Just days after launching a last-minute challenge to longtime Democratic congressman André Carson, Democrat Destiny Wells sparked partisan infighting with a series of key Substack posts.
In the post, Wells blamed Carson’s failed campaign for Indiana Democratic Party chairman and criticized the state for failing to properly devote resources to winning the election.
The social media battle appears to be exacerbating pre-existing rifts within the state’s minority party, reflecting a national reckoning between party power brokers and self-proclaimed anti-establishment challengers.
Wells, who narrowly lost the 2025 race for Indiana Democratic Party chair after two unsuccessful bids for statewide office, is trying to position herself in the latter camp, which she calls the “new guard.”
Encouraged by the emergence of a Democratic candidate in every state Senate race (the first since 1974), Wells published a blog post on February 7 taking aim at the state Democratic establishment. She claimed Carson killed her prospects as party chair by instructing two members of the party’s state central committee in “a series of behind-the-scenes calls” to vote for eventual winner Karen Tallian.
But Carson and one of the group said that wasn’t the case.
“Andre never told us how to vote,” Rep. Mitch Gore, D-Indianapolis, wrote in a post on X.
“I oppose your chairmanship because you are a narcissistic demagogue who reeks of failure,” he told Wells.
