INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Esthen ExchangeIndiana Republican State Committee on Thursday elected longtime party activist Anne Hathaway to lead the state GOP as its next chair.

Hathaway, the first woman to hold the position, has served as Indiana’s representative on the Republican National Committee for the past five years and will continue in that role in which she chairs the panel organizing the 2024 Republican Convention in Milwaukee.

She’s the president and chief executive officer of Hathaway Strategies, an Indianapolis-based public affairs firm and previously served in the White House as an aide to former Vice President Dan Quayle.

Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb issued a statement saying Hathaway’s “knowledge, relationships, and ability to connect with and bring folks together to advance a common cause will prove invaluable as we work to elect even more Republicans across the state.”

Hathaway succeeds Kyle Hupfer as state party chair.

Republicans control not only the governor’s office but also both of Indiana’s U.S. Senate seats, seven of the state’s nine congressional districts, have supermajorities in both chambers of the General Assembly and hold more than 90% of county-elected offices across the state. Numerous Republicans are vying for the nomination to replace Holcomb, who cannot run again because of term limits.

In 2019, 19 mayoral offices in Indiana flipped to Republicans, including in many Democratic strongholds such as Kokomo and Muncie.