Indivisible and Electoral Politics

Indivisible is all about “fighting back” against the MAGA/Project 2025 policies that are putting our democracy at risk. 

One of Indivisible’s four pillars of resistance is to defend civic institutions, which includes electing progressive candidates, and working within the traditional Democratic party structure (or, conceivably, other parties, depending on the candidates) when appropriate.

This is the story of one “red” suburban Indianapolis county in 2024.

Johnson County, immediately south of Indianapolis, has been electing Republicans by two to one margins for decades. 

Over the past two years, with NO financial resources outside their own membership, the county party under the leadership of county chair Amanda Stevenson Holmes embarked on a program to build capacity.  Using the VAN voter database to identify prospects, they started doing mailings and hosting a series of house parties to start raising money.  With those funds, they obtained (for the first time in decades) a headquarters building.

Visitors to the opening of the headquarters made additional unsolicited donations.  Behind that momentum, the county party was able to recruit, and offer seed-funding to, ten local candidates for office – more local candidates than had run in many years. 

Scores of other people signed up as volunteers.  Together, they helped the Johnson County Democratic Party:

• Knock on 11,000 doors, and distribute literature to the 17,000 likely Democrats in those homes.

• Send 11,000 texts to likely Democratic voters in rural districts.

• Send 37,000 emails to likely Democratic voters across the county.

On election night and the morning after, the county party was devastated to see the results. 

At first glance it appeared that all the extra effort and focus had not moved the needle.   Almost every local Democratic candidate lost by almost exactly the same margin that Democratic candidates had lost by in 2020. 

It took a couple of days of absorbing the statewide and national results to realize that the results of our work were, in fact, measurable.   This was an election in which the nation as a whole, and many surrounding counties, moved toward the Republicans by 4 to 7 points. 

Johnson County did not.  Johnson County held the line, even picking up a half-point in a race or two.  At the top of the ticket, where nationally Trump went from losing by 4 points to winning by 1.5 points, Trump picked up less than a tenth of a percent in Johnson County.

Nationwide, the Democratic Party didn’t necessarily need to turn places like Johnson County blue.  They just needed to match 2020’s performance.  Johnson County did that.  It took a lot of work.  Relying on national trends and social media wouldn’t have done it.

Did it matter?  Was it worth doing?  Well … if every county in America had done what Johnson County did – knuckled down and done the work, matched 2020’s results -- Trump would have gone down to his third straight popular vote defeat, and probably the MAGA threat to our democracy would have been finally crushed.

2026 will be a "mid-term" election, when traditionally voter turn-out is barely half of what it is in a Presidential election. And if Indiana progressives settle for letting things play out as they always have, we will get once again what we've always got. But if we mobilize and urge our friends and neighbors -- including those neighbors who are finding the excesses of the Trump and Braun administrations to be more than they bargained for -- we can achieve results closer to 2020's results.

So, for Indivisible readers -- as we approach 2026, we are going to be working to connect our members with parties and candidates who are committed to doing the kind of grass-roots organizing that traditionally has achieved results and won elections. And not waiting for the months before next year's election. And for Johnson County readers, here is list of the offices that will be up for election in 2026. Some local offices can be won with as few as 400 votes! Do you know someone who might be a good candidate?

Offices on the Johnson County Ballot in 2026

(and the number of votes that won that seat in 2022)

Secretary of State                                 25,935 in JoCo

State Auditor                                       30,463 in JoCo

State Treasurer                                    31,229 in JoCo

US House of Representatives Dist. 6   30,858 in JoCo

State Senate 41                         10,159 in JoCo

State Rep 47                             11,888 in JoCo

State Rep 57                               6,411 in JoCo

State Rep 58                             12,112 in JoCo

State Rep 60                                3,507 in JoCo

Prosecutor 8th Circuit                34,252

Circuit Court Clerk                  34,324

County Auditor                        34,263

County Recorder                       34,347

County Sherriff                        35,117

County Assessor                      34,431

County Council Dist 1              10,561

County Council Dist 2                 6,614

County Council Dist 3                7,294 

County Council Dist 4              9,659

Blue River Twp Trustee               958

Blue River Twp Board (3)            557

Clark Twp Trustee                         868

Clark Twp Board (3)                      600

Franklin-Union-Ndhm Trustee                6,432

Franklin-Union-Ndhm Board (3)              5,819

Hensley Twp Trustee                               1,131

Hensley Twp Board (3)                               747

Nineveh Township Trustee                      1,189

Nineveh Township Board (3)                      729

Pleasant Township Trustee                   10,564

Pleasant Township Board (3)                   7,011

White River Township Trustee                11,639

White River Township Board (3)              9,032

Bargersville Town Council (2)                 1,260

Edinburg Town Council          (2)                415 

New Whiteland Town Council Wd 2          998

New Whiteland Town Council Wd 5          997

Edinburgh School Board (3)                        466

Center Grove School Board (3)                6,274

Clark Pleasant School Board (3)               3,259

Franklin School Board – Needham          5,232

Franklin School Board – Union                3,265

Greenwood School Board at Large (2)    1,787

Greenwood School Board District 2        3,744

Nin/Hen/Jackson School Board                  896

And all 140 Democratic Party Precinct Committeepersons