IndyStar: Susan Brooks: Brad Chambers will get things done as Indiana governor

By Susan Brooks
In the Indianapolis Star

As my fourth and final term serving the Hoosiers of the 5th District came to an end, I took to the House floor to outline four steps that I believed would restore public trust and faith in government.

I thought the first step was relatively simple: Do the work.

That means bringing new and ambitious ideas and plans to the table, listening to constituents, doing your homework, learning from the experts and working relentlessly until the job is done, and then more.

That may not always be easy — in fact, it hardly ever is — but that is what I believe Hoosiers who entrust others with their vote deserve.

Not someone who just makes promises, but someone who gets things done.

And that is why I am supporting Brad Chambers for governor.

Chambers has been a doer his entire life. As a teenager, he started a lawn mowing business with his friends before starting a real estate business to pay his way through college. That single-unit business turned into a 31-unit business by the time he had graduated. Today, it is a national business that employs hundreds of people.

It was Chambers’ experience building a business from nothing that led Gov. Eric Holcomb to ask him to serve as the state’s secretary of commerce to position Indiana to not just compete, but also to win in an ever-changing economy.

Again, Chambers got things done.

He did his homework, analyzing what other states that were outcompeting us were doing (like our neighbor Ohio), talking with industry experts to see what Indiana could do better and listening to local leaders to better understand what their communities needed to thrive.

The result was a new and ambitious plan and approach that would position Indiana to win by proactively pursuing opportunities the state had simply passed up before.

You can take a short drive up U.S. 31 to Kokomo to see how this has worked out, where over $5 billion is being invested in battery manufacturing facilities and nearly 3,000 high-wage careers are being created. Or hop on Interstate 65 to nearby West Lafayette, where another $6 billion is being invested in semiconductor facilities and nearly 2,000 high-wage careers are being created.

Ask Chambers, though, and he will tell you that the two years he spent as secretary of commerce were not enough, that there is more to do, that he is ready to finish what he started.

And so, he is out on the road sharing his ambitious and detailed plans, talking with Hoosiers, listening to the stakeholders and working every day to earn every vote.

What are his plans? Ensuring the American dream is within reach of every Hoosier, tackling the fentanyl epidemic with a new, regional approach, developing career pathways for our students to prepare them for the jobs of tomorrow and protecting kids from dangers of Big Tech, just to name a few.

But he also wants to bring in a new generation of leaders from across the state with different backgrounds and experiences to make government work better for everyone.

Chambers has a record of accomplishing what he has set out to do. He is exactly the type of leader we need to build on Indiana’s successes and lead the state into a brighter future.

Let’s send him to the governor’s office to finish what he started.

Susan Brooks is a former congresswoman who represented Indiana’s 5th District from 2013 to 2021.