In U.S. politics, the path to power does not start at the top. Candidates typically start with modest pursuits like city councils and school boards before aspiring to higher offices. For Valerie McCray, the Democratic candidate seeking to be Indiana’s first-ever black woman U.S. senator, that journey began with a campaign for the highest office in the land.
In 2020, McCray, a former prison psychologist, ran for president of the United States in an effort, she says, to bring attention to mental health.
“At the time, it was still taboo to talk about mental health, and the prisons were beginning to be the mental health hospitals just for poor people,” McCray told Capital B Gary.
“We were going through COVID, and everyone was doing their campaigns virtually, so it almost made things doable before because we didn’t have any money.”
Although her presidential campaign didn’t take off, McCray’s experience laid the groundwork for her current run for the U.S. Senate. To win the Democratic nomination, she defeated former Indiana lawmaker and lobbyist Marc Carmichael in the May primary, winning by nearly 20 percentage points in Lake County.
Now, McCray has a chance to make history, but her candidacy is more than just a milestone. As a Black woman deeply focused on mental health and women’s health issues, McCray brings a distinctive political perspective at a critical time. With Vice President Kamala Harris leading the Democratic ticket in the presidential race, McCray’s platform resonates with broader concerns about health care and equity.
“For her to take on this test — the courage, the strength, the fortitude, the motivation,” state Sen. Lonnie Randolph told Capital B Gary.
“The difficult thing is getting people in the state of Indiana, particularly African American people and minority people, to believe in her position where she can win,” he said. “I think the setting is there. The only question is whether or not we as a people, not just African American people in this state, will rise up and support her and put over that threshold.”
In the primary earlier this year, just 11% of registered voters in Lake County showed up to the polls. A turnout resembling the 60% seen in the 2020 general election could enhance her chances of being elected.
McCray made a stop in Gary at Harris’ Indiana campaign headquarters on Broadway looking to increase her footprint in the region. The narrow hallways buzzed as campaign workers moved like focused worker bees, laying out pamphlets, signs and voting information.
Also moving through the building was economist and former business research director at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business Morton Marcus, who worked as a chauffeur for Carmichael during his campaign but was won over by McCray and joined her staff after the primary.
“I heard her talk many times when I was working for Carmichael,” Marcus told Capital B Gary.
“What drew me to her is that she recognizes and says out loud that about half of the people who have mental health problems, many of their problems could be resolved if they had more money. And when you start to think about mental health, it connects with poverty, it connects with housing, it connects with jobs, it connects with so many things that we all talk about.”
A McCray victory would carry historical significance but could also make an immediate political impact. With West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat turned independent who still caucuses with the party, set to retire, Democrats risk losing their already thin 51-49 majority in the U.S. Senate.
“Having a full Congress that is well represented by Democrats has to be the goal because otherwise you can’t get much done,” McCray said.
“It would mean that the middle class, the working, barely working class of people, would have a chance. Businesses, young businesses, and new startups, would have a chance to get started. Homeowners would have a chance to actually own a home,” she said. “We could rebuild areas like Gary with the people who live here, instead of having outside entities owning all the properties around. We’re having the same issue with Indianapolis.”
McCray didn’t revel in the joy of her primary victory for long.
“I would love to say that it was an exhilarating moment, but I immediately went into the work that was next. I’m still waiting on that exhilarating feeling. Once I had an idea of who my opponent really is, it changed from being a campaign I want to win to the world and our nation depend on me to get this seat.”
That opponent, Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Banks, currently holds a double-digit lead over McCray in recent polling. Banks, who represents Indiana’s 3rd Congressional District, declined to debate McCray ahead of the election. The Banks campaign did not respond to requests for comment from Capital B.
Banks is an Afghanistan veteran who served in the Indiana Senate before being elected to the U.S. House. He is backed by top Republican figures, including former President Donald Trump, U.S. Sen. JD Vance, and current U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, who leads Indiana’s gubernatorial race.
McCray and Banks’ plans for Hoosiers differ in many ways, but for McCray, their differences on abortion and the border are most glaring. Banks, a staunch supporter of abortion restrictions, introduced legislation earlier this year that would require states to annually submit a report to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on all payments of abortions with federal funds and publish the report on the state’s website.
“We have an archaic, backwards medical care system,” McCray said. “We have hospitals closing. Doctors don’t want to practice here and not in OB-GYN. There are situations where they hesitate to give basic care when sometimes abortion is what’s needed to save a woman’s life or their reproductive system.”
The ability to change things at the top, McCray said, most excites her about the possibility of being in the Senate.
“I want to effect policy changes, so I would be stretched in so many different directions,” she said. “Instead of moving from crisis to crisis, we can stop the crisis from happening in the first place. So that’s the framework.”
With the election less than a month away, McCray is building personal connections in Gary. After greeting potential voters and discussing sign distribution with campaign staff, she spoke to a group of around 30 women, most of them local, and recounted her years working with incarcerated women — drawing a direct line from what she learned then to the larger battle for reform she’s now fighting.
“I appreciate the fact that she sees things on a much broader scale and talks about them on a much broader scale than many politicians,” Marcus said. “She’s just not a politician.”
