Indiana voters approved this year’s single constitutional amendment by a margin of 7.2% at the time of publication, with 88% of votes counted. The amendment, authored by Republican State House Rep. J.D. Prescott, will remove the state superintendent of public instruction from the line of succession after the governor and lieutenant governor.
The Indiana Constitution will now only include the speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives, president pro tempore of the Indiana Senate, Indiana treasurer, state auditor and secretary of state in the list of gubernatorial successors.
The state superintendent of public instruction is no longer a position in Indiana. The office, a previously elected position, was replaced by the appointed secretary of education in 2021, but the amendment to reflect this change had to wait until the 2024 general election for final approval.
The last to hold the elected state superintendent of public instruction office was Jennifer McCormick, Indiana’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate who lost against Mike Braun.
The Indiana General Assembly approved the office's removal from the gubernatorial line of succession in the 2022 and 2023 regular sessions. Lawmakers removed the office from the line of succession to keep an appointed position off the otherwise elected list.
The first and current Indiana Secretary of Education is Katie Jenner, whose term began Jan. 11, 2021, and will end Jan. 13, 2025.
