Checking out the key Indiana House races up for grabs this year
(INDIANA CAPITAL CHRONICLE) — The entire Indiana House is on the ballot, with nearly 170 Hoosiers vying to claim one of 100 seats.
Some districts have three-way races and others are guaranteed to have new officeholders after incumbents left.
Candidates in competitive districts are optimistic about their chances. But about three-dozen incumbents face no opposition at all.
Republicans hold 70 seats, while Democrats have 30. The GOP supermajority means that Republicans don’t need Democrats present to conduct business, like passing legislation.
Democrats hope to end the four-seat supermajority, but Republicans plan to maintain control.
Read on for a rundown of the races.
District targeted
Among Democrats’ targets in a spring “Break the Supermajority” tour was House District 39. Incumbent Rep. Jerry Torr, a Republican, retired to focus more on his job in title insurance.
That left the seat in booming — and perhaps, purpling — Hamilton County open. Republican Danny Lopez and Democrat Matt McNally want to succeed Torr.
Lopez, an external communications vice president at Pacers Sports & Entertainment, called running in a competitive race “exciting.”
He previously has served as chief of staff for Strada Education Network, as well as key advisor positions for Gov. Eric Holcomb and then-Lt. Gov. Holcomb. He’s also worked for former U.S. Sen Dan Coats and former Gov. Mike Pence, according to his LinkedIn.
McNally, meanwhile, served 16 years in naval aviation and two in the reserves before transitioning to the Air National Guard. He’s retired from the military and but still works as an airline pilot.
It’s McNally’s second bid for the seat. He lost to Torr in 2022, with about 48% to the incumbent’s roughly 52%. He announced his current campaign before Torr went public about retirement.
McNally said the abruptly open seat didn’t change his calculus because “if you’re putting your hat in the ring to serve — if it truly is about service — it can’t be about” a particular opponent.
Priorities, controversies
Lopez said he entered the race because he wanted to “impact” the “generational challenges” Indiana is facing in health, infrastructure, literacy, numeracy and more.
Asked about his “day one” legislative priorities, Lopez said he’d like to work on workforce and property tax solutions.
“It’s easy to take a blunt instrument to our tax code. Certainly, we should be doing everything we can to keep our taxes low and simplified,” he said. “But the reality is that we’ve built amenities in Hamilton County, certainly in Carmel and Westfield, that make them attractive places to live … . And our mayors, who are fantastic, the best of the state, have to have the resources they need to continue investing in those amenities.”
Lopez, who serves on the state’s judicial nominating commission, said he’d also like to address the attorney shortage and find ways to bring problem-solving courts to more counties.
McNally said he viewed the job as a “continuation of my service” — and as a way to practice what he preaches to his daughter.
“I tell her all the time: ‘Stand up for what’s right, serve your community,’” he said. “And when I made the decision to run, I felt like, if I don’t do it, how can I look her in the eye and tell her (that)?”
McNally hoped to use his experience in the military and as a Veterans of Foreign Wars volunteer at the Legislature. Giving the Department of Veterans Affairs access to Bureau of Motor Vehicles data could help the state identify and better serve struggling veterans, he said.
Another “day one” priority was finding a way to mandate insurance coverage of ultrasounds for women with dense breast tissue. Such women have greater risk of developing breast cancer even as their tissue density makes cancer harder to find on mammograms.
Lopez’s campaign made headlines earlier this month when it released an advertisement accusing McNally of supporting “boys” playing girls sports. Lawmakers in 2022 banned transgender girls from participating in girls K-12 sports, overturning a veto by Holcomb in the process, the Indianapolis Star reported.
At the time, Holcomb described the ban as unnecessary because the Indiana High School Athletic Association had procedures in place and reported no finalized requests by transgender girls.
McNally agreed with Holcomb’s take — and called Lopez’s advertisement a distraction in comments to Fox59.
He told the Capital Chronicle that he’d “keep running my race.”
Lopez, meanwhile, said campaigns are “about drawing contrast between me and my opponent” — and that the advertisement was a way to do so.
And he said McNally had also misrepresented his beliefs in campaign materials. Lopez said he supported in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and expanded access to birth control, and did not support book bans.
“I’m the son of a public school librarian and a children’s author. I’m never for banning books,” Lopez added. “I think the Legislature took an important step in pushing school districts to have plans. They didn’t legislate how those plans have to look.”
Challenging an incumbent
Incumbents often enjoy major advantages: stockpiled donations, political connections, an experienced campaign team and more.
But even seats with incumbents can be competitive.
In the race to take House District 25, freshman Rep. Becky Cash, a Republican, is fending off a challenge by Democrat Tiffany Stoner.
Cash won the open seat in 2022, with 53% of the vote to Democrat Jen Bass-Patino’s 47%. The district covers parts of Boone and Hendricks counties.
Cash, a mother of six, runs a nutrition business and has focused much of her personal and legislative efforts toward supporting disabled children and adults, according to her campaign website.
Cash’s campaign didn’t reply to requests for comment.
Stoner is a mother of four who previously worked in technology but now runs a commercial photography business, per her campaign website.
She wanted to “proactively protect” IVF, noting that’s how she was able to have her youngest three children. Stoner also proposed a new tourism-related mechanism to ensure Indiana visitors contribute to infrastructure maintenance.
Stoner was feeling good about her chances.
She noted that Bass-Patino was caucused in and got a late start on the campaign trail. Stoner, however, launched her first advertisement in January, according to her Facebook. And she’s campaigned aplenty in Brownsburg, where Bass-Patino lost.
“I feel really confident that we’ve done absolutely everything we can do to flip the seat,” Stoner said. “… We have knocked on doors, we have call-banked, we have held events. We’ve been absolutely strategic and incessant.”
Cash has been the target of television ads pointing out she supports having no exceptions to Indiana’s abortion ban.
Sixty more contested seats
In a pair of races, Hoosiers will have three choices.
In southern Indiana’s House District 71, Democratic Rep. Wendy Dant Chesser — in her seat for just four months — faces Republican Scott Hawkins and Libertarian Greg Hertzsch.
And in Indianapolis’ House District 97, Democratic Rep. Justin Moed — first elected to the seat in 2012 — is up against Republican Stephen Whitmer and Libertarian Mark Renholzberger.
Six other races are open after Republicans retired. A seventh was left open after a Democrat chose to seek another office.
- House District 24, with Republican Hunter Smith, a former Indianapolis Colts punter, and Democrat Josh Lowry. It’s another district targeted in the “Break the Supermajority” tour.
- House District 29, with Republican Alain Shonkweiler and Democrat Christopher Hartig.
- House District 51, with Republican Tony Isa and Democrat Judy Rowe.
- House District 53, with Republican Ethan Lawson and Democrat Nate Anderson.
- House District 68, with Republican Garrett Bascom and Democrat Lisa Barker.
- House District 77, with Democrat Alex Burton running unopposed.
- House District 90, with Republican Andrew Ireland and Democrat Dominque Davie.
More than 50 other races have two names on the ballot, according to a general election candidate list from the Office of the Secretary of State. That leaves 36 incumbents unopposed.
Find who’s on your ballot on the state-run IndianaVoters.com.