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Democrat Destiny Wells launches bid for Indiana attorney general

Destiny Wells speaks at a lectern with several news microphones in front of her. Wells is a White woman with black hair, wearing a red jacket over a black top.
Brandon Smith
/
IPB News
Destiny Wells is a former deputy attorney general and military veteran who ran unsuccessfully for Secretary of State in 2022.

Democrat Destiny Wells announced Monday she is running for Indiana attorney general next year.

Medical privacy, workers’ rights and ethics are the three areas Wells focused on in her campaign launch.

Current Attorney General Todd Rokita has aggressively pursued health care providers over abortion and gender-affirming care, and Rokita recently became the second consecutive attorney general to be sanctioned by the Indiana Supreme Court.

Wells, a former deputy attorney general and military veteran, said the office has fallen short of what Hoosiers need.

“And that we are not using the office simply as a platform for national talking points,” Wells said. “We want to get back to serving Hoosiers.”

Wells said for this campaign, she will build on the statewide network she established last year in an unsuccessful bid for secretary of state. She said she’ll focus on reaching voters who cast Republican straight ticket ballots and have to spend a lot of time fundraising.

“I have to spend a lot of money to meet people at their nose, basically,” Wells said. “That is just the reality of where our electorate is and how engaged they are.”

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Democrats haven’t won a race for attorney general since 1996.

Brandon is our Statehouse bureau chief. Contact him at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.

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Brandon Smith has covered the Statehouse for Indiana Public Broadcasting for more than a decade, spanning three governors and a dozen legislative sessions. He's also the host of Indiana Week in Review, a weekly political and policy discussion program seen and heard across the state. He previously worked at KBIA in Columbia, Missouri and WSPY in Plano, Illinois. His first job in radio was in another state capitol - Jefferson City, Missouri - as a reporter for three stations around the Show-Me State.