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There are two main candidates for the Indiana governor's race in 2020: Republican incumbent Eric Holcomb and Democratic challenger Woody Myers. Here's what we know. Indianapolis Star

Democrats will have their state convention all digitally on Saturday, a first-of-its-kind event in Indiana.

Originally scheduledto draw hundreds of party insiders to the Indiana Convention Center, the party decided to host the event virtually amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

State delegates will vote on the party platform, formally accept Linda Lawson as the lieutenant governor candidate and select a nominee for attorney general.

The convention also is a chance for candidates to officially launch their campaigns for November. Rather than squander that opportunity on a weekend, Democrats split those speeches off into a prime-time pre-convention that was broadcast June 4.

Several party leaders, including gubernatorial candidate Dr. Woody Myers, Mayor Joe Hogsett and Pete Buttigieg,spoke during that event. Several are likely to speak again Saturday.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also will deliver a prerecorded message about the importance of the November election.

Here's what you need to know:

State Sen. Karen Tallian and Jonathan Weinzapfel, who is a former Evansville mayor and former state representative, are vying to be the attorney general nominee.

State delegates will vote by mail and the winner will be announced June 18.

Inside the race:Tallian and Weinzapfel both think theCurtis Hill is vulnerable.

During the June 4 pre-convention, Tallian touted her time in the Statehouse, saying she's worked to reform health care, mortgage foreclosures, marijuana and bail laws.

She said internal polling shows she can defeatembattled Attorney General Curtis Hillor any Republican.

"I have built coalitions with diverse groups all over the state," she said. "I will walk into that office and clean house."

Weinzapfel said he would protect health care, including ending a lawsuit Hill has joined to overturn the Affordable Care Act.

"I'll protect our seniors," he said, "with more transparency in nursing homes, especially now (when) we need higher safety standards, and ... reform our criminal justice system, now. More fairness, more justice. In these tough economic times, I'll protect consumers and workers and make sure our small businesses have a level playing field."

The convention will give Myers and Lawsona second bite at the apple.

During remarks at the pre-convention June 4, Myers tackled his experiences with racism.

Myers, who is the state's first black nominee for governor, said his great, great grandfather, Arthur Myers, was a Civil War veteran from Kentucky who was the biological son of his slave owner, Joseph B. Myers, and of Heleary Clara, who was Joseph's slave.

"My aunt would tell me stories of what slave women would do to discourage the repeated sexual assaults from the slave master and his sons," Myers said. "Imagine also the angst of the brothers, sons and fathers of those girls and women, who were forced to stand by powerless to intercede.

Millionaire venture capitalist and former state health chief Woody Myers announces his bid for governor.(Photo: Chris Sikich)

"What my ancestors endured incenses me today as much as it did then."

Myers, who is a third-generation Hoosier, said his family moved north thinking Indiana was a land of hope. He said the stategovernment's intertwined history with the Ku Klux Klan a century ago, though, is not lost on him.

"I grew up in Indianapolis in the 1960s," Myers said. "As a boy the color of my skin was license for some to treat me with disrespect, instigate fights, falsely accuse me with theft and humiliate me in front of others.

"And I was lucky. By age 21 only once did I have a handgun pointed at me out of racial hatred. And I was never shot."

Myers, who has a medical degree from Harvard and an MBA from Stanford, said that childhood inspired him to achieve. He said he spent his life channeling his anger into passion.

"Experiences like mine are hard for many to understand," he said. "America is not yet the nation we could be. We promote the idea of liberty and justice for all, but we haven't finished the work necessary to make that a reality."

He said today's protesters are reacting with a force not seen since the 1960s. He hopes Hoosiers can work together for a more just future.

"George Floyd's death was a spark," he said. "Let's use today's energy to move forward with radically improved well-funded schools, affordable health care, effective economic polices and sustainable climate practices."

Lawson will have another crack of reaching a wider audience.

The choice of Lawson as a running mate May 8was somewhat overshadowed by the reopening of the economy. She also spoke at the pre-convention June 4, but much of the attention was on the protests that continueto rock Indianapolis.

Having never expressed interest in a run for governor or lieutenant governor, Lawson, 71, was a somewhat surprising choice. The first woman to join the Hammond Police Department, she rose to the rank of captain before retiring and moving to Nashville in Brown County, where she serves on the police merit board.

Linda Lawson, State Representative, at a meeting to discuss upcoming Indiana House and Senate bills that will seek to close the male and female wage gaps, Indanapolis, Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2018. (Photo: Robert Scheer/IndyStar)

Lawson knows what it's like to fight the system, saying she filed a challenge through the Indiana Equal Opportunity Commission in 1975 alleging discrimination when Hammond at first refused to hire her onto the police department. She won.

Lawson served in the minority in the Indiana House for much of the past decade and she indicated it's been painful to watch the GOP stamp out Democrat initiative after initiative.

She told IndyStar she wants to pick up the pieces.

"Therewere a lot of things that I cared a great deal about that never came to fruition (in the legislature)," she said.

A few goals come top-of-mind. She would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. She would ensure utility companies can't charge Hoosiers for declining revenueamid the pandemic.

"We have a governor who is always putting businesses before people," she said.

She's concerned about families that don't have resources for childcare and the delay some Hoosier are facing in receiving unemployment checks. She worries that unemployment is much higher than 17% in many rural areas of the state.

"I don't think there are any plans out there for when COVID-19 is over," she said. "It's going to be different. We're going to have to train people (for new jobs)"

While it's challenging, she said she is working the campaign trail, just differentlywith phone calls, conference calls, Zoom meetings.

"We're keeping up with the times," she said, "wearing a mask, utilizing hand sanitizer, not shaking hands and kissing babies. We're doing our best. We're at it every single day."

Democrats think they have a real shot to win the open 5th Congressional District, so that race will receive a lot of attention Saturday.

State Rep. Christina Hale addresses the crowd following her nomination for lieutenant governor during the 2016 Indiana Democratic state convention at the Indiana Convention Center, Indianapolis, Saturday, June 18, 2016.(Photo: Jenna Watson/IndyStar)

Cheri Bustos, D-Illinois, chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, will speak to delegates.

That election will pit Republican state Sen. Victoria Spartz, who is a far-right candidate and staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, againstmoderate Democrat Christina Halein a historically Republican district that has shown signs it could be shiftingto the left.

The GOP state convention will be5:30 to 7:00 p.m. on June 18, broadcast live through a partnership with WISH-TV.

The convention previously had been scheduled for June 20 at the Indiana Convention Center, but like Democrats, the Republicans wanted to reach a wider weekday audience once the event went virtual.

Gov. Eric Holcomb and other party leaders will speak. Republican delegates also will conduct a mail-in vote for the attorney general nomination.

Hill is being opposed by former Congressman Todd Rokita,attorney John Westercamp and Decatur County Prosecutor Nate Harter.

Contact IndyStar reporter Chris Sikich at Chris.Sikich@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @ChrisSikich.

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Here's what's happening at the Indiana Democratic state convention - IndyStar