The bruising Statehouse fight over Indiana congressional redistricting is looming over the formal start of the legislative campaign season.
Indiana’s month-long candidate filing period opened Wednesday — with Republican senators who opposed redrawing the maps braced for primary challengers and Democrats believing the issue will boost their chances to break the GOP’s supermajority hold on the Legislature.
The first-day filers included Sen. Travis Holdman, one of the top Republican Senate leaders and among those who voted against the redistricting bill demanded by President Donald Trump.
Trump, Gov. Mike Braun and Trump-aligned groups have vowed to support Republican primary challengers to lawmakers who weren’t on board.
Holdman, R-Markle, told the Indiana Capital Chronicle he knew pro-redistricting groups were “looking for somebody” to oppose his bid for a fifth term.
When asked whether the eight Republican senators who opposed redistricting and are poised to seek reelection this year were taking the primary threats seriously, Holdman simply replied: “Oh, yeah.”
Democrats see political hope
Democrats expressed enthusiasm for their chances this election cycle, with about two dozen joining in a mass-filing effort at the Statehouse for legislative seats organized by the Indiana Rural Summit Coalition.
Michelle Higgs, the coalition founder who was the 2024 Democratic challenger to Republican Rep. Peggy Mayfield of Martinsville, said the candidates would share technology and research in order to help their campaigns.
“We showed up at the Statehouse to lend our voices that redistricting was a power grab to remove power from the people,” Higgs said. “It will be part of every candidate’s campaign to bring power back to the people.”
A top goal of Democrats in 2026 is to pick up the four Indiana House seats they need to break the Republican two-thirds supermajority that allows them to take action even without Democrats being present.
Republicans now hold a 70-30 House majority and have had supermajority control since the 2012 elections. The GOP has a 40-10 hold on the Senate, where its supermajority has been in place since the 2010 elections.
Democratic House Caucus Chair Carey Hamilton said candidate recruitment hasn’t been as difficult as it was in past election cycles — and that the redistricting fight helped her party.
“It made people more aware of what’s going on at the Statehouse, and even more people kind of coming out of the woodwork wanting to be involved,” Hamilton said. “I think there are some folks who maybe were considering running, where it really kind of sealed the deal.”
While Democrats are looking to have serious candidates in more legislative races around the state, the focus starts on about a half-dozen districts that had tight outcomes in the 2024 elections.
One of those is the Bloomington-area district where Democrat Amy Oliver, an attorney and Brown County School Board member, is looking to challenge Republican Rep. Dave Hall after he won with 51% of the vote in 2024.
Oliver said Wednesday she believed the supermajority control has led to the public being locked out of the Legislature’s decision making.
“One-party rule is not good for anybody, I think, in either direction,” Oliver said. “We want to flip all those districts because it’s really important that they debate in public.”
Republican Senate primaries expected
The first day of candidate filings saw redistricting opponent Sen. Greg Walker, R-Columbus, reverse his previous decision to retire from the Legislature and enter the race for a fifth term.
Walker will face at least one Republican primary challenger in Rep. Michelle Davis, R-Whiteland, who supported the redistricting bill.
Redistricting could also be a key issue in the reelection bid of Republican Sen. Jim Buck of Kokomo, who filed for a fifth term after voting against the proposed new map. Tipton County Commissioner Tracey Powell filed to challenge Buck.
Republican former Sen. John Ruckelshaus, meanwhile, is seeking a Statehouse return by filing for the seat now held by Democratic Sen. J.D. Ford of Indianapolis. Ruckelshaus previously served an adjoining district during 2017-21.
That could become an open seat as Ford told the Capital Chronicle he was considering a run for the 5th Congressional District seat now held by Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz.
Republican Sen. Greg Goode of Terre Haute, who voted against redistricting and plans to seek reelection this year, expressed hope that the map debate will fade away.
“I’m optimistic, from the standpoint of this is now ’26 and we’ve got a lot of work that we ought to be focused on during this legislative session,” Goode said in an interview. “I personally want to move forward.”
Goode was among the legislators to face intimidation threats over redistricting, with a swatting call that brought police to his home hours after Trump called him out by name as a “RINO,” or “Republican in name only,” in a social media post.
Goode said he wasn’t thinking about who might run against him in the May primary.
“It’s a free country,” he said. “Everybody should have the opportunity to run.”
This story has been updated to clarify Michelle Higgs’ role with the Indiana Rural Summit.
Indiana Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com.
