Diego Morales has been the Indiana Secretary of State for four months after making history in 2022 as the first Latino elected to a statewide office in Indiana.
Morales was in the Gem City Wednesday for a Roundtable Meet and Greet organized by Frankfort Mayor Judy Sheets. He reiterated his main goal to the largely Hispanic crowd that showed up which is to get every community member to register to vote and head to the polls Tuesday.
“Things are going great because when we visit every county, we visit with county clerks, county prosecutors, sheriffs and schools or in community events like this reaching out to the minority community,” said Morales. “My job is to encourage them to be part of the process to register to vote and get out there and vote.”
Prior to becoming the Secretary of State, Morales served as aide in the Secretary of State’s office under Todd Rokita and as an aide to former Governor Mike Pence before Pence left to become the Vice President of the United States.
He was born in Guatemala in 1979, legally immigrated to the United States with his family in 1999 and graduated from Silver Creek High School in Sellersburg. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University, an MBA from Purdue University and an International MBA from Tillburg University in the Netherlands. He has also served in the United States Army and Indiana National Guard.
“For my office specifically is voter turnout,” said Morales. “That’s something I want to increase is the voter turnout for our fellow Hoosiers. We’re going to be very creative and encourage as many people as possible to vote in the final process.”
Morales said they were going to set up shop at the Indiana State Fair and they are going to try and do the same at local county fairs.
About 50 to 55 individuals turned out to see and hear Morales Wednesday on the second floor of the 51 West Event Center in downtown Frankfort. He also said he was very appreciative of Mayor Sheets for putting on such an event.
“The Mayor is going a great job of reaching out to the Latino community,” said Morales. “Clearly, you saw that by the turnout. I am grateful to Mayor Sheets to allow me to come here and put this event together.”
Sheets said she was happy with the event.
“I think this is exciting for Frankfort and I love to see the community come together,” said Sheets. “One thing I want to make sure of is that the Latino community understands how much I care for them and we want them to become involved in our community. I love the fact that we have a lot of youth here this evening.”
Sheets added Morales was the first state official they invited to come here because of the large Hispanic community.