A significant flip in one congressional district.

Indiana State House balance of power tilts and a variety of results after the Secretary of State race.

From the television studios of WFYI Public Media.

It's Indiana Week in Review for the week ending November 6th, 2026.

Indiana Week in Review is produced by WFYI in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting stations.

Additional support is provided by ParrRichey in a surprising upset Indiana voters in the fifth Congressional District elected Democratic state Senator J.D.

Ford to the office ousting third time incumbent Republican Victoria Spartz.

Samantha Horton reports.

It's been more than three decades since a Democrat won the seat.

People stood on chairs cheering as local Democratic leaders called candidate J.D.

Ford's win at a watch party Tuesday night.

The upset is one of several across the country in previous Republican strongholds.

Ford says a win for him and other Democrats shows that people are tired of hard work not paying off.

This win shows us what happens when you stand up, when you demand change, when you dare to hope and put in the hard work.

Spartz released a statement blaming an influx of liberal voters in Hamilton County for the election results.

So where does the blame for the historic Republican losses in Indiana land?

It's the first question for our Indiana Week in Review panel.

Democrat Lara Beck.

Republican Rob Kendall.

Laura Merrifield Wilson, professor of political science at the University of Indianapolis.

And Ben Thorpe, government reporter at WFYI.

I'm Jill Sheridan, managing editor at WFYI.

So, Lara, what happened in district five?

Well, J.D.

Ford won.

I mean, we can certainly say that.

I think I think this, district was really a microcosm of what was happening across the country, especially when you look at, the Trump policies and the very, very unpopularity of the war, the tariffs, the inflation, the corruption.

And but I think at the same time, we put forward and J.D.

Ford and J.D.

put forward, J.D.

for Ford put forward in himself really credible options.

He was a great candidate.

He run a great campaign.

He ran a great campaign.

He was incredibly disciplined.

He was very focused.

He is one of the hardest working people out there.

But at the same time, he knows how to flip Republican seats because he won in 2018, flipping a Republican seat.

So he knows how to win in that kind of a climate.

And he's just a really genuine kind of person.

And I think that comes through throughout the campaigning.

So there were a lot of elements and a lot of pieces at play here.

but at the end of the day, I also think voters were really tired of Victoria Spartz.

They were tired of the partisanship.

And the statewide climate of what's happening in the state also had an impact on it, too.

People are angry about redistricting.

They had school referendums.

I mean, there was a lot to, not just vote against, but a lot to vote for the cycle.

And now we're hearing Rob from Victoria Spartz, kind of playing the blame game a little bit, saying that, you know, the GOP didn't run such a great campaign and saying that maybe there were some, some voters, that were not on the up and up.

Was this really just a campaign fail or was this part of the national.

Well, look, Spartz is a squirrel, right?

She wants to be in Congress.

She doesn't want to be in Congress.

She's going to quit.

She doesn't quit.

And she ran a primary in which the person ran against her with no money and didn't campaign and got 40% of the vote.

People were sick of her.

But I think people were just sick of the Republicans across the board.

They failed on property taxes, record utility bills, the IEDC the issues with Diego Morales.

There were all of these things.

And you had a great top of the ticket candidate in Beau Bayh, and so it's set up for the perfect year for Democrats to take advantage of Republican inaction.

I mean, we're, you know, looking at the polls, obviously, many pollsters probably give them some flowers, you know, because, the pollsters, we're actually a lot closer than maybe they have been in years past.

So should we have foreseen this?

I don't know if it should have been foreseen.

I do think the district has been changing.

And you can remember back to before it was redistricted when Susan Brooks held the district right.

It included more of the top part of Marion County, and it had gotten too competitive.

So they redrew the lines.

If you look in terms of Spartz's victories, she won handily in Grant and Howard, she still carried Madison and Tipton.

But the problem is for the Republicans, I think the problem is Hamilton County obviously starting to be a real hotbed of competition for parties.

And then also Delaware County.

And I think that's where you really see the Democrats taking hold, the Democratic momentum.

the polls showed it was going to be close, and it was and Ford ran a very good campaign, ultimately was able to pull it out.

Ben, what did you see as we were watching this, you know, unfold on Tuesday night?

What were your takeaways?

Yeah.

You know, actually, I'm really glad that we pulled up Spartzs statement, it felt really notable to me that she was kind of it's the closest a statement has come to kind of implying fraud here.

She's talking about, you know, people in memory care facilities.

we're on the, you know, voting for Democrats.

And that has felt notable this election to me because we have seen such kind of unequivocal statements coming out from Republicans.

Otherwise, Max Engling at his kind of, concession speech was like, we respect the will of the voters.

This is not what we wanted, but we respect it.

And, comptroller at least, Nieshalla said a very similar thing, after her concession, which was just like, look, we don't like what we're seeing, but this is what the voters want.

And we respect that.

I mean, Laura brought up Hamilton County to I mean, it is remarkable to see, like, that area, any of central Indiana changed so remarkably well.

And she brings up a great point, too, because that district has been changing over time.

I mean, Christina Hill tried in 2020. and then we've had, you know, we've had subsequent attempts there, but at the same time and when we did well at the county level, too, and also when you look at those state House races, too, I mean, those were those were pieces where, you know, where Democrats did really well.

I also think, though, that, the organizing really helps.

I mean, incredibly, they had a really great operation to get the vote out there.

And I think the other thing you see with Democrats, the cycle, too, is Democrats worked really well and really well together.

And with the Republicans, every time you picked up your phone or you watched Rob Kendall, or you watched, turn on WFYI I mean, it was just dysfunction, chaos and drama, and voters don't really want to live in that.

They want people who they elect to be doing work for them rather than infighting with each other.

So that level of discipline and focus and there were not there were very little, if any, unforced errors.

And that's really remarkable for an election season for anyone.

And so I think we just were very focused, very cohesive and very disciplined.

Do you think the message of, corruption really hit Spartz this time out?

Because that was something that we heard that voters I mean, top priority?

Well, she mentioned chaos, dysfunction and drama.

That's the Rob Kendall Show, right?

Nine until noon each weekday on YouTube.

Plus.

But no, I think like so the FPI poll, the Free Press Indiana poll comes out and corruption is the number one issue.

And everybody goes, oh no, no, no, just throw that poll in the trash.

Well then Fox News does a poll and it's the same thing.

And the problem that the Republicans had was their top guy was Diego.

Even though he wasn't technically the candidate, Engling couldn't come up with a message to distance from Diego because they didn't want to sort of indict the whole party for not doing anything about Diego.

And look who knows what the final numbers are going to be.

But you're going to see probably 20, 25% of Bayh's voters were Republicans who were upset about property taxes.

The data center stuff, the thing with the Bear's made a lot of people mad, too, about how quickly they sprinted to do the Bear's deal.

And a lot of us who are Republicans are kind of sick of the Republicans and, like me, voted for Bayh to send a message against famously.

Well, it's time now for viewer feedback.

Every week we pose an unscientific online poll question.

This week's question.

Were you surprised by the results in the US Congressional District five?

Vote yes or no.

The last question posed to viewers are you concerned about interference ahead of Election Day?

66% said yes and 34% said no.

If you would like to take part in the poll, go to wfyi.org/IWIR and look for the poll.

Well, dynamics among state House Republicans and Democrats will likely shift during the upcoming legislative session after Democrats flipped multiple seats Tuesday night.

Caroline Beck has more.

Indiana Democrats may have broken the Republican supermajority, but it doesn't mean the party has won over the majority in either chamber by gaining more seats, Democrats can have more say in committees, and Republicans can no longer act alone on certain major decisions, including overriding a governor's veto.

Democrat House Minority Leader Phil GiaQuinta says it means his caucus will be taken more seriously.

We pride ourselves on being pragmatic problem solvers.

So we're going to work and reach across the aisle where we can and, we try to take on serious, issues and find solutions to those problems.

That's what we're going to do.

The legislature ceremonial beginning to the 2027 legislative session is November 17th.

So, Rob, how big of a shift do you think we might feel at the state House this coming session?

Well, look, the Republicans screwed around to the point they almost lost the House.

I mean, there were a couple races that were really close, you know, within a couple points.

Yeah.

I mean, they were far away from losing the house.

And look, I think it comes back to you've seen a huge change in dynamics in central Indiana.

You've seen a lot of outside companies come in.

You've seen a lot of outside workers come in, both from other countries and from other states, and they don't necessarily have a wed to a party like you've traditionally seen in a Hamilton County, Hendricks County, where I live.

And the Republicans didn't give people anything to vote for nationally or locally.

There was nothing to run on to say, man, we did such a great job and people said, we've had enough.

We'll give these people a try.

I mean, we saw some real upsets that I don't think anyone was expecting, you know, notably as speaker of the House Todd Huston.

well, I think he was expecting it because he was up on TV.

So, I mean, if you go up on TV and you're the speaker of the House, I mean, that's generally a sign.

I mean, it's going to be a different ballgame.

It will be.

Yeah, it absolutely will be a different ballgame.

And I really think kudos go to, the House caucus and, Representative GiaQuinta and then Shelli Yoder in the Senate because they recruited some excellent candidates this cycle.

And you had, as Rob said, you had people to vote for.

yes.

Central Indiana has changed.

But when you also looked at some of these seats, what stood out to me is you had a number of people in the House who voted for Senate Enrolled Act 1, which is stripping local governments of their, of their funding ability.

And there were there were referendums for schools in those districts.

So you've got like a Danny Lopez, you've got a Julie McGuire.

They voted for Senate Enrolled Act 1.

They lost their House seat in those referendums won.

And I think there were a lot of people who were really motivated, especially with those referendums.

because how dare you try and attack our schools.

I mean, when you look in these various communities, these schools are some of the most important there.

They are their sense of community pride.

They are a large employer.

they really gel those communities together.

And you've got a state rep or a state senator who is voting to essentially gut how these how these are funded.

So I think that also had an impact on it.

And then, I mean, the other the other side of the coin too, is there was so much going on about data centers in these communities.

There's been so much going on, like just as Rob said about the Bear's.

So there really was a sense of, I think people being very motivated to move these folks out, including the ones who supported redistricting twice.

And Ben we are hearing now from the governor as well.

You, spoke with him yesterday about his feelings now that, that the makeup among, Indiana's General Assembly has changed?

Yeah.

I mean, we've been talking about this.

I was so surprised, I think, by that conversation, he felt like he had a pretty lucid understanding of what happened.

and he was saying things that, that.

So at one point, he was kind of saying, look, I think that, you know, when we have a super majority in control, we lose sight of the important issues.

We should have kept our, you know, focus on affordability.

I think maybe we can litigate whether or not Braun is part of why the Republican Party lost focus on issues of affordability.

But I think that my expectation going in, is that you're hearing the word affordability just get hit like a drumbeat from, you know, every party right now.

And even the gas tax couldn't necessarily what was interesting.

Like, you hear these Republicans talk like I heard Jim Banks do an interview the day after the election, and he's like, we got to get on grocery prices.

We got to get on this, on that.

And it's like, you didn't know this before the election.

Like, what are what are we living on where you are surprised that people were upset about?

They were.

So when you do have the super majority and I mean you can definitely weigh on on this, but I think that's what happens when you shift, when you shift so far in one direction and you were in an echo chamber and all you are pandering to or playing to is your base.

And that happens on all sides.

I mean, that happens on both sides of the aisle.

You do lose sight of the fact that people's health insurance just went up.

Crazy numbers, gas is ridiculously high despite the, you know, gas tax holiday.

I mean, just all those elements there, I think so.

And one of the things interesting, like the Democrats won in so many big ways, they didn't actually take back the House.

The Republicans still have the House and the majority in the Senate and the governorship.

But the thing I think of is like, okay, so how does this change in policy?

if you look at the committees, like I look at the House Education Committee, I think Jake Teshka is the only Republican member of the committee I recognize will reorganize the composition.

but who survived reelection?

Michelle Davis was the vice chair.

She ran and did win in the state Senate.

but yes, Bob Behning right, like, that feels like a clean, almost a clean slate.

Right.

And so when you say like, well, what does it matter necessarily if you still have a majority in the House and a supermajority in the Senate and you have the governorship, those little changes, differences and voices, differences in perspectives, just even at that much, is it, I think, a huge victory for Democrats.

And it shows there's more competition now in the parties in the state.

One of the issues they're going to have is how do the Republicans rebuild?

Because my side of the Republican Party can't stand these people for a whole different reason than, say, your side of the aisle can't.

And how do they find that balance in coalition?

You either got to go one way or another, and either way you're go make somebody mad.

I mean, it was this time last year that we were, you know, deep into redistricting and and that was something that we were talking about maybe happen again.

But I don't foresee like those types of issues.

Here's the here's how I think about the redistricting.

I mean, when voters tell you we don't like this, this is not popular with us, then you believe them.

And they just didn't, I think, believe them or didn't want to believe them.

Well, it was difficult primary as well too.

Yeah.

No, it did feel like after the primary it was it was unclear to me whether or not things were just the status quo.

Was going to be maintained, but feels very notable that Ben Smaltz is, you know, set to be the House speaker here.

And the thing that he said when he was asked about redistricting.

And as a reminder, he was one of the architects of redistricting, he was like, no, we're going to stay focused on affordability.

And we still have some leadership in place.

You know, President Pro Tem, Chris Garten will continue.

Oh, he survived a very good.

But it was a close race as well.

Very close.

I think if anything, they learned the hard way.

Redistricting was not a winning issue.

Affordability.

Clearly the word of the day.

they have two months until the legislature actually convenes, and we'll see what they do then.

One other issue, too, is they have some people that are totally out of touch with how to connect with people.

You saw a lot of these state reps like Kyle Pierce and Andrew Ireland and these guys who their whole thing was, let's own the libs on Twitter.

Let's do this.

Let's do that.

And that doesn't connect with constituents.

And they got to get back to basics of governing and not trying to be popular on social media.

Well, a Democrat also will be Indiana's new secretary of state for the first time in over three decades.

Beau Bayh defeated Republican Max Engling in a hotly contested race late Tuesday night.

Ben Thorpe has more.

The race brought national attention to Indiana, with President Donald Trump weighing in against Bayh the world after declaring victory Bayh told supporters his win was about holding the office under Republican Diego Morales accountable.

Tonight, Hoosiers voted for change.

They voted to restore integrity to state government.

A check on some of the wasteful spending, the corruption.

I'm so happy at the result and I look forward to the hard work ahead.

Speaking to a somber crowd, Max Engling said he wished Bayh success the voters have made their decision and it's not what we wanted, it's not what we were pushing for.

But we fully respect that decision.

So, Ben, do you think this was maybe the most expected Democratic win of the night?

Jill, I think you and I had a conversation ahead of election night and we were both saying, you know, in some ways it feels like the most expected result is Bayh wins and things overall stay basically status quo.

And so I think in a lot of ways this felt like both parties, I do think ran pretty solid campaigns.

I think Max Engling was is a good debater, but I do think that it was a difficult position for him to be in to say, I'm going to reform this office.

People have concerns about this office, but also I'm a member of the party that has caused a lot of problems here with this office.

And so I think that was just a, a really hard spot for someone to be in.

He also kind of pushed back on the idea of a audit of that office.

And just yesterday when we were talking to Governor Braun, he said he's in support of Beau Bayh's audit of that office.

Yeah.

So, you know, I know Laura, you know, but this was a fascinating secretary of state race.

I mean, I think that you could argue maybe the most interesting secretary of state race that has been in Indiana so far.

And to watch Ben cover and play out has, yes, has been fascinating.

I think you're absolutely right.

I want to say for the record, it was always my favorite statewide executive office.

I know, I know, other people don't claim it for us.

Cool.

And then let me just get ahead of the bandwagon here in Jessica Bailey as a Democrat, unseated the incumbent Republican comptroller.

So two big wins.

I do think it was anticipated all the polling showed Bayh in the lead, but Engling in addition to other challenges, had a really short runway.

As a candidate.

He came in after winning on the second ballot and the Republican state convention.

I think that's incredibly there were too many challenges there, too many barriers.

I feel like when you look at that, that survey, that land of of the candidates, they all pretty much got what we probably anticipated for them.

And I also think Engling probably has a future.

I think Shillings is trying to reach that 2%.

Yes.

That's a really, really important for ballot threshold.

Ballot was able to secure that.

So there is a Lincoln party now beyond him.

We'll see what they do, what they stand for, who they have as candidates.

it was by far the most exciting secretary of state race I remember in my lifetime.

I mean, that is pretty remarkable.

The campaign that that Greg Ballard, former mayor of Indiana, is ran and now, yes, a brand new political party here in the state.

Yeah.

We had Nathan Gotsch who's the chairman of Lincoln Party on today.

And I was like, so what now?

And he goes, well, we'll let you know.

You know, we're kind of figuring it out.

The Secretary of State's race was so interesting, though, because the Republicans had a great candidate in David Shelton running against Diego.

And if they had taken Shelton, he probably would have won.

But yet they stayed with Diego.

Ballard gets in, they freak out.

They put Engling in his opening salvo.

Is this illegal $60,000 dark money donation, then the donation from the known felon.

And it's just like you're coming out of perceived corruption.

Now you've got this.

And it's like he never got any traction Bayh ran a perfect campaign.

He was a met, which not anybody should be surprised about that.

Right.

He comes from pretty good stock on that stuff.

But he ran a perfect campaign.

He was the perfect guy to be at the top of the ticket.

And the Democrats should learn from him that if you nominate that sort of candidate, you can still win in Indiana.

I mean, the margins that we saw, you know, with, Bayh and in some of these counties was was pretty remarkable.

Yeah.

I mean, I think he'd just to echo Rob.

He I can't believe I keep saying to echo.

Right.

Well I mean it feels so good doesn't the problem is, is when I'm on with Rob, I just keep laughing the whole time.

So I got to focus on the serious but focused.

I mean, I think he did.

He ran a great campaign.

and he really again, he was not distracted.

He focused on.

But he focused on accountability.

He focused on corruption, and he focused on really tapping into what matters to people.

And when you think about you get outside of that Indianapolis bubble, you get outside of the social media echo chamber.

there is a lot of fondness for the Bayh family.

his grandfather, Senator Bayh, I had the pleasure of traveling with him in 2004 when he accompanied Maggie Kernan across southern Indiana.

And I cannot tell you the amount of people who came out to the car and would hold onto the car door and sing his campaign theme song, and I can't even get it.

I can't even talk about it.

It's going to be my head now for the next three days.

But I mean, he really is.

He really is.

You know, he's he's a fresh face.

He's also really smart.

He's really just really focused.

And I think he is going to to be someone who can really help us continue to make inroads in those places where we need to make inroads, especially in this post-Trump era.

Now that we're seeing, I think we're going to see some of this post, this post-Trump fervor break, right?

That fever is going to break, and I hope so, at least.

And he's really a great person to be, you know, in that, in that, in that role, with the governor yesterday, too, I just real quick it was interesting that he was, lobbying for, you know, an end to the conventions, which is where we had some of these candidates.

Yeah.

No, it was really interesting to hear them say that.

And I don't know what's going to come of that.

I don't know, to what extent his own party agrees with him.

Obviously, one of the things that Engling was talking about was like, we want to move towards closed primaries.

And so, yeah, I don't I don't know to what extent the party is in lockstep with the governor on that one.

Maybe he's thinking back to his own lieutenant governor candidate.

How about, you know, that's the guy who takes the blame for that guy being there?

I look, I will say, I think, I think they've got to do something about candidate quality.

The problem becomes now there's outrage.

We were like, oh, well, you just want the rich guys or the connected guys because of the statewide stuff.

The Republicans just have a messaging problem because they've been in charge for so long and haven't delivered.

There's no there's nobody to blame.

Unofficial election results also show that a majority of the 38 school districts won their bid for local property tax increases Tuesday.

Amelia Pak-Harvey explains what happens for the 12 districts where voters rejected the measure.

School districts requested a record number of ballot questions for tax increases this year after lawmakers instituted property tax reforms that curbed the amount of money districts could raise.

School districts with a failed ballot measure face making cuts immediately.

In Gas City, the Mississinewa school district lost its measure by 71 votes.

That leaves the district with an estimated $2 million deficit.

Superintendent Jeremy Fewell says the district will cut a school resource officer beginning next week.

There's no reason to wait.

going forward, we know these cuts have to happen, so why delay the inevitable at this point in time next year, the district plans on cutting transportation for roughly 1200 students.

Recounts may be on the way for districts that failed by slim margins, like Mississinewa and Michigan City area schools.

So, Laura, are you surprised that some of these measures failed?

I'm not.

I'm actually surprised more of them passed.

31% failed.

But in an election about affordability, voters clearly said, yes, we we still care about education.

We care about infrastructure, right?

We care about improving our communities.

I think if you talk about how we got there, this was the property tax change.

And then also the next time that they can have a school referendum isn't until an even year election in a general election cycle.

So they've got two years left.

We talked a little bit about how the state legislature has changed in composition.

Those were laws passed.

Those can be laws changed.

I mean, some of these school districts are going to have some really tough decisions around.

Well, as someone who takes great pride in defeating not one but two school referendums, look, the referendums are about messaging and relationships.

You win them, you lose them based on messaging and relationships.

And if you don't have an organized opposition, they're going to they're going to pass, right.

You got to do signs, you got to do doors.

You got to explain the expenses.

And a lot of these ones in central Indiana, there's just not an organized opposition they're going to pass.

Well, that has been Indiana Week in Review for this week.

Our panel has been Democrat Lara Beck, Republican Rob Kendall, Laura Merrifield Wilson, professor of political science at University of Indianapolis, and Ben Thorpe, government reporter at WFYI.

You can find Indiana Week in Reviews podcast and episodes at wfyi.org/IWIR or on the PBS app.

I'm Jill Sheridan, managing editor at WFYI.

Join us next time because a lot can happen in an Indiana week.

The views expressed are solely those of the panelists.

Indiana Week in Review is produced by WFYI in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting stations.

Additional support is provided by ParrRichey.