Lake for Congress 2020

MUNCIE, Ind. – Community activist and businesswoman Jeannine Lee Lake announced on Independence Day that she is seeking a second bid for the Democratic nomination to become the first United States Congresswoman representing Indiana’s Sixth Congressional District. 

Lake – who won the May 2018 primary but lost to Congressman Greg Pence (Vice-President Mike Pence’s brother) in the general election in November – is a thirty-year journalist and longtime community leader who chairs the Feed My Sheep charity. 

A wife, mother and grandmother who has lived in the Muncie area for 30 years, she was raised in Crawfordsville along with her 12 brothers and two sisters born to Rev. Clarence I. Lee and the late Betty Jean Lee, local pastors in Montgomery County.

As a longtime resident and community leader in Muncie and Delaware County, she is an outspoken women’s rights champion, an LBGTQ equality activist and a true advocate for all. She has a proven history of being involved with education, business, religious and health sectors. She also celebrates public safety officials with special admiration for law enforcement officials.

Her professional career started with The Muncie Star/Gannett in 1990 and continued with the company until 2005 when she left that position to open Grandma Betty’s Ice Cream Shop, which closed in 2015 after 11 seasons. She is currently Publisher and Chief Executive Officer of Elite Media Group, which publishes The Good News (serving the same communities as the former Muncie Times). 

Besides being chair of Feed My Sheep Thanksgiving Outreach and am involved with the Muncie Matters Police Officer’s Community Alliance, Big Brothers Big Sisters, the East Central Indiana Minority Business Council and many other local organizations. 

A graduate of Ball State University, Lake has been married to her husband, Aaron, for 22 years. He is an associate director at the Indiana Academy, an assistant pastor at Greater Grace Church and also involved in a variety of community ministries. The couple has three sons, Charles, Layton and Nahshon, and a daughter, Constance. They also have two grandsons, Aiden Elijah and Jonah Durant and a Saint Bernard named Ditka.