At the beginning of this year, the Indiana Democratic Party announced there was a Democrat running in all 25 State Senate seats on the ballot and in 91 of the 100 state house districts – for the first time since 1974.
Ahead of the February primary filing deadline, people were posting in Facebook groups encouraging others to run for any open seat without a democrat on the ballot.
After the primary, Indiana Democrats left only seven state House seats open. Republicans had left 20.
“Normal people have understood, finally, that the power of the people is greater than the people in power," said Kelly Thompson, candidate for Indiana's 3rd Congressional District.
She believes the up tick in Democrats running for office is due to people having “had it” with the status quo.
“This is a government of the people, by the people, for the people," Thompson said. "And we’ve been told for so long that you have to be a certain type of people to do this just and that’s just not true.”
This isn’t Thompson’s first time on the ballot, though. She ran in 2020 for the State House District 22, but didn’t win and when district lines were redrawn, she was drawn out of that district.
Thompson sat out from running again for several years. But the 2024 presidential election spurred her to try again.
“I've told my kids their entire life I would die for you, and so I will run for Congress for you," she said. "I will do this. This is a fight I couldn't sit out of, because I know what's at stake.”
While Thompson is running for a seat at the federal level, challenging incumbent Marlin Stutzman, Democrats are also filling in spots up and down the ballot.
Kyle Quandt is running for office for the first time.
“So, I knew campaigning was a lot of work, but I didn't know that it was a full time job," she said. "So I've got a lot going on.”
Quandt is running for Huntertown Town Council, which has five open seats and nine Republicans running. While Quandt doesn’t feel party affiliation is as important in such a hyper-local election, she is focusing her campaign on a specific issue; transparency.
She moved to Huntertown about a decade ago, looking for some calm and quiet while she raised her son. But she started to notice, even when she was trying, it was hard to know about decisions being made around the area.
“I actually recently had a current council member tell me, ‘We have a lot going on. We just can't tell the community,'" she said. "And I'm thinking, ‘Well, why? Because you're serving the community.’ So that kind of spurred me to get more involved.”
Quandt says she couldn’t understand the mentality of not needing to share information with community members.
“Especially when you're representing this small community where there's so much opportunity to talk to your constituents for the community to come in and give their opinion, making sure that that's heard, considered, and that you have that open door where they feel like they can come talk to you," she said.
Quandt says she doesn’t believe Indiana Democrats have a numbers problem, but rather a vote problem.
“And I think people are starting to realize that and say, "Oh, well, maybe I do have a chance if I run because it's not that we don't have Democrats to vote," she said.
She believes people have been led to feel their votes don’t matter.
Back at the state level, Blaine Sefton is running for Senate District 14. He filed his candidacy just before the deadline at the beginning of the year. He too has never run for office.
But he’s been heavily involved as an activist and community advocate, working with the Democratic Socialists of Fort Wayne and Indivisible Indiana.
“I've always wanted to do the best work that I can for my neighbors, my community, and my family," he said. "So when it came time to put my money where my mouth was and to really show up to these representatives I've been yelling at this whole time. I had to jump at that chance.”
Outside of campaigning, Sefton works as a union electrician. While he leans left in his policies and views, that hasn’t stopped him from trying to engage with people at different spots of the political spectrum.
“I understand there's like systemic problems that have been affecting them that have conditioned them to believe that their enemy is their Mexican neighbor, that their enemy is someone different from them who doesn't speak English as well as they do," Sefton said. "But I come at those conversations with empathy, as we all should, because they are a byproduct and they are a victim of this machine that keeps us divided.”
His focus is on representing the 99%, as he puts it, and holding systems he sees as no longer serving people to account.
“It is the responsibility of the government to work for everyday people and make sure that they are safe, make sure that they are healthy, and for the longest time, we have not seen that come to fruition," Sefton said. "And I'm incredibly glad to be given the opportunity to change that.”
The midterm election is November 3.
