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The first Indiana gubernatorial debate took place Monday night in Carmel, featuring six Republican candidates on the debate stage.
The six Republican candidates that are competing to replace Gov. Eric Holcomb are US Sen. Mike Braun, former commerce Secretary Brad Chambers, Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, former Attorney General Curtis Hill, Fort Wayne entrepreneur Eric Doden and Jamie Reitenour. The debate was hosted by Current Publishing, a newspaper publisher in Hamilton County. There was a crowd of about 500 people at the Palladium.
The debate opened with a question on ballot referendums, which must receive the approval of the General Assembly before reaching voters in Indiana. Some states allow voters to initiate ballot questions and bypass legislators. It has been used in Ohio to legalize cannabis or enshrine abortion access.
Hill declined to support such maneuvers, citing Ohio as an example. Crouch, Braun, Chambers and Doden all said they’d support a ballot initiative if it survived the chamber and was properly vetted to varying degrees. Reitenour suggested ballot referendums could be necessary when there is “government overreach,” though she worried about and opposed abortion measures as well.
The debate got off to a slow start but eventually the candidates traded jabs. Chambers struck first halfway through the debate, questioning Braun’s record in the Senate as a fiscal conservative.
Later on, Chambers and Braun had a back-and-forth over Chambers calling Braun a “career politician.”
