Indiana Dem calls former Biden advisor Ron Klain a ‘jag-off’ as party pushes him to enter Indiana Senate race

Some Democrats are pushing former White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain to enter the 2024 Senate race in Indiana, but the Democratic candidate who was upset that the White House did not help more when he ran is speaking out.

“Quite frankly, you’re an jag-off for posting this Tweet Ron,” former Indiana Democratic Senate nominee Thomas McDermott, Jr., wrote in a tweet. “Neither you, or the National Dems lifted a finger to help any #Hoosier Dem win in the last election cycle. Now you post this? Get lost Ron.”

McDermott was responded to a tweet Klain sent calling for Indiana to find “some great candidates” to run for Senate in the state in 2024. To McDermott, Klain’s tweet was tasteless, and he even suggested the ex-White House staffer, who left President Biden in January 2021, could be setting up his own for Senate.

Following his departure from the White House, Indiana Democrats have pushed for Klain, in private and publicly, to enter the 2024 Senate race in the Hoosier State.

“Ron Klain would give Hoosier Democrats an incredible shot in the arm and a legitimate chance to win the open Senate seat,” said Kip Tew, the former Indiana Democratic Party state chair, Politico reported. “He would be an outstanding candidate, but more importantly, he would be a terrific United States senator and help make the institution a better place.”

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Ron Klain, former White House chief of staff. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Former Indiana Democratic Rep. Baron Hill, according to Politico, has also made an attempt at pitching the idea of a Senate bid to Klain.

“I thought with his profile, he would have been an excellent candidate,” Hill told the outlet following a phone call he made to Klain to discuss the idea. “I knew it was going to be a long shot.”

Klain, however, says he has no intentions of running for Senate, at least for now.

“Absolutely not,” Klain told Politico about a potential Senate run. “I’ve never run for anything in my life.”

“I think it’s a winnable race with the right candidate who can rally rising support in the ring counties around Indy, plus pull back some lost voters in places like Kokomo, Anderson, New Castle,” Klain added. “I think [Rep. Jim] Banks [a Republican candidate] is too extreme for the state.”

Then outgoing White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain delivers remarks during an event in the East Room of the White House on Feb. 1, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

However, others in the state, particularly McDermott, are not on board with the idea of having Klain as the state’s next senator.

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McDermott took aim at Klain over his potential interest in the Indiana Senate race, referring to him as a “jag-off” as he lashed out at him over his refusal to assist the party’s Senate candidate in the last cycle.

“Great idea Ron! Maybe we can find another #Hoosier Dem, [willing to] work hard for 18 months, to raise $1.6 million in small donations, only to get IGNORED by you (as White House Chief of Staff), the President, the National Dems & the [DSCC],” McDermott – the mayor of Hammond, Indiana, who served as the 2022 Democratic Senate nominee for the Hoosier State – wrote in a tweet. “Why don’t you give it a shot big guy?”

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In a statement to Politico, McDermott, who lost his bid for the Senate to incumbent GOP Sen. Todd Young last November, said he believes Klain’s tweet was “d—ish.”

“He knows full well that I ran and I worked hard,” he said. “We asked him specifically and Hoosiers in Washington, D.C., to help so we could compete in Indiana and were ignored.”