Monroe County will have a new District 3 commissioner in 2025. Democratic candidate Jody Madeira won the seat against Republican Joe Van Deventer.
WFIU/WTIU News called the race with 78 precincts reporting and more than 59 percent of ballots cast in Madeira's favor.
Madeira was at the Monroe County Democratic watch party when the vote totals started to come in Tuesday night.
“There's health access disparities, there's broadband and technology disparities, and those are things we really need to fix,” she said.
Madeira is an IU Maurer School of Law professor. She said she will prioritize county plans for its new jail site, access to community resources, and improving the city-county relationship.
She added she and her opponent, Joe Van Deventer agreed on these points.
“This entire campaign went incredibly well. It's amazing just how collegial everything was. We saw eye to eye. We both know that there have to be living wage jobs. We both know that there has to be truly affordable housing,” Madeira said.
Her opponent, Republican Joe Van Deventer, is the director of street operations for the City of Bloomington. He was at the republican watch party on the east side of Bloomington at Hoosier Hank’s.
“Jody has been an awesome opponent. I feel like we've agreed on really a lot of issues during the campaign. So, I feel like Monroe County will win either way,” he said.
His priorities also included city-county relationships and the new jail site.
Read more: IU professor Jody Madeira announces candidacy for County Commissioner
Van Deventer criticized the County Development Ordinance, which controls zoning and subdivision ordinances for the county, except Bloomington and Ellettsville.
“I wanted to be a voice for the rural community, which is really severely affected by this new draft that they have,” he said. “I think that will make our housing shortage worse than it already is by restricting housing in the rural areas. With the jail, I really think the jail should stay downtown, where there are services, transportation for these folks.”
Commissioner District 3 covers the eastern portion of the county, which includes Benton, Clear Creek, Salt Creek, Washington and parts of Perry and Polk townships. Candidates must live in the district, but all voters in the county may vote for them.
Madeira beat out two opponents in the May primary: incumbent Penny Githens and Steve Volan, a former Bloomington city council member.
Ethan Sandweiss contributed to this story.
