INDIANAPOLIS — Republicans in Marion County have a new chairman as the party looks to rebuild from less than stellar showings in the last couple of elections.
Joe Elsener was elected by the Marion County GOP as its new chairman earlier this month. He doesn’t like to use the word “rebuild” to describe what needs to be done with the party moving forward but acknowledges that that is essentially what needs to happen.
“The Republican Party, statewide, obviously we’ve had historic success,” he told All Indiana Politics on WISH-TV. “Every statewide office, super-majorities for most of the county offices throughout the state.”
But, he said that success has failed to translate to Marion County over the last couple of election cycles.
“We’ve got to be honest with ourselves, there is a lot of work to do,” he added. “2019 did not go the way we wanted it to go pretty much across the ticket. We’re obviously at a big deficit on the city-county council.”
“The way to translate it is working with the state party and working with the governor’s campaign apparatus and working precinct by precinct and township by township,” he continued.
Still, Elsener is encouraged for the future based on a strong showing by Gov. Eric Holcomb in Marion County in the 2020 election, even though he did not win the county. Holcomb’s campaign, which Elsener worked extensively on, hardly made any stops in Marion County in 2020.
“I’m hoping by the end of 2021 we can look at a party that has improved in fundraising, that has improved our operations, that has improved our communications,” said Elsener. “Better communications with PCs, and better communications with voters and activists county-wide.”
