Gubernatorial Concession Speech - Nov. 5, 2024

Okay, you know the saying goes, let’s go, let’s go. I’ll tell you, absolutely, absolutely. Tonight, I want to, first of all, thank all of you. To my family and to my friends, I know you are up on the stage, I know you are in the crowd, but I have to tell you all: though tonight wasn’t the result we were looking for, we have so many wins, so many wins. But it’s up to us to take advantage of them.

But first of all, let’s thank some people. So, I first want to thank my husband, Trent, who has… When I said I was running for governor 18 months ago, there weren’t a whole lot of people going, “Yes, you can do this,” but Trent was like, “Go do it, and you can do this.” So, it matters, it matters. And my favorite person in the world is also here tonight, my son Cael. And his fiancé, Grace. I know her parents are here, Carrie and Hans are in the crowd as well. I also want to give a shout-out to my family, my brother Matt, my sister Michelle, and their families. They are all, I think still here somewhere, but I want to give a shout—there they are! I want to give a shout-out to them. And most importantly, I want to give a shout-out to my dad. He has been amazing. I also want to give a shout-out to Terry Goodin, who is the best lieutenant governor candidate in the state of Indiana. And a shout-out to Darcy, his wife, who is also an amazing human being. Their entire family has sacrificed, as well, and I truly want to acknowledge every single one of the Goodin’s because they are a strong, huge, tribal family that stays together, and they are amazing. So thank you, Terry, you represented us well, thank you.

I also want to give a shout-out to our amazing team and our badass campaign manager, where is she? Kelly Whitman! As Governor Walz said, never underestimate a public educator and boy, you’ve got 3 of them right here to prove that. Kelly has been beyond amazing through this whole entire thing, when there were a lot of people that said you guys don’t know what you’re doing, and you don’t have the experience you need, and I was like, just watch us. Watch us. And I will tell you she has been just incredibly, incredibly focused and committed and my family likes her better than like me at this point, but she—truly, Kelly is one amazing friend, an amazing human, and she’s been amazing. And to our entire team, they’ve put everything they have into this race. And although we’re small, we’re mighty, and we gave Senator Braun a run that not very many people thought we could do. And we did it because of this team.

I also want to thank everyone who donated your time, your treasure, your testimony, your talents. I cannot thank you enough. It has truly been humbling. It’s hard enough to run for office, but then when you throw in you are begging people for dollars and people just weren’t real sure, and then those dollars started to come, and it was the individual donors, and the unions, and the DGA who pulled us over that so we could be competitive. And I thank them so much. To Mike Schmuhl, and his team, I think Mike’s back in the back, you know, I know that it’s a thankless job and it is hard, and I want to acknowledge them, as well. To all the county leaders and statewide leaders of our party, my gosh, thank you so much for all the support and the patience with our team, we truly, truly appreciate it.

This race, this race was about a lot of important things, and that has not changed. It is about making sure that women have reproductive freedoms, that’s what this is about. This race is about making sure that every Hoosier has access to affordable healthcare, and that has not changed. This race is about our kids, and it’s about celebrating public education and uplifting our teachers and supporting them. This race was about good paying jobs, making sure that we got our wages up, making sure that we’re supporting our unions, and it was making sure that we could give Hoosiers a reason to come here, to stay here, to live here, to play here, to learn here, and have a quality of life. And that’s what we went across the state of Indiana and talked about, and educated Hoosiers, and none of that, none of that has changed.

There are a lot of people in this room, and a lot of people on those cameras who know extremism will not win in Indiana, not today, not ever. Not ever, not ever. We are better when we are together, we are better when we’re diverse and inclusive. And that is not just for today, that’s about the generations behind us, and the generations behind them. We have to make sure that we are embracing all, and all means all. And I would be remiss if I didn’t point out, I know we are moving forward, but during this last campaign cycle, every single negative campaign ad went after our transgender kids. And I want them to hear this from me, I want them to hear this from me: you are part of Indiana, you are who we are, and hate has no place in the state of Indiana. No place, no place. We love you, and we respect you, and you have to know that’s who we are. That is our responsibility.

As we move forward, we will work with the Republicans, we will work with the Democrats, the Independents, the Libertarians, we will work together as one. Because Indiana, again, is stronger when we are together. But starting tomorrow, we still have work to do. We still have work to do. And we know when we stay committed to that work, great things happen.

So tonight, we congratulate Senator Braun, and a lot of other Republicans who won this evening. We will go into tomorrow knowing we still have work to do. Because you know who’s depending upon that. Our kids, our families, our communities, and the great state of Indiana. It has been truly my honor to represent all of you on the campaign trail. This is our fight, this is our fight, Hoosiers, and this is our time, and don’t let up on the momentum. Thank you so much, thank you, thank you, thank you so much. And Hoosiers, let’s go.