Gubernatorial Hopeful Brian Roth Visits Warsaw
December 5, 2019 at 12:29 a.m.
By David [email protected]
And he only wants to serve one four-year term.
Tuesday, Brian and his wife, Sharice, visited Warsaw to discuss the five reasons he wants to get on the 2020 primary ballot against incumbent Gov. Eric Holcomb.
In August 2015, Brian said that’s when they decided Brian should run for governor.
“We felt like we needed to come back and provide leadership into a place where often times there’s not a lot, and that’s the government,” he said. “A lot of people say you can’t lead the government, it’s just broke. We don’t buy into any of that. We think leadership principles work, regardless of where you apply them. How you apply them might be different, but the principle works.”
Brian and Sharice both grew up in Upland, and his parents worked at Taylor University. He graduated from Taylor and then joined the Navy. They have two sons and a girl.
The Roths moved back to Indiana in October 2015 after his military service and they moved around the country. They live in Westfield with a Carmel address. He was active duty for 12 years in the Navy and in the reserves for 10.
After his active duty, he stayed in the power industry and did a corporate stint for a little bit. In May 2018, Brian and Sharice left that behind and started a leadership consulting business, Employment2Deployment, which tries to help people become leaders. They published a book titled “Climbing Down: How Leaders Descend to Their Destiny.” The book is what they use for their leadership training sessions.
“We’re telling people there’s five reasons we’re running. These are in no particular order,” Brian said.
One reason is to give people a choice. People have choices all over, but for Republicans in the May 5 primary currently, there’s only one choice. “So we think people ought to have a choice. You have choices for everything else, we want to give people a choice,” he said.
Secondly, he said he wasn’t looking to be a politician. “We’re going to take any money we make as the governor and donate that to nonprofits in the state of Indiana. We’re not independently wealthy, but we’re not looking for a job,” he said, adding that he’s only running for a single term.
“Some people love it, some people hate it. Again, we don’t do things because it’s the smart political thing. It’s not the way we think. We’re not political people. We’re not politicians, we’re not part of the political system. We’re running for a single term because we think in four years we can get a lot done and we want to give you four good years,” Brian said.
Holcomb announced his re-election bid in July. Brian said if Holcomb gets re-elected in November, he would have spent 18 months governing part of the time and running for re-election the other part of the time. “We’re just going to give you four good years,” he said.
His third reason to run is for “families and kids.”
“We have to do a better job with families and kids. Families are the cornerstone of society. The first institution ever created. Everything else built off the family. So if society has problems, we can try to mitigate the problems or we can go back to the root and say we need to support families more,” Brian said.
He said that means less government involved in families.
The fourth reason, he said, is “we believe there are systems that govern our existence. Systems like the family system, religious system, political system, education, business, media. All of those systems govern our existence here on earth.” He said they should be vertically aligned, but they’re not and instead the political system sits atop all of the other systems and squeezes them.
“It’s taken the education system and pulled it into the political system. We separate education from the political system. They should be separate,” Brian said.
He said the political system pulls power away from the other systems and thus grows uncontrollably. He said the government will continue to grow unless the systems are realigned.
“In other words, we have to quit pulling power into Indianapolis and we have to start pushing power out of Indianapolis, back to local governments. Back to local schools,” Brian said.
How to do that begins with the way people think about government, he said. “The way we think ultimately drives the way we function, the way we behave. So we have to quit thinking that Indianapolis is the center of life in Indiana. We have to recognize it’s the four corners, it’s all of Indiana that’s important and we have to push it out. To do that we will flip the organizational chart of the state of Indiana,” Brian stated.
The people of the state will be at the top of the chart.
“We have to get out of this mindset that all of us are here to support the state government and support Indianapolis. Indianapolis is really here to support us,” Brian said.
The last reason he gave was that ideas should take the state to the same place in the end.
“I don’t see a ton of direction coming out of the government today in Indiana,” he said, and the state needs direction.
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And he only wants to serve one four-year term.
Tuesday, Brian and his wife, Sharice, visited Warsaw to discuss the five reasons he wants to get on the 2020 primary ballot against incumbent Gov. Eric Holcomb.
In August 2015, Brian said that’s when they decided Brian should run for governor.
“We felt like we needed to come back and provide leadership into a place where often times there’s not a lot, and that’s the government,” he said. “A lot of people say you can’t lead the government, it’s just broke. We don’t buy into any of that. We think leadership principles work, regardless of where you apply them. How you apply them might be different, but the principle works.”
Brian and Sharice both grew up in Upland, and his parents worked at Taylor University. He graduated from Taylor and then joined the Navy. They have two sons and a girl.
The Roths moved back to Indiana in October 2015 after his military service and they moved around the country. They live in Westfield with a Carmel address. He was active duty for 12 years in the Navy and in the reserves for 10.
After his active duty, he stayed in the power industry and did a corporate stint for a little bit. In May 2018, Brian and Sharice left that behind and started a leadership consulting business, Employment2Deployment, which tries to help people become leaders. They published a book titled “Climbing Down: How Leaders Descend to Their Destiny.” The book is what they use for their leadership training sessions.
“We’re telling people there’s five reasons we’re running. These are in no particular order,” Brian said.
One reason is to give people a choice. People have choices all over, but for Republicans in the May 5 primary currently, there’s only one choice. “So we think people ought to have a choice. You have choices for everything else, we want to give people a choice,” he said.
Secondly, he said he wasn’t looking to be a politician. “We’re going to take any money we make as the governor and donate that to nonprofits in the state of Indiana. We’re not independently wealthy, but we’re not looking for a job,” he said, adding that he’s only running for a single term.
“Some people love it, some people hate it. Again, we don’t do things because it’s the smart political thing. It’s not the way we think. We’re not political people. We’re not politicians, we’re not part of the political system. We’re running for a single term because we think in four years we can get a lot done and we want to give you four good years,” Brian said.
Holcomb announced his re-election bid in July. Brian said if Holcomb gets re-elected in November, he would have spent 18 months governing part of the time and running for re-election the other part of the time. “We’re just going to give you four good years,” he said.
His third reason to run is for “families and kids.”
“We have to do a better job with families and kids. Families are the cornerstone of society. The first institution ever created. Everything else built off the family. So if society has problems, we can try to mitigate the problems or we can go back to the root and say we need to support families more,” Brian said.
He said that means less government involved in families.
The fourth reason, he said, is “we believe there are systems that govern our existence. Systems like the family system, religious system, political system, education, business, media. All of those systems govern our existence here on earth.” He said they should be vertically aligned, but they’re not and instead the political system sits atop all of the other systems and squeezes them.
“It’s taken the education system and pulled it into the political system. We separate education from the political system. They should be separate,” Brian said.
He said the political system pulls power away from the other systems and thus grows uncontrollably. He said the government will continue to grow unless the systems are realigned.
“In other words, we have to quit pulling power into Indianapolis and we have to start pushing power out of Indianapolis, back to local governments. Back to local schools,” Brian said.
How to do that begins with the way people think about government, he said. “The way we think ultimately drives the way we function, the way we behave. So we have to quit thinking that Indianapolis is the center of life in Indiana. We have to recognize it’s the four corners, it’s all of Indiana that’s important and we have to push it out. To do that we will flip the organizational chart of the state of Indiana,” Brian stated.
The people of the state will be at the top of the chart.
“We have to get out of this mindset that all of us are here to support the state government and support Indianapolis. Indianapolis is really here to support us,” Brian said.
The last reason he gave was that ideas should take the state to the same place in the end.
“I don’t see a ton of direction coming out of the government today in Indiana,” he said, and the state needs direction.
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