Politics of Indiana

Indiana has long been considered to be a Republican stronghold and is rated R+11 on the Cook Partisan Voting Index. The current governor of Indiana is Republican Eric Holcomb, and Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers of the Indiana General Assembly. It has only supported a Democrat for president four times since 1912—in the elections of 1932, 1936, 1964, and 2008. Historically, the state was a swing state, voting for the national winner all but four times from 1816 to 1912, with the exceptions of 1824, 1836, 1848, and 1876.^[1]

Nonetheless, half of Indiana's governors in the 20th century were Democrats. Indiana has also elected several Democrats to the U.S. Senate in recent years, with Joe Donnelly serving as a senator until 2019. Certain cities, too, tend to favor Democrats; Gary, Indiana has had a Democratic mayor for the last 77 years. While only five Democratic presidential nominees have carried Indiana since 1900, 11 Democrats were elected governor during that time. Before Mitch Daniels became governor in 2005, Democrats had held the office for 16 consecutive years. Since then, however, the office has been held consistently by Republicans. Democrats also generally held control of the Indiana House of Representatives during the 1990s and 2000s as well.