The Race
Indiana's Secretary of State is not chosen in a primary election. The Republican and Democratic nominees are selected by party delegates at state conventions -- June 20 for Republicans, June 6 for Democrats. This means the candidates profiled here are not campaigning for votes from the general public. They are campaigning for votes from a few thousand party insiders, activists, and elected precinct committee members who serve as convention delegates. [1]
That structural fact shapes everything about these races. Convention nominations reward insider relationships, delegate organizing, and the ability to work a room -- not television ads or broad name recognition. It is how Diego Morales upset the party-endorsed incumbent Holli Sullivan in 2022, and it is the mechanism his challengers hope to use against him now.
This page covers the candidates not profiled individually elsewhere on this site. For the three leading candidates, see:
Republican Convention Challengers
Two Republicans have filed to challenge Diego Morales at the June 20 convention. Both are running explicitly against his record of scandals, though they represent different wings of the party.
David Shelton
Knox County Clerk, Vincennes -- "Restoring Integrity & Professionalism"
David Shelton is the substantive challenger in this race -- a career election administrator who has spent seven years doing the actual work that the Secretary of State's office is supposed to oversee.
Shelton has served as Knox County Clerk since 2019 and as Knox County Republican Party Chairman since 2022. He holds a Ball State University Certificate in Election Administration, Technology, and Security (CEATS) and has been named Indiana Clerk of the Year three times -- in 2020, 2022, and 2025. In 2023, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission honored Knox County for outstanding innovations in election cybersecurity and technology and for improving accessibility for voters with disabilities. [2]
He is not just an administrator. Shelton founded Shelton Specialties LLC, which developed a patented piece of election equipment called the Encoder Stabilizer Bracket -- a device that solves the practical problem of poll workers struggling to insert activation cards into electronic poll book readers. The bracket is now deployed in 35 Indiana counties and approximately 50 Georgia counties. He also founded Redistricting, Refined LLC, which has provided free redistricting services to more than 40% of Indiana's counties in preparation for decennial census cycles. And separately, he has run Illiana Investigations, a licensed private investigation firm with more than 25 years of fraud detection experience across Indiana and Illinois. [2] [3]
This is not his first run. In 2022, Shelton entered the Republican convention race for Secretary of State just three months before the vote. He secured public endorsements from 63 Republican County Clerks -- more than two-thirds of Indiana's 92 counties -- and earned 18% on the first ballot in a four-way race before being eliminated in the second round. Morales went on to win that convention. [3]
Shelton's 2026 campaign is built on five planks: restore institutional integrity (eliminating personal branding from official materials), strengthen statewide election administration (launching an "Election Bootcamp" for county clerks), serve as a working partner on Indiana's Election Core Team, enhance cybersecurity and modernization, and prepare counties for the 2030 census redistricting cycle. [4]
His critique of Morales is pointed and specific: "Republicans need a candidate they can be proud of -- one who focuses on serving Hoosiers rather than self-promotion and campaign kickbacks." [2]
Shelton filed his candidacy on February 23, 2026 -- becoming the first Republican to officially enter the race. He has served on three official recount commissions in Gibson, Dubois, and Delaware counties. He also chaired the Knox County Public Defender Board, where he led reforms saving nearly $600,000 annually. [2]
Assessment: Shelton is the most qualified challenger in the Secretary of State race from either party in terms of direct election administration experience. His three Clerk of the Year awards, 63-clerk endorsement coalition from 2022, EAC recognition, and patented election equipment give him a credential set that is difficult for any other candidate -- including the incumbent -- to match. His challenge is the same one he faced in 2022: convention delegates often vote on loyalty and personality, not resumes. He earned 18% last time. The question is whether Morales' accumulated scandals have moved enough delegates to give a professional alternative a serious look.
Jamie Reitenour
Conservative activist, homeschool educator -- grassroots outsider
Jamie Reitenour represents a different kind of challenge to Morales -- not from the professional-administrator wing, but from the grassroots-activist base that feels the incumbent has not been conservative enough or attentive enough to the office.
Reitenour earned a bachelor's degree from Southwest Missouri State University in 2001. She has worked as a mortgage broker, compliance manager, and ministry leader in worship and women's ministries. She is a stay-at-home mom who homeschools her five children. She was born to military parents and describes herself as a former collegiate athlete. [5]
Her political trajectory is unconventional. In 2024, she ran for Governor of Indiana in the Republican primary, describing the decision as a spiritual calling she had received six years earlier while walking through downtown Indianapolis. She ran a grassroots, volunteer-based campaign on a shoestring budget -- raising $75,841 and spending $69,650 -- against six other candidates with far greater resources and name recognition. She finished with 4.8% of the vote (28,774 votes) in a primary won by Mike Braun at 39.5%. [5] [6]
After the gubernatorial loss, Reitenour briefly launched an independent bid for lieutenant governor before pivoting to the Secretary of State race. She announced her SoS candidacy in mid-2025, criticizing Morales for not taking the office "very seriously." [7]
Her platform focuses on engaging younger voters and improving turnout, particularly on college campuses -- an unusual emphasis for a Republican candidate. She has also criticized Morales' international travel and general conduct. [7]
Assessment: Reitenour's path to winning the convention nomination is narrow. She has no election administration experience, no significant fundraising base, and her 2024 gubernatorial result (4.8%) suggests limited traction even among engaged Republican primary voters. Her value in the convention is as a protest vote -- delegates who are angry at Morales but not ready to back Shelton may use her as a first-ballot signal. Whether she consolidates behind Shelton in later rounds, or pulls votes away from him, could determine whether Morales survives the convention.
Democratic Convention Challenger
Blythe Potter
Army veteran, small business owner, Bargersville -- "a different kind of Democrat"
Blythe Potter is running against Beau Bayh for the Democratic nomination at the June 6 convention. She is running from a fundamentally different position than Bayh -- no famous name, no million-dollar war chest, no institutional backing -- and she knows it.
Potter was born in Beech Grove, Indiana, graduated from Franklin Central High School in 2000, and later earned bachelor's and graduate degrees from Siena Heights University (2016 and 2018) along with an MBA. She served ten years in the U.S. Army Reserves (2002-2012) as a member of the Military Police Corps, reaching the rank of Sergeant (E-5). Her service included a deployment to Baghdad, where she was part of a 19-person Personal Security Detail for General George Casey, then Commanding General of the Multi-National Forces -- Iraq. She served as a driver and gunner providing security between Baghdad International Airport and the Green Zone. [8] [9]
After the military, Potter founded Bargersville Wellness, a small business in Johnson County. She serves as a Democratic precinct chair and has been a state and national convention delegate. She has run for office twice before -- Bargersville Town Council in 2023 and Johnson County Council in 2024 -- and lost both races. [9]
Potter's platform centers on voter education and access: she proposes state-funded voter handbooks mailed to all registered voters before each election, containing polling locations and nonpartisan ballot information. She advocates against last-minute voter roll purges, supports pilot programs to increase county-level turnout, and wants to modernize the INBiz business registration portal. She also supports allowing voters to decide on ballot initiatives including ranked-choice voting, absentee ballot opt-in, and extended voting hours. [9]
She has been endorsed by Vote Common Good, a faith-based organization focused on the common good over partisan loyalty. [10]
Her critique of the Morales administration mirrors Bayh's -- no-bid contracts, nepotism, travel abuses -- but she frames it through the lens of a working-class veteran and small business owner rather than a political dynasty.
Assessment: Potter faces overwhelming odds at the convention. Bayh has raised nearly $2 million, carries a name synonymous with Indiana Democratic politics, and has institutional support that Potter cannot match. Potter's military credentials are strong -- arguably stronger than Bayh's in terms of direct combat-zone experience -- but convention nominations are won through delegate organizing and organizational muscle, not resumes. Her realistic ceiling is a respectable protest vote that signals the party's grassroots base is not entirely comfortable coronating a dynasty candidate. Vote Common Good's endorsement is a meaningful credential but insufficient to overcome Bayh's structural advantages.
Third Party Candidates
Lauri Shillings (Libertarian)
Creative director, University of Indianapolis -- Libertarian Party of Indiana nominee
Lauri Shillings was nominated at the Libertarian Party of Indiana's state convention on March 22, 2026, in Fort Wayne. She lives in Carmel and works as creative director in the University of Indianapolis' marketing office. She has served as the Libertarian Party's Hamilton County chair since 2021 and was the party's 2024 nominee for Indiana's 5th Congressional District. [11]
Unlike Greg Ballard and Harrison Jacobo, Shillings does not face the signature wall. The Libertarian Party of Indiana has already met the voter threshold for automatic ballot access, meaning Shillings will appear on the November ballot without needing to collect approximately 37,000 petition signatures. This is a significant structural advantage over the other third-party and independent candidates. [11]
Her platform emphasizes election security, business services modernization, and voter information access. She has criticized Morales specifically for handing over Indiana voter rolls to the Trump administration, calling it a privacy concern: "That has a lot of privacy concerns... it's easy to triangulate that information." She has also criticized the state's outdated website, calling it something "built in the early 2000s." [11]
The secretary of state race is existentially important for the Libertarian Party of Indiana. Their candidate must receive at least 2% of the vote in the November election to retain automatic ballot status. Losing that status would force future Libertarian candidates to collect tens of thousands of signatures just to appear on the ballot -- a resource drain that could functionally end the party's competitiveness in Indiana. [11]
Assessment: Shillings is a credible minor-party candidate with real organizational experience and guaranteed ballot access. The 2% threshold is her realistic target, and the crowded field -- with voter dissatisfaction running high -- makes it plausible. She is unlikely to win, but she does not need to. The Libertarian Party's survival as a ballot-qualified organization in Indiana may depend on her performance.
Harrison Jacobo (Socialist Party of Indiana)
Farmer, Sullivan County roots -- inaugural Socialist Party of Indiana candidate
Harrison Jacobo is the Secretary of State nominee of the newly formed Socialist Party of Indiana, which launched on March 15, 2026, outside the Eugene V. Debs Museum in Terre Haute -- a location chosen for its symbolic connection to Indiana's most famous socialist, who ran for president five times from that very house. [12]
Jacobo is a farmer and the son of two U.S. Army veterans. He is descended from indigenous Aztecs on his father's side and Black indigenous farmers from Sullivan County on his mother's side. His platform draws on agricultural metaphors, connecting soil health to community well-being: he argues that working-class people cannot thrive when "deprived of clean air, water, healthy food, affordable housing, healthcare." As Secretary of State, he pledges to fight for accessible voting, worker rights, and environmental protections. [12] [13]
The Socialist Party of Indiana faces the steepest ballot access hurdle of any candidate in this race. As a new party without recognized status, it must collect 100,000 petition signatures to place Jacobo on the ballot -- nearly three times the approximately 37,000 required of independent candidates and the Lincoln Party. As of the March launch event, signature collection was underway in more than 10 counties. [12]
The party also needs Jacobo to receive 2% of the general election vote to achieve permanent party recognition under Indiana law -- the same threshold that the Libertarian Party is fighting to maintain. [12]
Assessment: The 100,000-signature requirement is, practically speaking, prohibitive. No new party in Indiana has cleared that bar in recent memory. Jacobo's candidacy is better understood as a party-building exercise than a competitive campaign for office. The Debs Museum launch was symbolically resonant -- Terre Haute is the birthplace of American socialism, and the party is explicitly claiming that heritage -- but symbolism does not collect signatures. The most realistic outcome is that the signature drive falls short and Jacobo does not appear on the November ballot.
Why It Matters
The convention-nomination system for Secretary of State creates a dynamic unlike any other statewide race in Indiana. Voters do not choose the nominees -- delegates do. That means the full field of candidates matters not for their electoral viability in November, but for the signals they send within their parties.
On the Republican side, Shelton and Reitenour represent two different critiques of Morales. Shelton says the office needs a professional who actually knows election administration. Reitenour says it needs someone who takes the job seriously rather than using it as a platform for self-promotion. Both are likely to lose. But the combined anti-Morales vote on the first ballot will tell us something important: how much of the Republican convention apparatus has turned against an incumbent who has survived every scandal so far. If Shelton and Reitenour together clear 40% on the first ballot, Morales is vulnerable. If they stay below 25%, his grip on the convention delegates remains firm. [3] [7]
On the Democratic side, Potter's challenge to Bayh is the kind of long-shot bid that happens when party insiders anoint a frontrunner and someone with genuine credentials decides the coronation shouldn't go uncontested. Her military service is impressive. Her platform is substantive. But she is running against a name, a fundraising machine, and institutional momentum that convention challengers almost never overcome.
The third-party candidates face different math entirely. Shillings has guaranteed ballot access and a clear organizational target (2% to save the Libertarian Party's ballot status). Jacobo faces a 100,000-signature wall that may prove impassable but is building a party infrastructure in a state that has not had an organized socialist presence in decades.
None of these five candidates is likely to become Indiana's next Secretary of State. But each of them is running because the incumbent has created an opening -- through scandal, through arrogance, through the accumulation of a record that even his own party's legislative leaders have publicly questioned. The convention challengers are the canaries in the coal mine. How they perform will tell us whether Morales' grip on the Republican nomination is as secure as his allies claim, or whether the edifice is finally starting to crack.