Connie Lawson
Connie Lawson (Republican Party) was the Indiana Secretary of State. She assumed office on March 16, 2012. She left office on March 16, 2021.
Lawson (Republican Party) ran for re-election for Indiana Secretary of State. She won in the general election on November 6, 2018.
Lawson succeeded former officeholder Charlie White.[1]
At the time of her appointment to the state executive office, Lawson was serving as majority floor leader of the Indiana State Senate. She represented District 24 from 1996 to 2012.[2]
Before she was elected to the state Senate, Lawson had served as precinct committee person for the Hendricks County Republican Central Committee and vice chair of the Hendricks County Republican Party.[3]
On February 15, 2021, Lawson announced that she would be resigning as secretary of state once Gov. Eric Holcomb (R) identified a successor, citing health and family reasons.[4] She stepped down on March 16, 2021, when Gov. Holcomb appointed Holli Sullivan (R) to the position.[5]
Biography
Lawson attended the Darden School of Legislative Leadership. She went on to receive her diploma from the Association of Indiana Counties in 1995. She then attended the Bowhay Institute for Legislative Leadership Development in 1998.
Lawson was the co-owner and secretary/treasurer for Lawson Brothers Auctioneers from 1971 to 1980. She worked in a real estate office as a closing agent and office manager from 1970 to 1988. She then worked as a clerk for the Abstract and Title Guaranty Company from 1986 to 1988. She was also circuit court clerk for Hendricks County from 1989 to 1996.[3]
Education
- Danville High School (1967)
- Bowhay Institute of Legislative Leadership Development (BILLD)
- Council of State Government Toll Fellow
- Darden School of Legislative Leadership
Political career
Indiana Secretary of State (2012-2021)
On March 16, 2012, Governor Daniels appointed Lawson to the post of Indiana Secretary of State. She served out former officeholder and convicted felon Charlie White's unexpired term. She won election to a full term in 2014 and was re-elected in 2018.[2] Lawson resigned before the end of her term on March 16, 2021.[5]
Indiana State Senate (1996-2012)
Committee assignments
2011-2012
In the 2011-2012 legislative session, Lawson served on these committees:
2009-2010
In the 2009-2010 legislative session, Lawson served on these committees:
- Appointments and Claims Committee, Indiana State Senate
- Elections Committee, Indiana State Senate
- Joint Rules Committee, Indiana State Senate
- Local Government Committee, Indiana State Senate
- Rules and Legislative Procedure Committee, Indiana State Senate
- Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee, Indiana State Senate
Elections
2018
George Wolfe (Green) and Jeremy Heath (Pirate Party) ran as write-in candidates.
General election
General election for Indiana Secretary of State
Incumbent Connie Lawson defeated Jim Harper and Mark Rutherford in the general election for Indiana Secretary of State on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Connie Lawson (R) | 56.2 | 1,263,074 |
 | Jim Harper (D) | 40.6 | 911,546 | |
 | Mark Rutherford (L) | 3.2 | 71,234 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.0 | 905 | ||
| Total votes: 2,246,759 | |||
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2014
Lawson ran for election to a full term as Indiana Secretary of State in 2014.[6] She secured the Republican nomination at the primary convention on June 3, 2014, and faced Democrat Beth White and Libertarian Karl Tatgenhorst in the general election. The general election took place on November 4, 2014.
Results
| Secretary of state of Indiana, 2014 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Republican |  Connie Lawson Incumbent |
57.1% | 762,223 | |
| Democratic | Beth White | 39.5% | 527,379 | |
| Libertarian | Karl Tatgenhorst | 3.4% | 45,393 | |
| Total Votes | 1,334,995 | |||
| Election results via Indiana Secretary of State | ||||
Race background
Dueling claims of election law violations
Connie Lawson (R) and Beth White (D) stirred attention in an otherwise quiet race by trading claims of election law violations. White said that Lawson was challenging absentee ballots by voters on the inactive list in two counties.[7] The inactive list kept track of voters who may not have updated information or voted in recent elections. The secretary's office listed 696,407 registered voters as inactive in August and an outreach effort to update addresses only yielded 47,493 responses.[8] White claimed that Lawson used the lists as a pretense for disenfranchising voters.[7]
State Republican Party chairman Tim Berry countered that there had not been official challenges to inactive voter ballots as of October 23. Lawson supporters also leveled criticism at White for distributing campaign mailers without disclaimers required by state law. White stated that the printer made an error with the original document and the campaign subsequently stopped distributions of the mailers.[9]
2012
Sen. Lawson was appointed to the office of Secretary of State by Gov. Mitch Daniels on March 16, 2012. Her appointment filled the vacancy left by former secretary Charlie White, who was forced to relinquish his seat after a Hamilton County jury convicted him of six felonies, including voter fraud and perjury.[1]
2008
On November 4, 2008, Republican Connie Lawson won re-election to the Indiana State Senate District 24. She ran unopposed receiving 53,188 votes.[10]
| Indiana State Senate, District 24 (2008) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidates | Votes | |||
| Connie Lawson (R)
|
53,188 | |||
Noteworthy events
June 2017 request for voter rolls
On June 29, 2017, the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, which had been created by President Donald Trump on May 11, requested information on registered voters from all 50 states dating back to 2006. The states were given until July 14 to respond. On June 30, Secretary Lawson announced that the state would provide only publicly available information to the commission.
| “ | Indiana law doesn’t permit the Secretary of State to provide the personal information requested by Secretary Kobach. Under Indiana public records laws, certain voter info is available to the public, the media, and any other person who requested the information for non-commercial purposes. The information publicly available is name, address, and congressional district assignment.[11] | ” |
| —Secretary Connie Lawson[12] | ||
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
2016 Republican National Convention
- See also: Republican National Convention, 2016
Lawson was a district-level delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention from Indiana.
Delegate rules
In Indiana, district-level delegates were selected by congressional district committees, while at-large delegates were selected by the state committee. 2016 Indiana GOP bylaws required Indiana delegates to vote at the national convention for the candidate to whom they were allocated through the first round of voting, unless that candidate was not on the nominating ballot.
Indiana primary results
- See also: Presidential election in Indiana, 2016
| Indiana Republican Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | Delegates | |
| Jeb Bush | 0.6% | 6,508 | 0 | |
| Ben Carson | 0.8% | 8,914 | 0 | |
| Chris Christie | 0.2% | 1,738 | 0 | |
| Ted Cruz | 36.6% | 406,783 | 0 | |
| Carly Fiorina | 0.1% | 1,494 | 0 | |
| John Kasich | 7.6% | 84,111 | 0 | |
| Rand Paul | 0.4% | 4,306 | 0 | |
| Marco Rubio | 0.5% | 5,175 | 0 | |
| Donald Trump |
53.3% | 591,514 | 57 | |
| Totals | 1,110,543 | 57 | ||
| Source: Indiana Secretary of State and The New York Times | ||||
99 percent of precincts reporting.
Delegate allocation
Indiana had 57 delegates at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Of this total, 27 were district-level delegates (three for each of the state's nine congressional districts) pledged to adhere to the results of the presidential preference primary in their respective congressional districts. Indiana's pledged Republican delegates were allocated on a winner-take-all basis; the candidate who received the greatest number of votes in a given district won all of that district's delegates.[13][14]
Of the remaining 30 delegates, 27 served at large. These delegates were allocated on a winner-take-all basis; the candidate who won the greatest share of the statewide vote in the primary was allocated all of the at-large delegates. In addition, three national party leaders (identified on the chart below as RNC delegates) served as bound delegates to the Republican National Convention. The RNC delegates were required to pledge their support to the winner of the state's primary.[13][14]
Personal
Note: Please contact us if the personal information below requires an update.
Lawson and her husband, Jack, have two children, Brandon and Kylie, and several grandchildren.[2]
Contact
Office contact:
Tel:317-232-6532
Email: [email protected]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Connie Lawson Indiana Secretary of State. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Indiana Secretary of State
- Indiana secretary of state election, 2014
- Gov. of Indiana Mitch Daniels
- Former Ind. Secretary of State Charlie White
- Former acting secretary Jerry Bonnet
External links
- Connie Lawson's campaign website
- Legislative Profile from Project Vote Smart
- Biography from Project Vote Smart
- Campaign Contributions: 2008, 2006, 2004, 2002, 2000, 1998, 1996
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 realclearpolitics.com, "GOP Sen Lawson named new Ind. secretary of state," accessed March 16, 2012
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Indiana Secretary of State, " About the secretary," accessed July 31, 2013
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Project Vote Smart, "Secretary Connie Lawson's Biography," accessed July 31, 2013
- ↑ Fox 59, "Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson to resign," February 15, 2021
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Courier & Press, "Holli Sullivan of Evansville named new Indiana Secretary of State," March 16, 2021
- ↑ Wish TV, "Lawson to run for secretary of state in 2014," April 13, 2012 (dead link)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Fox 59, "Candidates respond to controversies over mailings, transparency," October 23, 2014
- ↑ The Washington Post, "More than half a million Indiana voters are ‘inactive’ and could removed from poll lists if they don’t vote," August 12, 2014
- ↑ WISH TV, "Beth White attacks Connie Lawson, admits error," October 22, 2014
- ↑ Indiana Secretary of State, "2008 Indiana State Senate official election results," accessed March 6, 2014
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Twitter, "Connie Lawson," June 30, 2017
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Republican National Committee, "2016 Presidential Nominating Process," accessed October 6, 2015
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 CNN.com, "Republican National Convention roll call vote," accessed July 20, 2016
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Charlie White (R) |
Indiana Secretary of State 2012-2021 |
Succeeded by Holli Sullivan (R) |
| Preceded by - |
Indiana State Senate District 24 1996–2012 |
Succeeded by Pete Miller (R) |
| |||||||||||||||||||
 |
State of Indiana Indianapolis (capital) |
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