Indiana’s top state elections official has stepped down from her position as the second-ranking officer in the state Republican Party.
Secretary of State Holli Sullivan had been the Indiana GOP’s vice chair since 2019. She was reelected to that party position in March, just days after Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb appointed her to replace retiring Secretary of State Connie Lawson.
The secretary of state’s office oversees election issues statewide, along with registering businesses and regulating the securities industry.
Sullivan was in her seventh year as a state representative from Evansville when Holcomb appointed her to complete the secretary of state term that runs through the end of 2022.
Sullivan’s office says she decided in August to step down from the Republican position in order “to focus her attention on the duties of her new office.”
Sullivan is running for a full four-year term in the 2022 election but faces at least two challengers for the Republican nomination, which will be decided during the GOP state convention next summer.
Erin Lucas of South Bend, a former staffer to Republican U.S. Rep. Larry Bucshon, was elected earlier this month by the Indiana Republican State Committee to replace Sullivan as the state party vice chair.