Indiana Democrats look for candidates to fill 2026 ballot
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
Recruiting high-quality candidates and ensuring Hoosier voters have choices on their 2026 ballots are the top priorities for Indiana Democratic Party chair Karen Tallian, she tells Axios.
Why it matters: Should Indiana move forward with redrawing its congressional maps, as Texas and California are currently doing, Democrats don't have enough seats to block the action.
- If they can flip four seats in the House, they'd be able to break the quorum and stop Republicans from taking unilateral action on contentious issues like redistricting in the future.
What she's saying: Tallian believes Democrats can break out of the House superminority next election cycle with good candidates, favorable districts and strong voter turnout.
- "My job is to get Democrats elected, and I can't do that if they're not on the ballot," Tallian says.
- "Voter turnout in '24 was terrible. People who stayed home need to have an incentive to come out, and I think that that is going to happen this year."
Between the lines: Democrats failed to put candidates on the ballot in nearly three dozen Statehouse races last year, while Republicans didn't field candidates in half that number.
Reece Axel-Adams is also tired of seeing Republicans run unopposed. The 21-year-old Pendleton resident has decided to run for House District 53 against incumbent Republican Ethan Lawson.
- Axel-Adams began his activism in high school, fighting back against policies he said discriminated against LGBTQ+ students.
- On medical leave from Earlham College due to mental health issues, Axel-Adams says young people deserve to have a voice in places of power because older generations don't understand their struggles.
- "We don't feel like we have a future," he tells Axios. "That really might be the case if climate change keeps going the way it is and we destroy our planet."
Reality check: Republicans have held supermajorities in both Indiana General Assembly chambers for over a decade.
- The last time Democrats won a contested statewide office was 2012.
State of play: Tallian says the Democratic Party's work to change that begins with building their ground game, filling precinct-level positions.
- It also takes staying on message "about wages, workers and wallets," she says.
Between the lines: That hasn't always been a popular stance. The national rift between older, establishment Democrats and younger party members has trickled down to state parties, including Indiana.
- "People have asked me whether I'm an AOC person or a Chuck Schumer person," Tallian says. "I have always said that we need both. We need the people out there at the edge, making noise and bringing issues to everyone's attention, but you don't win elections until you've brought the middle up."
The last word: "But at the end of the day … we all have to be rowing in the same direction," she says.
- "That's one of the reasons why the Republicans have been so successful. Once they decide what they're doing, even if some of them don't like it, they pretty much stay in lockstep."
- "As Democrats, we haven't done that as well. We could take a lesson."