Health care executive and former Indiana State Health Commissioner Woody Myers is set to announce Wednesday that he’s running for governor.
He would be the first Democrat to officially declare their candidacy.
Myers served as State Health Commissioner three decades ago and made a run for Congress in 2008. Indiana Legislative Insight Editor Ed Feigenbaum says he’s not very well known in the Hoosier State - though neither are the other Democratic candidates exploring a gubernatorial run.
“But Myers is a pretty common name and people may associate it with somebody else and it’s not as unrealistic as you might think for him to accumulate some name ID,” Feigenbaum says.
Myers represents what Feigenbaum calls the “baby boomer” wing of his party, while the other potential candidates, Sen. Eddie Melton (D-Gary) and Rep. Karlee Macer (D-Indianapolis), are much younger. But Feigenbaum says that could work to Myers’s advantage.
“If you split the vote among younger voters between Melton and Macer, maybe Woody Myers can charge to the top,” Feigenbaum says.
Myers, if nominated, would be the first person of color from a major party to run for Indiana governor.