Indiana

Indiana elected neither a senator nor a governor this year, so the widest measure of the state is its vote for the U.S. House, all nine districts added together. Democratic candidates won it by 3.6 points. Two years earlier Republicans had won the same vote by 19.7. One seat changed hands: Democrat J.D. Ford beat Republican Victoria Spartz by 3.3 points in a Republican-held district Trump had carried by 16.7. Republicans kept their other six seats and Democrats hold three.

Two of the three statewide offices on the ballot changed party. Democrat Beau Bayh won secretary of state by 9.1 points, and Democrat Jessica Bailey won comptroller by 2.5. Republican Daniel Elliott kept the treasurer’s office by 2.1. Bayh’s Republican opponent, Max Engling, conceded on election night, Indiana Public Media reported, and Ballotpedia records that Republicans had held the office since 1994.^{1, 2}

Set against the 2024 presidential vote, the House vote moved 22.4 points toward the Democrats. Democratic candidates drew 86 votes for every 100 Kamala Harris won here, and Republicans drew 54 for every 100 of Trump’s. The votes counted come to 104% of the 2022 total and 66% of the 2024 presidential vote.

Every region moved by at least 19.2 points. Indiana’s part of the Chicago area moved furthest, 25.6 points, from R+2.9 to D+22.7. The Indianapolis metro area, which cast 31% of the state’s 2024 vote, went from R+3.2 to D+17.7. The Fort Wayne area went from R+19.0 to D+3.0, and the smaller metro areas, with 30% of the vote, from R+18.6 to D+3.2. The small towns and rural counties moved least and still voted Republican by 30.0.

Hamilton County, in the Indianapolis metro area, is the largest of the 11 counties that voted for Trump in 2024 and for Democratic House candidates this year. It went from R+6.1 to D+10.8 on 147,089 votes. WFYI, which calls the county a longtime Republican stronghold, found that Democrats won seven of the 10 state legislative seats that include it. One of the four Republican incumbents they beat was House Speaker Todd Huston, who lost District 37 to Democrat Lauren Cole by three points.³ Smaller counties moved further and crossed the same line: Vigo County, around Terre Haute, went from R+18.1 to D+7.9, and Vanderburgh County, around Evansville, from R+12.6 to D+13.2. Among the larger counties, the widest swing was in Lake County, in the Chicago area, which went from D+5.6 to D+32.3. No county moved toward the Republicans.

Republicans keep the governor’s office, which was not on the ballot, and both chambers of the legislature, with smaller majorities. Our count has the state House at 54 Republicans and 46 Democrats, down from 69 Republicans, and the Senate at 35 to 15, down from 40. WFYI counts sixteen House seats lost, the speaker’s among them.⁴ Both chambers will have new Republican leaders: House Republicans nominated Rep. Ben Smaltz of Auburn for speaker, and Sen. Chris Garten is the Senate president pro tem-elect.^{5, 6}

What Republicans lost in the House is the two-thirds mark. A veto is not what it protects: in the 1851 text of the constitution published by the Indiana Historical Bureau, a majority of all the members elected to each house overrides a veto, and two-thirds of each house makes a quorum to do business.^{7, 8} With 54 of 100 House seats, Republicans can no longer supply that number alone. In the Senate, with 35 of 50, they are still above it. “We broke the supermajority tonight, and I think we’re ready to be in the majority in two years,” said Kristina Moorhead, the Democrat who won the state Senate seat Ford left to run for Congress.²

The election also changed who runs elections. Ballotpedia describes the secretary of state’s office, which Bayh won, as the one that oversees them; the Republican incumbent, Diego Morales, had lost his party’s nomination at its convention in June.¹ Gov. Mike Braun said he supports Bayh’s effort to audit the office. “I view everything that happened on Tuesday as a golden opportunity and a wake-up call,” Braun said two days after the election.⁶

Voters approved two constitutional amendments, by Ballotpedia’s account.⁹ In the 1851 text of the amendments article, a proposal agreed to by two successive General Assemblies becomes part of the constitution if a majority of the electors ratify it.¹⁰ Public Question 1, with 58.4% voting yes in our count, lets courts deny bail where the proof is evident or the presumption of guilt strong and the state shows by clear and convincing evidence that no release conditions would protect another person or the community. Public Question 2, with 62.5%, lets city and town court judges live in the county where the court sits or in the nearest bordering county.⁹

In Marion County, which cast the most votes of any county in our count, Prosecutor Ryan Mears, a Democrat, won a third term by nearly 30 percentage points over Republican Philip Foust, whom Braun had endorsed on October 28. Democrat Kelvis Williams won the open sheriff’s office by about 31 points.¹¹ Incumbents won four of the five Indianapolis Public Schools board seats on the ballot, and voters approved a $95 million referendum for the district and participating charter schools. The winners take office in January as responsibility for the district’s buildings and transportation shifts to the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation, a body lawmakers created this year.¹²

In Hamilton County, Democrats defeated incumbents in three of four county council seats, and Charles Hollowell was elected sheriff.³

Republicans won again in seven of the offices in our count that they held: the treasurer’s office and six U.S. House seats. None was won by more than 10.6 points. Daniel Elliott’s margin was 2.1 points, Rudy Yakym’s 5.0 and Jim Baird’s 8.5, and the House seats lie in districts Trump had carried by 26 to 36 points. Most of the map stayed Republican: 77 of 92 counties voted for the party’s House candidates. In Hamilton County, Republican Christine Altman held her county commissioner seat by 323 votes.³

Todd Young’s Senate seat will be on the ballot in 2028, in a state that voted R+19.0 for president in 2024 and D+3.6 in this year’s U.S. House vote. The governor’s office will be on the same ballot: Braun is up for re-election in 2028, WFYI reported.³ WFYI reported on November 13 that the chair of the Indiana Republican Party had stepped down.⁴

The results were unofficial and recounts were still possible. Candidates had until November 17 to file recount petitions and party chairs until November 20, WFYI reported on November 11. Democrats in Senate District 45 said they were considering one; Garten, the Republican who holds the seat, cited a margin of 297 votes.^{11, 13}