Indiana State Schools Superintendent Glenda Ritz brought her newly-announced campaign for governor to Fort Wayne Friday.
Ritz officially announced her candidacy Thursday in Indianapolis, and is now rolling out the campaign to residents around the state. A few dozen supporters and media showed up at the Allen County Public Library to hear her speak Friday.
In her remarks, Ritz said she will focus on education, economic and community revitalization if she gets the Democratic nomination. She also says she’ll release policy papers with her ideas in the coming months.
After she spoke, Ritz took time to respond to criticism from state Republican Party Chairman Jeff Cardwell that she’s an ineffective leader at the Indiana Department of Education.
“Well, I absolutely know how to lead my department. As I said, we handle over $8 billion going out to our schools,” Ritz said. “We put outreach in, and we’ve turned around 103 schools that were in ‘D’ and ‘F’ performance to ‘A,’ ‘B’ and C in just one year’s time.”
She says she’ll look forward to defending her record at IDOE as the campaign rolls on.
Ritz will try to fend off former Indiana House Speaker John Gregg and current State Senator Karen Tallian for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2016.
Incumbent Governor Mike Pence is the only candidate who has announced a run on the Republican side.
