Meet the former Trump official who wants to be Indiana's next Treasurer

The Sunday Sitdown: Suzanne Jaworowski raised more than $10,000 last Thursday in her first fundraiser. Can she become Indiana's next chief investment officer?

In what was once Donald Trump’s Washington, dozens of Hoosiers stocked key administration positions.

Now, a number of them are Back Home Again in Indiana, getting involved in state politics. Among them: Suzanne Jaworowski, former chief of staff in the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy, working under Secretary of Energy Rick Perry. Jaworowski made a name for herself as the 2016 Indiana state director for the Trump campaign. Her candidacy pits her against two other candidates on the Republican side: Dan Elliot (who has raised $15,860) and Pete Seat (who has raised $15,597).

Last Thursday, at Pinheads in Fishers, Jaworowski held her first fundraiser—headlined by Fishers Mayor and possible 2024 gubernatorial candidate Scott Fadness and former State Sen. Jim Merritt—both of whom are expected to endorse her. She says she raised more than $10,000.

In what will be an ongoing series of interviews with candidates on both sides of the aisle vying for the treasurer’s office in 2022, IMPORTANTVILLE sat down with Jaworowski—Jaws, as she’s known—to discuss her qualifications for the office.

In the interview, she declined to say definitively whether she would keep her day job in the energy sector if elected. She also proposed a new program to help retain teachers, law enforcement officials, nurses, and mental health professionals in Indiana.

Why Indiana State Treasurer? What appeals to you about the position and what about your background makes you a good fit for that job?

The treasurer's office is the chief investment officer of the state: Being strong fiscally allows us to be strong everywhere else. So it is the foundation that can help our state maintain a good strong economy, good security, which is good for families, good for individuals. The trickle-down from that is important and makes the difference to Hoosiers. So it's an important job that requires strong leadership. The reason I think I'm the most qualified is I've been a chief executive. I was chief of staff in the Office of Nuclear Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy, where I was responsible to the White House for the $1.4 billion budget and the Office of Nuclear Energy and 175 employees. So this position is an important position and it requires senior leadership with experience and I think that I bring that to the table.

What was it like to work in the Trump Administration?

It was one of the great honors of my life to be a part of the team that took us from being energy-dependent as a country, to being energy independent. And I'll always be grateful for that. It was amazing. It was the feeling of unleashing all of our resources on behalf of the American people and President Trump and Vice President Pence came to the U.S. Department of Energy in June of 2017. President Trump had 10 directives for the Office of the Department of Energy. One of those was to revive, revitalize and expand our civil nuclear program, which as a country we had been backing away from for many decades, both Republican and Democratic administrations had kind of put nuclear in the closet. Trump wanted to unleash nuclear again because he saw that it’s clean zero carbon emissions and other countries are now building nuclear power plants all around the world.

When you build a nuclear power plant with another country, it’s an 80-year commitment and relationship. Nuclear power is not just a great way to meet our carbon goals as a country and as the world, but it's also a strategic asset geopolitically.

I’m very passionate about that. In fact, I have a client that is a small modular design, which is completely different from the traditional large-scale reactors that you've seen in the past, and I really want to bring them to Indiana so that we can lower our carbon emissions and bring new, innovative 24/7 power to our clean energy.

You mentioned having a client. In the Todd Rokita-era of Indiana government, when a taxpayer-funded statewide officer thinks it's not a conflict to have a second job, I sort of have to ask you this question: If elected, would you still have clients in the energy sector or would this be your only source of income? (Editor’s note: Incumbent Treasurer Kelly Mitchell, whose second term ends on Jan. 1, 2023, earns $89,268.65.)

That's a good question. That's a really good question. The answer is: I don't know yet. Of course, I would like to continue to have some supplemental income because it doesn't pay much for the job, but that's not why I'm doing it. So if I'm not legally able to do it, I won't do it. And I understand what I'm getting into.

The average Hoosier in, say, Vigo County, doesn't have a really specific idea of how the work of the Indiana State Treasurer impacts their job. They just assume the state legislature appropriates money and the governor has some authority to spend it. How would you explain to the average Hoosier why the Indiana state treasurer matters to them and their everyday lives?

Really good question. Really good question. I’m going to use that question as I go out and talk to people because that is important. Well, the way I like to explain it is that the treasure is the Chief Investment Officer. Most people understand the idea of having an investment officer or somebody who’s responsible for making sure that your money has a balance of yield, that it's growing and that it has some security, that it's safe where it is and that you can get to it if you need to, there’s liquidity. So that is the responsibility of the Treasurer's office is to take all the revenue of the state and invest it wisely.

And so that's the main responsibility, but there are also other very important responsibilities that touch Hoosiers’ lives every day. The treasurer sits on the statewide 911 board—and a lot of people think that the treasurer is responsible for running the 911 program from soup to nuts—but that's not actually the case. The Treasure's office is responsible for collecting the fees from the carriers that run the 911 program and ensuring that those funds go to the right bucket in the state budget.

Another important area is the state pension programs for the state police, as well as state employees.

So these are things that touch Hoosiers’ lives every day and often they don't take advantage of these programs like the college savings program or the disability savings program, because they just don't know about it. It's really important to get the word out about those programs. But honestly, Adam, when I went to Washington DC, I didn't check the box out there. I went for it. I worked really hard every day. I was not there to party. I was there to make an impact. And during my time there, I don't want to bore you with all the details, but I really did a lot to further the U.S. Position in nuclear energy. And I would bring that same kind of spirit and innovative thinking to the treasurer's office.

The culture that we're dealing with today, law enforcement is a problem. We are going to lose police by the droves. It's hard to have them come to the state and work here and be productive because of this defunding police concept. The same is true with teachers. Teachers are not the enemy, but teachers are being made the enemy. Nurses. We do not have enough nurses with the pandemic having happened. This is an issue. And then mental health professionals, we do not have enough mental health professionals, and I think those are four critical segments of our workforce that make up infrastructure that make a difference in our lives.

I'd like to propose that the treasurer's office works with the workforce development agency, works with the education department, and build on a program that's already in place to help teachers pay off their student debt. I'd like to put that in place for police, teachers, expand what teachers are doing, mental health professionals, and nurses. So that we can attract and retain the very best of the best when they're leaving these positions in droves, or we just don't have them here. And so I'd like to propose that we work together to help folks who meet the criteria of the kinds of level of professional that we want, that we will restructure their student loans and help them pay those down if they will commit to working and being high-level professionals in those key areas in the state of Indiana.

Should Indiana, as a state, be investing state funds in cryptocurrency?

I would certainly explore it, but everything has to meet those three criteria that I just mentioned to you. It has to be something that has a good respectable yield, but also provides liquidity and is secure. So I can not say today, "Yes, we're going after something like that." It has a great deal of risk. So it's probably unlikely, but I would say I would evaluate any option that's going to work hard for Hoosier tax dollars to grow.

One of your competitors, Pete Seat, is seen by some as having connections to the Holcomb administration, the Holcomb regime. He formerly worked for him at the state party. Does that concern you at all or does that complicate your path to the nomination?

Not at all. I have great respect for leadership in the state. I am who I am, I'm running on my own platform, my own experience, and my credentials of what I do. So, no, it really doesn't concern me. I know that the state party is going to be a fair playing ground for all of the candidates for Treasurer.

Your former boss, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, became implicated in impeachment testimony as someone who had an "irregular channel" of communication with the former president’s personal attorney, Rudy Guiliani, according to testimony from the former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland. Do you agree that there were some untoward circumstances in his dealing with Ukraine around nuclear power?

No, I don't at all. I do not at all. I'm not going to speak specifically to the Ukraine, I can't talk about that, but I will tell you that was an issue that was hijacked by the media. I do not believe that Rick Perry did anything unethical there or anywhere else during his tenure as the secretary of energy. What I saw was a very strong charismatic leader who put the United States’ interests first. Being able to be an energy partner with the Ukraine or any other friendly allies and providing them with the source of electricity so that they can have a free society without the threat of having their electricity source cut off or using it as a way to bully them. He did that in a great professional manner. And I'm super proud that he is a friend of mine. He's agreed to do a video for me, for my campaign. I haven't recorded that yet, but he is definitely a supporter.

The last time I saw you in person was in Vigo county in October before the 2016 election. You were doing a Women for Trump luncheon at a pizza place there. How did you get onto the Trump train, what appealed to you about his candidacy back then?

Thank you. I feel like I've given you these questions because they're all things I like to talk about.

I ran Carly Fiorina's campaign as a co-chair with [former Lt. Gov.] Sue Ellspermann and for the state of Indiana. When Carly dropped out, I got a call from Rex Early and he asked me if I would run the Trump campaign. And I had to give it a lot of thought and prayer because I wasn't sure who I was going to back at that point. And I started thinking about what's really important to me in a candidacy for president. And I will tell you, my husband and I both had lost business due directly to federal government overreach. My biggest client was a company that developed fossil fuels and developed the second-largest coal producer in the state of Indiana, was my largest client, and I was going to lose my job there.

I knew I was going to lose my work because they were laying off coal miners left and right. And then my husband worked for a private college and they were laying off people left and right, because the federal government was creating regulatory standards for these private colleges that were making it extremely difficult for them to stay in business. So my husband was losing work. The economy was an issue for me that was right in my face. The other two issues that were really important to me are national security and the Supreme Court legacy. Donald Trump had already been talking about who he was going to potentially nominate as Supreme Court Justice and that gave me a feeling of confidence and transparency, 'cause I liked the people that he was thinking about—and then-national security.

Of course, being a businessman with the economy, there was no question about it. So those three factors led me to say, "Yes, I will back this candidate and do it wholeheartedly and proudly." So the economy, national security, and the Supreme court. And because of that, I felt good about going to work for him but I'll tell you a lot of my colleagues in the Republican establishment said to me, "Are you crazy? This is going to follow your career and that's not a good move for you." I was very happy to take on that challenge. And it was an amazing thing to watch the perceptions change from my kids saying to me, "Oh, don't wear that t-shirt mom. I don't want my friends to see you." To then coming home and going, "Hey, can I get some of those t-shirts for my friends?"

I can hear that pride of working for the Trump administration in your voice. Was there anything that you weren't proud of or anything that you disagreed with the president about during his time in office?

I can't think of anything. Because to me, the things that really matter are the things that touch American lives. I felt like he did everything he said he was going to do, and those things were making lives better in the United States and making us stronger around the world. So I can't say there was anything.

A few final questions that I’ll be asking each candidate for treasurer: How much money would you be responsible for administrating as Indiana State Treasurer?

Every day the treasurer has to manage, oversee $8 to $9 billion dollars in revenues, and that money then goes into all the different accounts for the state.

How many accounts does the state have?

There are three major accounts that those go into.

And what are those three accounts?

I want to say there's a Medicare account. I'm not sure. So I don't want to give you the wrong answer, but I'm happy to follow up with you just to make sure I've got the right. Let me double-check it and I'll email you about that.

In this position, you'd be responsible for a significant amount of money. What's the biggest financial mistake you've made in your personal finances and what did you learn from that?

I don't like to talk about this, but I know it's out there. There was a very difficult time in my life where I was telling you my husband and I had both lost work. Also during that time, two of our four children had six surgeries. They were both very ill and we had a lot of medical bills and we had a lot of household operating bills that we were having trouble paying because we both lost work. During that time, we made the very difficult choice to declare bankruptcy. And I certainly was not proud of that. It was not a fun decision to have to make, but in my life and in my work, I always try to base my decisions off of reality. And the reality was that that was our best choice. That was really our only realistic choice.

We made that choice. That was 2016. We now are as debt-free as anybody. We have our cars and homes, but I'm really proud of where we've come since then because I never gave up and I always persevered. I tried to turn it into a positive. It was an extremely difficult time in my life and we've bounced back from that in a great way. It was because we have faith in God and we persevered. And so I really feel like I took a very difficult time and turned it into a positive in my life. I have a really good credit score right now. I watch it and I'm really proud of that.