Destiny Scott Wells was chosen as the Democratic nominee for Indiana’s attorney general at the state party’s convention Saturday, beating longtime Indiana attorney Beth White.
She will now face incumbent Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita in the general election. Wells won 1,067 delegates, easily beating White's 475.
Wells ran for Indiana Secretary of State in 2022 but lost to Republican Diego Morales, who received 54% of the vote. She received 40% of the vote.
Wells served in the military for more than 20 years, enlisting in the Army National Guard at 19, according to her campaign website.
She held a variety of law, intelligence and contracting positions in the military and deployed in Afghanistan from 2016 to 2017.
Her priorities, if elected, would oppose or repeal many of Rokita’s initiatives.
Specifically, she’d focus on protecting medical privacy and worker’s rights. The Indiana Daily Student released a profile of Wells earlier this year for additional information on her priorities.
She has also routinely criticized Rokita for nationalizing the office’s priorities.
Wells cited his involvement with Montana's Keystone XL pipeline, California’s climate policy and the southern border as examples of this attitude in a February interview with the Indiana Daily Student.
The election forecast organization Sabato’s Crystal Ball placed Rokita’s race as leans Republican, a shift from safe Republican. It is the only statewide race in Indiana not listed as safe Republican.
Another controversy landed following the 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, and the following near-total abortion ban in Indiana.
Rokita had asked the Indiana Medical Licensing Board to investigate IU Health OBGYN Caitlin Bernard in 2022, alleging she broke patient privacy laws by speaking to the Indianapolis Star about performing an abortion for a 10-year-old rape victim.
The board ruled that Bernard violated those privacy laws and ordered her to pay a $3,000 fine.
But the state supreme court became involved after Rokita referred to Bernard as an “abortion activist acting as a doctor with a history of failing to report” on a 2022 Fox News segment.
The court reprimanded him, saying his comments were inappropriate and “had no substantial purpose other than to embarrass or burden the physician.”
Rokita had to pay $250 to the court’s clerk. Despite admitting he engaged in “attorney misconduct” according to the Supreme Court opinion, Rokita continued to defend his statements.
The delegates at the Indiana Democratic Party’s convention also chose Jennifer McCormick-backed Terry Goodin as the party’s nominee for lieutenant governor. Goodin garnered the support of more than 1,200 delegates.
McCormick and Goodin will face Mike Braun and his lieutenant governor candidate, Micah Beckwith. Beckwith was nominated in June in an upset over Braun’s pick, first-term statehouse Rep. Julie McGuire.
CORRECTION: This story's abstract has been updated with the correct number of delegates won by Destiny Scott Wells.
