INDIANAPOLIS – On Tuesday, Indiana voters will decide who’s on the ballot in November. And recent redistricting means some Hoosiers will be voting in different primaries this time around.
Several races are on the ballot May 3, including the open seat in Indiana’s 9th congressional district, which is located in Southeast and South Central Indiana.
Due to the redistricting process, which happens every ten years, you may soon have a different representative in Congress, even if you haven’t moved. Marion County, East Central Indiana and South Central Indiana are some of the areas most affected by the redrawn district boundaries.
“Redistricting didn’t change the political landscape in terms of our congressional districts much at all,” said Julia Vaughn, executive director of the nonpartisan organization Common Cause Indiana.
Vaughn said she considers the new congressional districts gerrymandered and less competitive. So Indiana’s congressional delegation will likely keep the same political makeup, with seven Republicans and two Democrats, after the November election, she said.
“That means that probably whoever wins the primary will be the victorious one in November,” Vaughn said.
“Because the primaries are selecting the party’s candidates, this is where we see a lot of the competition in Indiana,” said Laura Wilson, PhD, associate professor of political science at the University of Indianapolis.
Wilson points out the most competition this year is in the 9th congressional district, where Rep. Trey Hollingsworth (R-Indiana) is not running for reelection.
Nine Republicans and three Democrats are vying for Hollingsworth’s seat.
“That’s a really wide district that has different voters across it,” Wilson said. “And obviously you’re going to see candidates that are representative of the different groups of people in that district as well.”
Sen. Todd Young (R-Indiana) is up for reelection this year, but there’s no primary in that race for either party. Young will face Democrat Tom McDermott, the mayor of Hammond, in the general election.
To find out which congressional district you live in, click here.
