Indiana Primary Elections 2026: Low Voter Turnout, Uninspiring Candidates, and Lack of Policy Differences

So the local elections are a week away, guys. They’re a week from tomorrow. Now, my thing on voting, I don’t know this year, I usually try to wait until like 5:50 on Election Day to vote. The reason I do this, it comes back to wasting that rich Republican money. I clearly know who I’m voting for, but for you guys who don’t know, the way the system works, especially the bigger campaigns, they’ll track who’s voted, and once you’ve voted, they cross you off the list. They don’t have to mail you stuff anymore. Well, that mailer costs money, and I want to waste as much of these people’s money as I possibly can, so I try to wait until Election Day so they’ll keep sending me the postcards and the mailers and they’ll pay some poor sucker to go hang something on my door. I don’t know, this year I’m woefully busy right now, so I may have to go early vote, but the elections are Tuesday, they’re a week from tomorrow. And I will of course be voting in the Republican primary because I’m a Republican in good standing, and I’m not going to risk doing anything to infringe upon that. But it got me thinking, I’m thinking in my own races, and then I got to thinking about the Senate races, what makes any of these people stand out. Apparently early voting in Marion County is way up, but everywhere else it seems like it still stinks. How’s early voting where you’re at.

Why Indiana Voter Turnout Remains Among the Lowest in the Nation

Voter turnout in Indiana is some of the worst in the nation, and there’s always someone saying we need to help people vote, make a difference, encourage turnout. I don’t want the state, I don’t want my tax money encouraging people to vote. It’s your job to vote. It’s your job to know when to vote. The job of the state, they can say the election day is such and such, they can put that out in the public sphere, but I don’t want mailers urging me to go vote from the government. I don’t want my money urging me to vote. That’s my job. One of the major reasons people don’t vote, I think there are two major reasons. Number one, they think no matter who gets in there it’s not going to make any difference, and number two, the candidates are super boring and uninspiring. I think at the end of the day that’s the biggest part of it, all the candidates are super boring and uninspiring. When do people show up to vote, when they have something that entertains them, that captivates their attention, something they want to invest their time in. Look at Indiana, when have we seen record turnout, Obama and Hillary, Trump. That’s when you see it.

Do Candidates Fail to Inspire Voters in State and Local Elections?

What is your favorite candidate believing that has you fired up? What is it? I’m talking at a county level, state level, local level. Are there any of these candidates out there that you’re like yeah this person’s for this? I think if you’re honest with yourself, you mostly vote out of a sense of obligation and you’re picking what you believe is the lesser of two people who will let you down, who’s going to let you down the least. And so Abdul wrote about this, about how there really is no difference between a lot of these candidates challenging these incumbent senators and the senators themselves. They’re opportunists. And this is what I’ve been telling you guys for months, these challengers not running on anything other than Trump and redistricting, because then when they get in there, they’re not going to stand for anything because they didn’t run on anything.

Indiana Primary Races Highlight Lack of Policy Differences Between Candidates

Here’s a great example of this. Abdul wrote about the campaign between Michelle Davis and Greg Walker. Greg Walker has been in the state Senate forever. I was still in college when Greg Walker was first elected. He represents Johnson and Bartholomew counties, the Greenwood area, Columbus. He’s running against Michelle Davis, a current state rep. Michelle Davis sent out a mailer hitting Walker for being soft on reeling in foreign ownership of Indiana farmland. According to Abdul, the bill was House Bill 1183 in 2024. The only problem, according to Abdul, Davis voted for the exact same bill. You have two people running against each other and there’s so little that separates them, she’s sending out a hit piece hitting something the guy voted for that she voted for as well. Brenda Wilson, running in Terre Haute, got asked if she disagreed with Greg Goode outside of redistricting, and she struggled to say anything. Look, there are a lot of things you could disagree with Greg Goode on. Property taxes, that was quick. And yes, Greg Goode’s running ads on this show, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to say nice things about him. I’ve been critical of things he’s done, and I’ve said if I lived in that district, I’d probably protest vote for Alexandra Wilson.

Why Many Challengers May Not Deliver Change Despite Anti-Incumbent Messaging

But the point is, Brenda Wilson got asked and had an opportunity, other than redistricting, to lay out where she disagreed with Greg Goode, and she really couldn’t do it. These people are opportunists. They’re really no different than the people already in there, because if they cared about you, they would be talking about the things that matter to you. They would be laying out differences that they have that will better your life. But for the most part, they’re invested in the same system that the incumbents are. If you want to say throw the bums out, have at it, no problem, but don’t think you’re going to be getting anything different. Like I said, voting generally comes down to protest or disliking the person there, but these people have had every opportunity to distinguish themselves, about how they’re different, what they’re going to do, specific policies, how they’re going to make your life better, and they haven’t done it. And if they won’t do it, you shouldn’t think that they’re going to do it. If you’ve had months to lay things out and you don’t take the opportunity, you really don’t want the opportunity.