Democrat Destiny Wells discusses role of attorney general, top priorities in race

Democrats haven’t won the race for Indiana attorney general since 1996. But some see incumbent Republican Todd Rokita as vulnerable after multiple state disciplinary investigations into his conduct. And Democrats believe Destiny Wells is the person to beat him. Indiana Public Broadcasting’s Brandon Smith sat down with Wells to discuss how she views the race.

Rokita’s campaign did not respond to multiple requests for an interview.

IPB News Statehouse Bureau Chief Brandon Smith: What in your mind is the role of Indiana's attorney general?

Destiny Wells: Well, it’s to be the state's chief legal officer. So, what does that mean? You know, you have a handful of clients that you have to consider, right? You are the governor's attorney. You are agencies’ attorney. That's the work I did when I worked there as a deputy attorney general in litigation — I defended the Department of Correction. But you're also there on behalf of the people — so, for consumer protection. The big third one I would hit on is that the AG advises the legislature — you know, on is this law constitutional or, you know, do you need a legal opinion on this?
 

Smith: What role do you see for a statewide office holder in the attorney general to be advocating for policies, whether or not it was directly a part of the duties of the office?

Wells: It is a tightrope. And we deal with this question a lot with abortion, right? You know, ‘You shouldn't be talking about abortion. The state wrote the law.’ Right, and we do have to defend it. But we also can withhold from abusing the office, right? And what we've seen out of the current attorney general is he's taken his partisan positions and he's used his authorities when it comes to licensing to chill medical care.

Smith: You bring it up. Abortion obviously has been a part of your campaign. If you're the attorney general and Indiana's abortion ban remains as it is right now, and a doctor performs an abortion that seems to be contrary to that law, do you, as the attorney general, go after that doctor's license?

Wells: So, this is what Todd ran up against, right? He wants to go after the doctor that completed the abortion, but really, whether it's legal or not. And so he took a press conference in Fort Wayne where he asked the public to sue his client, right, the Indiana Department of Health, so that he could get a hold of the termination of pregnancy reports and he could start investigating the doctor. We will not be doing that right. We will not be advocating for the public to go on a witch hunt of medical professionals who are providing reproductive health care. However, if the complaint does come to the office, we will do our due diligence in investigating it.

READ MORE: What do I need on Election Day? The general election is Nov. 5
 

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Smith: What are things that you would want to do as attorney general in the office that you think the office isn't doing right now?

Wells: Absolutely. This is one of the things I take the most joy in on the campaign trail, because it really gets down to a people-centered campaign, when we talk about this. And what I saw, comparatively, when I started looking at other offices across the U.S. is that they actually have a division of labor or something similar. Where they're looking at the shortcomings of workers’ rights, whether, I mean, labor trafficking is one, because trafficking is already in the Indiana AG's office — in which they're really not paying attention to — but there's also worker [misclassification], wage theft, issues that the Department of Labor can't get wrap their arms around completely either, and neither can local prosecutors. It really needs another actor at the state level. So, we are proposing that we start a labor task force.

Smith: How do you break through, especially in a year when there is so much attention being eaten up by the folks running in the races that come before yours?

Wells: Right, well, I mean, from a political science perspective, this is what I've been thinking about since 2022, right? I ran in a midterm against a candidate who was very damaged. Nobody knew about him. Nobody. Nobody really knew what the Secretary of State did. And we didn't turn out. It was a midterm year. So, with this year, with higher turnout, with different types of mobilization now that we have, I mean, I'm very happy that we changed at the top of the ticket, right? I know they're excited, as am I, to maybe get my first woman commander-in-chief. I thought I was going to get her in 2016. I didn’t, and that's half the reason I'm running, right, that I got involved in politics. But there is just so much more at play this year. And things did drastically change with the Harris changeup.
 

Brandon is our Statehouse bureau chief. Contact him at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.