Kent Abernathy seeking election to Congress in 2020
Military veteran, businessman and former commissioner of the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) Kent Abernathy has decided to run for Indiana’s 5th Congressional District, a seat currently occupied by Susan Brooks, who has decided not to run for re-election.
While he does not currently live in Hamilton County, Abernathy has a long history here.
Abernathy
“I have been in Zionsville for eight years,” Abernathy told The Reporter. “Prior to that for about 20 years I lived in Carmel. All three of my sons graduated from Carmel High School.”
According to his official biography, Abernathy began his public service at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He served seven years in active duty, then moved to the private sector as a banker and business consultant.
He remained active in the Army Reserve and National Guard, serving as commander at the company, battalion and brigade levels. In 2003, he volunteered to return to active duty in the United States Army, serving in leadership positions at the Pentagon and in Baghdad, Iraq.
Abernathy retired from the Army Reserve as a Colonel.
In 2010, he joined the administration of Governor Mitch Daniels as Chief of Staff of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. In 2015, he was appointed by Governor Mike Pence as commissioner of the BMV.
“After the Pence administration I decided to take a break from state government, and I was very quickly chosen to be executive director of a national commission studying military national public service,” Abernathy said. “That was winding down over the summer and my duties as executive director were starting to diminish. It was time to start looking to come back home and I had reached out to Susan Brooks’ office, as well as Todd Young and Mike Braun. I thought the next logical step for me would be to work in a congressional office because of what I had been involved with and my background in general. I had reached out to Brooks’ office just a week before she announced she was not running. Almost immediately I had a number of folks who reached out in phone calls and emails within days to say that I should consider running.”
When asked what makes him the best candidate to represent the 5th District, Abernathy told The Reporter, “I believe the breadth and depth of experience in important. I am the only veteran running, which I think is particularly critical because one the things Congress is asked to do is to raise and support the armies and navies. I have worked not only in the military but also in business. I have worked with a number of businesses and leaders in various industries, so I understand business and how it works.”
While he has not run for office before, Abernathy has experience in state government office working for Governors Daniels and Pence.
“I have a proven track record of getting things done in that type of environment,” Abernathy said. “Most recently I would point to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. By the time I left we had made moves that had made transformational change. Most important was an external evaluation customer survey where we scored a 96.3 percent, which by any standard in business is considered incredible. I used to tell my staff that is more important in our case because our customers are also our bosses; they’re called citizens.”
Abernathy said one foundation of his platform will be about upholding the Constitution.
“When I became an officer, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution,” Abernathy told The Reporter. “Not surprisingly with my background, I will focus on supporting the military and honoring our veterans.”
He also wanted to stress his focus on fiscal responsibility.
“We have a $22 trillion debt right now, and if you look at the numbers, what we pay on the interest, what we pay on the interest would fund 46 to 47 percent of the current defense budget,” Abernathy said. “If interest rates were to move at all we would be in serious trouble. That is a major threat. Not to mention that fact that it is unsustainable. It is not fair and it is unreasonable to have future generations bear that burden. It puts a drag on wage growth and contributes to the higher cost of living. It limits the federal government’s ability to respond to a future crisis. We simply need to live within our means. That is a significant issue.”
He said his core principles were established in his early days in the military.
“From my days at West Point, one of the first things you learn as a cadet is the cadet motto: Duty, honor, country,” Abernathy said. “That stuck with me my entire life. It has been my guiding light up till now. I am sure it will be my guiding light in Washington when I go to Congress. It always comes back to duty, honor, country. That is what voters can expect when sending me out there. I don’t believe that being a politician is meant to be a career. I am concerned by career politicians and career bureaucrats in Washington. I think we need to have people out there who make tough decisions, who do the right thing, put country first, focus on providing solutions for the American people, get things done and come home.”
Abernathy stressed that he is not seeking to make congressional service his new career path.
“The President is term-limited,” Abernathy told The Reporter. “The Governor is term-limited. Some states like Michigan have term limits on their legislature. It is interesting that Congress will put term limits on everyone else but do not have term limits on themselves. That is not the way the founding fathers intended this to be. George Washington the choice to continue staying on forever, but he made the choice after two terms to step down. I think we need to follow that example.”