It’s been at least three decades since a Democrat has represented Indiana’s Senate District 31 — but there’s a consensus among local party leaders and candidates running for the seat that this election will be competitive.
With no incumbent running, candidates with impressive resumes from both major parties have flocked to run in the increasingly purple Fishers Senate district, which also includes Lawrence. With a competitive general election ahead, both sides are invested in who wins their respective primaries — and there’s no consensus from party heavyweights over which candidates are best.
“The Republican candidate will have to show how they are going to make every day Hoosiers’ lives better,” said Mario Massillamany, chair of the Hamilton County Republican Party. “It’s going to take independent and even some Democratic votes for a Republican to win and vice versa for the Democrat.”
Four candidates have filed to run in each of the Democratic and Republican primary elections, which will be held May 5. Early voting begins April 7.
Josh Lowry, chair of the Democratic Party of Hamilton County, said a Democrat has a real shot at flipping the seat.
“Kamala Harris won Fishers and that’s the bulk of the district,” Lowry told IndyStar. “This is the type of district that has already gone blue basically everywhere else in America. With the way things are going this year from the economy to the war in Iran, there are going to be some headwinds blowing our way that will make this district even bluer.”
Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, won about 50% of the vote in Fishers, while President Donald Trump won about 48% of the vote in the 2024 presidential election, an IndyStar data analysis showed.
But the District 31 seat is currently held by Republican Sen. Kyle Walker, who assumed office in 2020 and announced in December he was not seeking reelection. Walker, in the 2022 election, defeated Democrat Jocelyn Vare by winning 55% of the vote. Walker went on to become known as one of the more socially moderate Republicans in the Indiana Senate. Vare was the first Democrat ever elected to the Fishers City Council before she ran for the state Senate seat.
And Walker’s predecessor, Republican James Merritt Jr. held the seat since he was elected in 1990 until he retired in 2020.
“If we have a good, qualified Republican candidate that’s willing to work hard, we will be successful in the general election,” Massillamany told IndyStar. “Will it be an easy win? No, but I believe we’ll prevail at the end.”
Lowry said it’s going to take a lot of hard work and door knocking for the Democratic candidate to win.
“It’s going to be about calling out the Republicans for what they’ve been doing,” Lowry said. “There are a lot of things people in that district are upset with that can be tied directly to policies Republicans have put in place, like Senate Enrolled Act 1 with the way its defunded local governments and public schools.”
The eight candidates running in the primary elections are mostly focusing their campaigns on health care, education and affordability issues. But some candidates are hoping endorsements will help them stand out against the field.
Republican U.S. Senator Jim Banks and Republican Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness as well as Fishers’ only Democratic city councilor, Bill Stuart, have weighed in on the race and endorsed candidates.
Below are the candidates:
Andrew Dezelan (Democrat)
What to know: Dezelan was the policy director for the Indiana Senate Democratic Caucus for 11 years. He has worked in the Medicare space since 2009 and developed an AI-powered software that helps municipalities and small businesses evaluate their current health care benefits structures.
Dezelan grew up in Central Indiana and currently lives in Fishers. He told IndyStar that he’s ready to hit the ground running if elected.
“There’s such a learning curve when it comes to the legislature,” Dezelan said. “I’ve already kind of conquered that learning curve while working as a policy director. You want to have someone in that seat who knows what they’re doing.”
What issues will you work on if elected?: Dezelan said he is hearing from voters about affordability issues with childcare and housing.
“A lot of the conversations I’ve had are about affordability in general,” he told IndyStar.
Additional state dollars could be collected or freed up by legalizing marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes in Indiana, and those dollars could be used to fund childcare services or mitigate other affordability issues, Dezelan said.
“There’s a substantial amount of money being spent anyways as people go across state lines for marijuana,” he said. “We can collect taxes on that if we have the right conversations and tools in place.”
He added that empowering local governments is important and said he wants to see the legislature roll back some previous preemptions on local governments.
Kerry Forestal (Democrat)
What to know: Forestal has been the Marion County sheriff since 2019 but is term limited. In 2010, he was chosen by former President Barack Obama as U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of Indiana, overseeing federal law enforcement across 62 counties.
He’s lived in the district for more than 20 years and is currently a resident of Lawrence Township.
“Kyle Walker seemed like he was doing a really good job, and we weren’t that far apart on issues,” Forestal told IndyStar. “I didn’t see a reason to be running, but that changed when he (Walker) announced he wasn’t going to run. Most voters are looking for someone in the middle of the road.”
Forestal pointed to the opening of the new Adult Detention Center in Indianapolis as a success during his tenure as sheriff.
“It’s been a lot better for both the inmates and both the employees,” he told IndyStar.
What issues will you work on if elected?: Too many people are put in jail for mental health issues, Forestal said, and he was critical of a new law passed by Indiana lawmakers this year that he says criminalized homelessness.
“I spoke out against it,” Forestal told IndyStar. “The right idea is not to put homeless people in jail to get them out of sight. I run one of the largest mental health hospitals unfortunately because that’s where they end up.”
If elected, Forestal said he would like to work on the issue of sex offenders being released from state prisons and coming to Marion County via transportation from the Department of Corrections.
“They need to return to the county in which they were originally sentenced,” Forestal said. “They want to be here in Indianapolis to disappear amongst the million of us, but they need to go back there. We may not be able to require that, but we certainly don’t need to make it easier for them by providing them transportation.”
Forestal said he’s also concerned about the cost of medical care, especially in rural areas of the state, and wants to incentivize medical providers to practice in rural areas of the state by offering tax deductions.
Lasima Packett (Democrat)
What to know: After serving in the Indiana National Guard for two decades, Packett retired in 2018 as a decorated veteran. She moved to Fishers late last year but has lived in Indiana since 1997.
She’s been a mayor’s neighborhood advocate in Indianapolis for more than two years, and her area has included a portion of Senate District 31.
“That’s time I spent listening to community members and hearing their issues,” Packett told IndyStar. “That’s what drew me to run for office. I had reached my limits in the neighborhood advocate role, and there were things I felt like I couldn’t impact that I wasn’t ready to give up on.”
Packett added that she has life experiences unique from her competitors.
“I have had real-world experience making difficult decisions with life-or-death consequences while serving in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during the height of the prisoner hunger strike in 2013 and 2014,” she said. “I often relied on my faith that I was making the right decisions every day. These experiences taught me that leadership wasn’t in a title, but the ability to stand by my decisions I made.”
What issues will you work on if elected?: Packett said she wants to work on education and workforce issues and find solutions so that all Hoosiers have quality and affordable health care.
“There are parts of our communities struggling with everyday things like prices at the grocery store and gas pump,” Packett told IndyStar. “I don’t see things getting better in the current climate and with the current lawmakers that we have. My goal is to get in there and look at some more common-sense policies that can genuinely help the everyday person.”
Catherine Torzewski (Democrat)
What to know: Torzewski told IndyStar that she has a lot in common with other residents of Senate District 31. She is a mother to young children in public schools, realtor, small business owner and has aging parents.
She lives in Lawrence Township and has the endorsement of Fishers’ only Democratic city councilor, Bill Stuart.
“I really started paying a lot more attention (to politics) in 2022 after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas,” Torzewski told IndyStar. “I decided to get involved with my local Moms Demand Action chapter in Indianapolis and started advocating at the Statehouse for gun sense laws.”
Torzewski, in 2023, ran Howard Stevenson’s campaign for an at-large Fishers City Council seat then, in 2024, ran State Rep. Victoria Garcia Wilburn’s reelection campaign. During those elections, Torzewski said she knocked on over 10,000 doors in and around Senate District 31.
Torzewski categorizes herself as a “moderate Democrat” and said she is the type of candidate voters in the district prefer.
“This is a moderate district,” Torzewski said. “They don’t appreciate extremism on either side. It’s super important that we are getting people out of these primaries that are exciting to vote for in November. Going out and voting against someone doesn’t work.”
What issues will you work on if elected?: The number one issue in the district is funding for public schools, Torzewski said.
“We’ve watched the state legislator chip away at public school funding over the years and create an environment that’s not supportive of our public school teachers and we’re really starting to pay the price,” she told IndyStar.
Indiana lawmakers made a mistake in allowing universal school vouchers, and it’s bleeding money from public schools, Torzewski said. She believes the legislature needs to pass policies that abolish the school voucher system altogether, only allow low-income families to participate or find a new funding mechanism that doesn’t take dollars away from public schools.
Health care is the number two issue in the district as the cost of health care is increasing while quality decreases, she said.
“We’re really hurting the most vulnerable people in Indiana right now with the decisions that have been made around health care,” Torzewski said. “We need to find the money. Maybe we shouldn’t spend $16 million on an immigration center in Miami, and maybe that money should be going into health care for Hoosiers.”
Juanita Albright (Republican)
What to know: A physician and member of the Hamilton Southeastern Schools Board of School Trustees, Albright has the endorsement of Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Banks.
Albright was elected to the school board in 2022 when Indiana School board elections were still nonpartisan. She ran as part of a slate of candidates that were backed by anti-critical race theory groups, while her platform included steering away from divisive issues.
Albright said she was encouraged to run for the open state Senate seat by friends and her brother, Carlin Yoder, who was an Indiana State Senator from 2008 to 2016.
“My dual experience in health care and education sets me apart,” Albright said. “I’m the only one with real life experience in both of those areas. I work hard at everything I do. My work ethics and experience in those areas set me apart.”
What issues will you work on if elected?: She wants to advocate for her patients and work on issues that impact health care, Albright said. Education is another area she is thinking about.
“In education, there’s just a lot going on with it,” Albright said. “There’s decreased state funding and questions on how we can keep the quality of our schools up. With my experience in that area, I can bring something to the table.”
Public schools need to be funded fairly, but Indiana families should have the choice between public and private schools, Albright told IndyStar. Senate Enrolled 1 is having a negative impact on school district budgets and that’s something the legislature will have to look at in future sessions, she added.
“I care about people,” Albright said. “I’ve worked in medicine for years and in education. I care about our students, families, senior citizens, and I want what is best for all of us in our community.”
Tiffanie Ditlevson (Republican)
What to know: Ditlevson is an Air Force veteran and an at-large member of the Fishers City Council, who was elected in 2023. She is also the former president of the Hamilton East Public Library Board and was a member of the library board when a contentious program moved books from the young adult shelves to the adult stacks.
“District 31 deserves somebody who can win the primary but also somebody who can get us through the general election,” Ditlevson told IndyStar. “I’m a commonsense Republican woman, the only candidate in this crowded primary that is an elected Republican, I already serve 70% of the district and I have municipal-level experience.”
Ditlevson said it’s important to note that the library board’s controversial policy, from when she was a member, was “constitutionally sound” and did not violate anyone’s First Amendment rights.
Ditlevson is endorsed by Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness. She said she knows how to make tough sacrifices to serve the public and notes she was deployed for six months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks when her daughter was only nine months old.
“I’m a great choice for the primary election, but I’m a perfect choice for the general election and probably the only choice that will keep this seat red,” Ditlevson said.
What issues will you work on if elected?: Ditlevson has spent a lot of time knocking on doors and hears from voters about issues with high property taxes and affordability issues.
“People are wanting some type of relief,” she said.” We need to really understand how the property assessments are done and how we can bring change. We have property values here really generating a lot of tax dollars, and people want relief.”
Ditlevson said there also needs to be a focus on online safety for children, especially after the death of Fishers teen Hailey Buzbee. Ditlevson thinks social media and online gaming companies should require adults to verify themselves as adults so children know who they may be communicating with online.
Education is also on Ditlevson’s mind.
“I am really concerned with making sure that we’re creating the right pathways and opportunities for young people, be it enrollment in college, enlistment in professional military service or making sure that they can engage in the trades,” Ditlevson said. “Everybody’s really on board with these three pathways, but it’s about making sure that we’re not just talking about them, but really offering those pathways.”
Travis Hankins (Republican)
What to know: A Fishers resident, Hankins previously worked for the Leadership Institute, helping to start conservative organizations on college campuses in Indiana and across the country. He previously ran for U.S. House of Representatives twice in Indiana.
In 2020, he transitioned into the technology industry and worked in San Francisco before moving back to Indiana in 2024. Hankins said his schedule was too full for an interview with IndyStar but sent a written statement.
“My wife and I recently brought our baby girl home from the NICU,” Hankins said in the statement. “I’m running so she, and all Hoosier children, can have the best opportunities right here in Indiana, without leaving the home and community we love.”
What issues will you work on if elected?: Hankins, in his statement, said his top issues are lowering property taxes, stopping illegal immigration and protecting Hoosier workers by ensuring companies hire Hoosiers first.
“I’m a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican — in that order,” Hankins said in the statement, borrowing a phrase former Vice President Mike Pence has often repeated. “I’m a husband and father of three who loves God, Indiana and the Hoosier people, and I’m committed to serving with integrity.”
Jan Keefer (Republican)
What to know: A resident of the district for more than three decades, Keefer is a longtime family law attorney living in Lawrence Township. She is married to Jack Keefer, a legendary former high school basketball coach, who racked up more than 800 wins at Lawrence North High School.
Supporting her husband’s basketball teams allowed Keefer to connect with community members over the course of several decades, she told IndyStar. She’s been involved with the Lawrence Township School Foundation, the Community Health Network Foundation, the Indianapolis Art Center and other nonprofits and philanthropic efforts for years.
“I was asked by a number of members in our community to run after Kyle Walker decided he would not seek re-election,” Keefer told IndyStar. “The direction the state has been moving is very positive, but I also think there are things we could do better and I can help make it better than I found it and really make a difference.”
What issues will you work on if elected?: The high cost of living is an issue that needs to be addressed, Keefer said. She added that it’s something she hears clients at her family law practice talk about often.
“Job opportunities, dealing with cost of living and inflation and finding affordable housing, those are issues I am hearing about that I would like to address,” she said.
The district has two excellent school systems but could use more funding to provide more programming, including pre-school programs, Keefer said.
“Public safety is another issue,” she said. “It’s making sure our streets are safe, our neighborhoods are safe and if there’s crime then those committing the crimes are appropriately punished. And just making sure we support our police officers and the work they do.”
Contact Jake Allen at jake.allen@indystar.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @Jake_Allen19. Click here to get Hamilton County news sent straight to your inbox and subscribe to the IndyStar North newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Could this Fishers state Senate seat flip blue? Here’s who is running in primary election
Reporting by Jake Allen, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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