Gov. Holcomb outlines hopes for next 4 years: more business, fewer regulations, finishing I-69

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Gov. Eric Holcomb noted “a trying last few months, to say the least” as he addressed the Indiana Republican Convention on Thursday night in a live presentation to delegates via TV and online formats.

He cited the coronavirus pandemic, George Floyd’s brutal death in Minnesota, and “a needed reckoning on matters of racial equality.”

Touting his record since assuming office in January 2017, the governor noted efforts underway to lower infant mortality, fight the drug epidemic, invest in urban centers, expand education and job training, and invest in roads and bridges.

Specific projects the governor called for over the next four years:

• Attracting more business leaders, job creators and entrepreneurs to the state.
• Looking at regulations set aside during the pandemic “to see which ones can go away permanently.”
• Finishing Interstate 69 from Indianapolis to Evansville.
• Tackling Hoosiers’ long-lingering health issues.
• Tackling Indiana’s issues of social equality “that have festered too long.”

Holcomb will oppose Democrat Dr. Woody Myers and Libertarian Donald Rainwater in the Nov. 3 general election.

Myers, a medical doctor who is an Indianapolis native, was Indiana’s health commissioner in the 1980s before holding a string of corporate executive positions across the country. Myers has said he’ll focus his campaign on improving the state’s education and health care systems, job creation and tackling environmental problems.

Rainwater has said as governor he will reduce the size and scope of state government, secure the rights of the individual, and keep more of Hoosiers’ money in their pockets. A software engineer and information technology manager, Rainwater is a graduate of Warren Central High School in Indianapolis and a U.S. Navy veteran. He ran for mayor of Westfield in 2019.