Todd Rokita

Theodore Edward Rokita (born February 9, 1970) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 44th and current Attorney General of Indiana.

In 1990, Rokita, then 20, was arrested in Bloomington, Indiana, and charged with possession of false ID and illegal consumption.

The arrest occurred during a traffic stop for speeding in which Rokita allegedly provided false identification and appeared intoxicated.

In 1997 he joined the secretary of state's office as general counsel.

He later became deputy secretary of state.

In 2000, Rokita served as legal counsel for seven Florida counties during the recount for the George W. Bush presidential campaign.

A member of the Republican Party, he served two terms as Secretary of State of Indiana from 2002 to 2010.

When Rokita was elected to office in 2002 at age 32, he became the youngest secretary of state in the United States at the time.

Rokita was Indiana Secretary of State from 2002 to 2010.

Elected in 2002, Todd Rokita became the youngest Secretary of state in the United States at the time.

Rokita was active in the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), and after serving as the elected treasurer, he became the President for the 2007–2008 term.

He was elected by his peers nationally to serve on the nine-member federal executive board of the Election Assistance Commission.

In April 2007, Rokita was speaking at a Republican event, and encouraged Republicans to reach out to African Americans, mentioning 90 percent of African American voters vote Democratic, after which he asked, "How can that be? Ninety to ten. Who's the master and who's the slave in that relationship? How can that be healthy?".

During the course of the same private meeting Rokita was told his office should reflect the diversity of the state, at the time of his remarks 89% of the employees in Rokita's office were white.

Four days after making those remarks, he apologized.

Rokita also met privately with eleven members of the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus to apologize for the comment.

Representative Vernon Smith, D-Gary, told reporters, "He apologized to our satisfaction. We do believe he was sincere in his apology."

Rokita was a named defendant when Indiana's voter identification case went before the U.S. Supreme Court on January 9, 2008; the combined cases of Crawford v. Marion County Election Board (07-21) and Indiana Democratic Party v. Rokita (07-25).

In April 2008, the Supreme Court upheld Indiana's voter photo ID law.

Following the ruling, the New York Times 's Adam Cohen suggested the court's conservative majority has "become increasingly hostile to voters" by siding with Indiana's voter identification laws which tend to "disenfranchise large numbers of people without driver's licenses, especially poor and minority voters".

Senator Al Franken criticized the ruling for "eroding individual rights."

In September 2009, Rokita outlined a plan called "Rethinking Redistricting" to reform how Indiana's legislative districts are drawn to reduce gerrymandering.

He proposed making it a felony for lawmakers to use political data or incumbents' addresses when drawing electoral maps.

Rokita said boundaries should follow existing county and township lines, and that each of the 50 Senate districts should be divided into two House districts, claiming that would lead to more competitive legislative elections.

The reform plan sought to achieve these five objectives:

He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from IN's 4th congressional district from 2011 to 2019.

Rokita was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011 to 2019, where he served as vice-chair of the Budget Committee.

Rokita vacated his House seat to run for the Indiana U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Joe Donnelly, losing the Republican nomination to eventual senator Mike Braun.

In October 2013 during the American government shutdown, Rokita was interviewed by CNN journalist Carol Costello.

Rokita was a candidate to replace Mike Pence in the 2016 Indiana gubernatorial election after Pence withdrew from the race to be Donald Trump's running mate in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

He lost to Eric Holcomb, Pence's lieutenant governor.

Rokita vacated his U.S. House seat and unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2018.

In 2018, while running for US Senate, Rokita acknowledged he was underage and possessed alcohol, passed a sobriety test, and that the arresting charges of underage consumption and possession of a false ID were dismissed.

The IndyStar reported that it was unclear if the charges were dropped because of his participation in a diversion program or other reasons.

He has a J.D. degree from IUPUI Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.

Rokita was a practicing attorney.

In 2020, Rokita defeated incumbent Curtis Hill for the Republican nomination for Indiana Attorney General, and won the general election.

Rokita was found by Indiana state courts to have violated Indiana law and engaged in attorney misconduct due to his public statements about the abortion-performing doctor in the 2022 Ohio child-rape and Indiana abortion case.

Rokita grew up in Munster, Indiana and attended Munster High School.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana.