Indiana governor candidate Q&A: Jamie Reitenour on the issues

Jamie Reitenour admits that for most of her life, she was a conservative voter who felt like she was merely checking boxes.

But the 2016 election piqued her interest in politics. Not long after, the Indianapolis mother of five said, she felt a calling from God to become governor of Indiana. Last year, she said, she felt the calling resurge and decided to act on it.

She has significant ground to cover in terms of name recognition compared to her opponents in the Republican primary, which include Fort Wayne businessman Eric Doden, U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, former Attorney General Curtis Hill and former Commerce Secretary Brad Chambers. Donald Rainwater is running as a Libertarian and former schools Superintendent Jennifer McCormick as a Democrat.

IndyStar asked Reitenour, as well as the seven other candidates, a set of questions about issues relevant to the 2024 race, some of which were submitted by readers. This interview is edited for length and clarity.

Q: What do you think sets you apart from your competition in the Republican primary?

A: I haven't been in politics. That's why people should want me in politics. Because America needs normal people. Not perfect people ― true people. Because the country is in need. And the people are hurting. It's real. So that's the biggest difference.

Q: What would be your first priority as governor?

A: I've traveled over 13,000 miles in the last two years ― I got started January 2022. And so as I went around, I looked for, where is the most vulnerable place in our state? And what I saw was that education is the area where it is most vulnerable. Our children are vulnerable. Our scores are low. Kids are losing their identity. They're losing their desire. That's a big deal ― their vision for life. When you leave, and you have no reason to continue to get a job, when you've got half a society that's just dropping off and saying, who cares? That's a big deal.

So my head of education, her name is Paige Miller. And she's a Mom for Liberty. I love that group; they are a wonderful group of people. We bring to the table, desiring that every senior would graduate having completed an apprenticeship. Senior year is a year where they're not doing a whole lot anyway. We want Indiana to be the training capital of the United States. So we start there, and we very rapidly go around the state. We've got great plans for our small towns. We've got our eyes on Gary, Indiana.

Q: In many ways today’s Republican Party has factions defined by one’s posture toward Donald Trump. What’s yours?

A: Whether it's President Trump or Tim Scott or Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis ― if any of those people were in the position that President Trump has been put in, I'd have a problem with it. I don't believe that what's happening in our country is fair justice. I think it's easy to not like a person or blame something on a person's personality, but I love the law. And there's a lot to be wanting, in the situation that he finds himself in. In the Bible, in Micah, it says, "What is required of you but to do justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly before thy God." I would just say to anyone in that position, I would want everyone to do justly. And I think that is wanting, so I would direct my comment less to the person and more to the situation.

Q: Do you believe the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump?

A: I believe the 2020 election had an incredible amount of irregularity, and it should have been questioned.

Q: Where do you stand on Indiana’s new abortion law, and what changes to it would you support?

A: I definitely am a person that believes in life at conception, and I'm not an exception person. I'm just, life at conception. I know a lot of babies that people would have said "no" to that are just so beautiful. And our society needs their beauty.

Q: Gun violence is an epidemic in today’s American society. How should Indiana respond?

A: Fatherless homes is an epidemic in our society, and that's what we need to be addressing. Kids model their examples. They want to be wanted. They want leadership. They want to belong.

The issue is not the item they're picking up to do violence; the issue is their homes and the brokenness of their homes. There needs to be a wake-up call for the families that have been constantly going to the same well, but the water has run dry, and the solutions are not working. So they need to be looking for something different. My solution to gun violence is education. It's walking in those streets, looking at those children, going to those high schools.

I'm willing to consider very outside-of-the-box things for schools that are struggling in education. If you've got a 10% graduation rate, everything is on the table. We will talk apprenticeships, we will talk early training in freshman year. We will talk all solutions so that kids can get out of this cycle of poverty and violence and broken family and really experience what they were made for.

Q: The 2023 legislative session dealt with culture war topics such as LGBTQ issues and school library books. Where do you stand on those issues?

A: Some of the books they've read, the way that they speak in these books are things that I would never let my children hear. So, there was a need for discretion. So I'm happy with the laws that have promoted that discretion and given the boundaries. But it was done for just up to third or fourth grade. It'll be interesting to see if they stop at third grade or if they continue it for all the grades. I think if it's good for a third grader, I don't understand how it cuts off at fourth grade. I think it'll be an interesting conversation.

Q: Should citizens have a right to collect signatures to put questions on the ballot without legislative approval?

A: Yeah, I think Hoosiers should.

Contact IndyStar state government and politics reporter Kayla Dwyer at kdwyer@indystar.com or follow her on Twitter @kayla_dwyer17.