It's Election Day, Hoosiers. These are the key races to watch in Indiana's primary.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Election Day is finally here. The months of campaigning, make that years for some candidates, comes down to how Hoosier voters cast their ballots today.
This is a consequential primary in Indiana for multiple reasons: In a state with a Republican supermajority at the Statehouse that last elected a statewide Democrat in 2012, many of today's races will likely indicate the candidates destined to win in November and hold elected leadership positions shaping Indiana's future for years to come.
Live Indiana Election Day updates: GOP governor's race, Statehouse seats up for grabs
Given those stakes, several of today's key races are Republican primaries: There's a hotly contested race for governor, multiple incumbent challenges at the Statehouse and intense battles for open congressional seats.
Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. today. We have the breakdown for you of which races are significant and who is running for them.
IndyStar Election Night Live: Join us tonight as IndyStar reporters, pundits discuss the primary's biggest races
Republican gubernatorial primary
This is the marquee race of Indiana’s primary season, with six Republican candidates spending millions and barraging the airwaves to get Hoosiers’ attention.
Gov. Eric Holcomb is term limited, and gone are the days of a party favorite sailing to the nomination.
U.S. Sen. Mike Braun has maintained a comfortable lead in polling, though the polls also indicated a large portion of Hoosiers were undecided for much of the race. Polls haven’t shown a clear second-place alternative to Braun, so many camps will be watching the results trickle in Tuesday with interest.
More: Read our profiles of every Republican candidate for governor
Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, former commerce Secretary Brad Chambers and Fort Wayne entrepreneur Eric Doden have often, in polling, been roughly tied in a distant second. Former Attorney General Curtis Hill and Indianapolis mother Jamie Reitenour have trailed in the polls and in fundraising.
The winner will face Democratic nominee Jennifer McCormick and Libertarian Donald Rainwater in the fall.
Indiana voter guide: Everything to know about elections and voting in 2024
5th Congressional District Republican primary
The main question in the 5th District is whether U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz’s last-minute decision to seek a third term had any impact on Republican voters.
Just three months ago, Spartz reversed her 2023 decision to not seek reelection to Congress and turned the Republican primary to replace her upside down. Eight other candidates made the Republican ballot and had been campaigning for months before Spartz threw her hat back into the race. Raju Chinthala, Max Engling, Chuck Goodrich, Mark Hurt, Patrick Malayter, Matthew Peiffer, L.D. Powell and Larry Savage are also running in today’s Republican primary.
More: Here's who is running against Spartz and Goodrich in Indiana's 5th Congressional District
Most of the race has been a nasty back-and-forth between Spartz and Goodrich, a Noblesville state representative and CEO of Gaylor Electric. Internal polling from those campaigns earlier this year showed voters mostly supported Spartz and Goodrich or were undecided.
But today we will find out how Republican voters feel and who will face the winner of the Democratic primary: Ryan Pfenninger or Deborah Pickett. Will Spartz’s incumbency and late hundreds of thousands of dollars in self loans push her over the top? Will Goodrich’s attack ads, millions in personal loans be what stops Spartz from a third term? Or will another candidate come out of nowhere to win the party’s nomination?
6th Congressional District Republican primary
The 6th Congressional District is one of three rare open U.S. House seats on election ballots this year. Following the retirement announcement of U.S. Rep. Greg Pence in January, seven Republicans lined up to run for the seat.
Those seven candidates span in experience from current and former state lawmakers, political newcomers and business owners. Jamison Carrier, Darin Childress, Bill Frazier, John Jacob, Jeff Raatz, Jefferson Shreve and Mike Speedy are all running in the 6th District’s Republican primary.
More: With Greg Pence out, 7 Republicans vie for Indy-based 6th Congressional District
Shreve, Speedy and Carrier lead the field in personal loans to their campaigns, with Shreve almost entirely self-funding his congressional race with a $4.5 million donation as of mid-April. Speedy loaned his campaign $1.3 million and Carrier loaned his campaign $750,000. Will money be the deciding factor in this race, especially for Shreve following his 2023 loss in the Indianapolis mayoral race? Or will attacks on Shreve’s Second Amendment views or Speedy’s gas tax votes resonate more with voters?
It’s also the first race for the open seat since state lawmakers adjusted the boundaries of the 6th District in 2021 to include southern townships in Marion County. Will that have any impact on who the Republican nominee will be? We will see what voters think once the polls close. The winner of the Republican primary will face Democrat Cynthia Wirth in November.
Democratic primary for U.S. Senate
Braun chose to run for governor instead of his Senate seat, and U.S. Rep. Jim Banks is the only Republican on the ballot for it. So that leaves the Democratic primary as the race to watch.
Former state Rep. Marc Carmichael, who hasn’t run a campaign since 1990, came out of political hibernation specifically to oppose Banks, motivated in part by a desire to restore abortion access for his granddaughters following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
More: In the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, candidates are not worried about Jim Banks
Valerie McCray, an Indianapolis psychologist who also ran for president in 2020, is running on a mental health platform. Her campaign says she’s the first Black woman to run for U.S. Senate in Indiana.
The winner will face a sizable challenge from Banks, who has already amassed $4.7 million and has Donald Trump’s endorsement.
Indiana Statehouse races in Marion and Hamilton counties
In Marion and Hamilton counties, there are a handful of interesting battles for both vacant Statehouse seats and challenges to incumbents.
More: These central Indiana Statehouse races are contested. Here's who is on your ballot.
Noblesville: Chuck Goodrich is leaving House District 29 to run for Congress, so two Republicans with fairly different political alliances are competing for his seat. Laura Alerding, the former Hamilton East Public Library board president who came under fire for a controversial book removal policy, is running against Alaina Shonkwiler, a former district director in Spartz’ office who left an alleged unhealthy work environment there. She disagrees with Alerding’s actions on the library board. One Democrat is running unopposed.
Hamilton County/Zionsville: Republican state Rep. Donna Schaibley is retiring from House District 24. Hunter Smith, a former Colts punter who now owns a farm in Zionsville, is running against businessman Bill Gutrich in the Republican primary. Gutrich sits squarely on the pro-growth and pro-development side of economic development, whereas Smith has said environmental preservation is important. Gutrich has the backing of local Hamilton County leaders like former mayor Jim Brainard, and Smith has backing from outside conservative organization Americans for Prosperity.
Northeast Indy/Lawrence: Sixteen-year Democratic state Rep. John Bartlett is being challenged for his House District 95 seat by Autumn Carter, a former finance director for the Marion County Democratic Party in the Democratic primary election. Carter, a breast cancer survivor and author, said she wants to address affordable housing, women’s reproductive health and mental health. Bartlett is the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus’ parliamentarian and has worked on legislation about school bus safety and police investigations of fatal shootings.
Southwest Indy: Longtime Republican state Sen. Mike Young is facing a challenge for his Senate District 35 seat from political newcomer Philip Clay, a 29-year-old real estate investment banker in the Republican primary. Young resigned from the GOP caucus over the decision to exempt cases of rape and incest from Indiana’s 2022 abortion ban; Clay, president of the Plainfield Redevelopment Commission, is interested in workforce and economic issues, as well as in bringing new, young blood to the General Assembly.
Contact IndyStar state government and politics reporter Kayla Dwyer at kdwyer@indystar.com or follow her on Twitter @kayla_dwyer17.
Contact IndyStar state government and politics reporter Brittany Carloni at brittany.carloni@indystar.com or 317-779-4468. Follow her on Twitter/X@CarloniBrittany.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: It's Election Day. These are the key Indiana primary races to watch.
