Despite bitter state election loss, Fishers city councilor Vare says she's sticking around

Following a stinging state senate election defeat in which she was vastly outspent and faced a barrage of negative advertising, Fishers City Councilor Jocelyn Vare said she’s just getting started.

“I’m not going off into the sunset. This is not the last you will hear from me,” Vare said. “There is more work to be done.”

The questions she needs to decide is where?

Vare stayed on city council while running for the District 31 senate seat against incumbent Republican Kyle Walker and has one year left in her four-year term. Municipal primary elections are in May, 2023, but Vare, a Democrat, said she is still considering whether to run for council again or seek another office.

“Everything is crossing through my mind,” Vare said. “I love serving the community. I’m going to regroup and make a decision in January.”

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Several candidates have declared their intention to run for council or mayor in Carmel, Westfield and Noblesville, though the first day to file isn’t until Jan. 4. So far in Fishers, no one has said if they will run, including Mayor Scott Fadness.

Vare was elected in 2019 as one of three at-large candidates to win office in a four-person field, gathering 25% of the vote, its third most. She and Samantha DeLong were the first Democrats elected to the Fishers city or town councils. DeLong resigned in April, 2021, and was replaced by Democrat Crystal Neumann.

Vare decided to run for the newly redrawn 31st district partly because its boundaries appeared to favor a Democrat. It includes all of Fishers, which has trended Democratic recently, and a part of Marion County in Lawrence near Geist.

But Walker, who is from Lawrence, beat Vare by 11 percentage points, besting her in both Fishers and Marion County.

Still, Vare said she was encouraged by more than 16,000 votes she received in Fishers; it far outpaced the 4,950 when she ran for council.

"I know I was a great candidate," she said.

Walker performed strong overall in district-wide votes

Vare, however, won only 10 of 25 precincts in Democratic-friendly Delaware Township in west Fishers, and carried just six of 43 precincts in more conservative Fall Creek Township. She said the entrance and energy of a slate of conservative-Republican school board candidates hurt her tally. Four of the those candidates won seats on the Hamilton Southeastern schools board.

“I think there was a trickle-up effect,” said Vare, a mother of two who owns Propeller Marketing in Fishers, which promotes county tourism. “Those school board voters also voted for my opponent.”

Turn-out for the school board races was about the same as four years ago, but the conservative candidates each received substantially more votes than the winners in 2018.

“The school board votes were top of mind and a driver for many voters,” said Hamilton County Democratic Party Chairwoman Dayna Colbert.

Vare faced other obstacles, too.

Walker raised $1.5 million compared to $121,000 for Vare and he spent $800,000 on television advertising, claiming Vare, among other issues, didn’t support police or veterans. Vare was left to refute the allegations on her campaign Facebook page.

“The one thing I learned is it is very expensive to run for the legislature and he was extremely well funded,” Vare said. “I faced more attack ads than anyone.”

Hamilton County Republican Party Chairman Mario Massillamany said the school board candidates might have given Walker a boost but that’s not why he won.

“When voters compared their records they liked what they saw in Walker,” Massillamany said. “He was out there knocking on doors everyday," adding that the votes in Delaware Township bore that out.

“That’s where all the Democrats live,” he said. “That is a reflection of how good he was. And this shows it is still a Republican district.”

Walker said he topped Vare on her turf.

“She has represented the whole city of Fishers for three years and got 44% of the vote,” he said.

Abortion issue might have played a wild card in state senate race

Abortion might also have swung some voters in District 31 — ironically for Vare to the Republican’s side.

As a staunch supporter of abortion rights, Vare might have held an advantage with independent voters upset at the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe vs. Wade's constitutional right to abortion, as well as the state legislature’s passage of a restrictive abortion bill.

But Walker broke with most of his Republican colleagues and voted against Senate Bill 1. He said that could have neutralized any advantage Vare might have had.

“It helped by putting my position where the majority of the district is on the issue,” Walker said. “It was still a headwind, given the party’s position, but I think my standing out on the issue was helpful.”

What's next for Vare's political future?

Vare could run for council again in 2023 and if she wins, try again for the legislature in two years. She could also run for mayor. Vare wouldn’t comment on whether she was considering that.

A run against the Republican incumbent might be an uphill climb. Fadness is the first mayor since the Town of Fishers became a city in 2015 and had $395,000 on hand at the start of 2022.

“He’s never had an opponent,” Vare said. “I really want to see a Democrat run.”

Colbert said the party, as always, would like to enter candidates in all council races, as well as mayor. Recruiting them, though, has been a challenge in the past in the Republican stronghold, though Democrats have made recent gains.

In 2015, local Democrats fielded just one candidate for council. Then in 2019, candidates ran for four of nine seats, with Vare and DeLong winning.

“We are talking to a handful of potential candidates, including for mayor,” Colbert said.

Colbert said the strategy will be the same now as it was four years ago for local Democrats.

“We remain dedicated to taking our message to the voters and have found when we do, they respond,” she said.

Call IndyStar reporter John Tuohy at 317-444-6418. Email at john.tuohy@indystar.com and follow on Twitter and Facebook.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Fishers city councilor Jocelyn Vare eyes political future