update our live blog with our latest reporting.

GOP and Democratic Party tickets sold out across the state on Saturday

The only time you’ll hear similar quotes from Attorney General Todd Rokita and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jennifer McCormick is in the final home stretch of the campaign season, when they’re preaching to all their supporters to get out. voting events on Saturday.

“I promise you can get your life back in 10 days” from Rokita and “We have to put everything we have into these next 10 days” from McCormick.

A slate of GOP candidates across the state, including Rokita, gubernatorial candidate Mike Brown, his running mate Micah Beckwith and 6th Congressional District candidate Jefferson Shreve, on Saturday repeated their “Freedom and Opportunity Bus Tour” that began at the Johnson County Republican Party headquarters in Greenwood and are heading to Dearborn, Jackson and Clark counties.

McCormick started her day in Fort Wayne and arrived at the Frederick Douglass Family Center in Indianapolis in the afternoon to speak at a rally organized by Marion County Democrats. Other speakers included U.S. Rep. Andre Carson, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Valerie McCray and state party chairman Mike Schmuhl. Later in the afternoon, she chatted with Matt McNally, the Democratic candidate for the 39th House District in Carmel.

Republicans may have some pre-election reasons to feel confident this Election Day, but that wasn’t the main message on this cold morning. GOP Chairman Randy Head cited the cautionary tale of Valparaiso, where the Republican-majority City Council flipped to a Democratic majority last year thanks to three close races — one of which the Republican lost by four votes.

Brown repeated that message to a crowd of several dozen elected officials, candidates, volunteers and their families.

“Don’t take it for granted,” he said. “Complacency is the only thing that prevents you from being happy on November 5th.”

He even mildly chided the audience for not raising their hands enough when asked who voted early. He said he wants Republicans to “get the mandate” on Nov. 5, which is especially true in his race, where he has fallen below 50% in the polls.

At the Democratic rally at the Frederick Douglass Family Center, volunteers abounded with tablets with large QR codes that lead to volunteer registration. One volunteer even went in person into a crowd of at least 100 people.

It was a rally in the traditional sense, with applause and applause after most sentences and loud music between each speaker. Like Republicans, they portrayed their competition as extreme and themselves as possessed of common sense. And they encouraged those in attendance to find people in their lives who might be sitting on the sidelines and get them to vote.

“You have to help us with this,” McCormick said. “There’s no time to relax.”

-Kayla Dwyer

Late Stage Megadollars from National Governors Associations

The race between the Republican and Democratic Governors Associations continued last week and into the weekend.

RGA contributed another $500,000 to Brown’s campaign Tuesday, a campaign finance report showed Wednesday. This brings the group’s total investment in his campaign to $1.5 million.

Also Wednesday, the DGA awarded McCormick $500,000, it was announced Friday, bringing the total investment in the race to $1.65 million.

-Kayla Dwyer

Read our voter guide

Have you seen our Indiana Voter Guide? Now is a good time to check it out as we have a rundown of all the most important races, from the Indiana governor’s race to attorney general, congressional races, state legislative races and more.

More: Indiana Voter Guide: Congress, State House, Governor, CEO and School Board

Governor’s race heats up

The Indiana governor’s race between Brown, McCormick and Rainwater appears to be getting the most attention in Indiana as national money flows in on both sides.

The race is still tilted in Brown’s favor, but there is evidence it has tightened recently. Recently, for example, Indiana Republicans sent out attack mailers against Rainwater, hoping to sap his support.

Here are the key issues that dominated the race.

We’ve written profiles of each candidate so voters can learn more. Check them out here:

Contact IndyStar state government and political reporter Brittany Carloni at [email protected] or 317-779-4468. Follow her on Twitter/X@CarloniBrittany.

Contact IndyStar state government and political reporter Kayla Dwyer at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter. @kayla_dwyer17.

Contact IndyStar senior government accountability reporter Haley Colombo at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on the Indianapolis Star: Elections live blog: stay tuned for key updates.