The Race
Senate District 6 stretches from the southern half of Lake County -- Crown Point, Cedar Lake, Winfield, and Lowell -- westward through Newton County, Benton County, and the western portion of Jasper County including DeMotte and Rensselaer. It is a rural and exurban district in northwest Indiana, reliably Republican territory where the incumbent has won by margins ranging from 27 to 35 points when opposed, and ran entirely unopposed in 2022. [1]
Rick Niemeyer has held this seat since 2014, succeeding Sue Landske after her 30-year tenure. He is one of 21 Republican senators who voted against Trump's redistricting push in December 2025, but unlike the five senators Trump specifically targeted with endorsed primary challengers, Niemeyer falls into a different category: Trump has not weighed in on this race at all. [2] [3]
The May 5 Republican primary is the only election that matters here. Whoever wins will almost certainly represent SD-6 for the next four years.
Republican Primary
Rick Niemeyer (Incumbent)
Niemeyer is a third-generation auctioneer from Lowell who has built his career at the intersection of rural commerce and local government. He owns and operates the Lowell Livestock Auction, runs Niemeyer Realty as managing broker, and holds a licensed auctioneer business through Niemeyer Auction Service. He received his auctioneer license in 1972, continuing a family tradition started by his father Ernie Niemeyer, a late state senator and county commissioner. He attended Indiana State University. [4]
Before the legislature, Niemeyer served as West Creek Township trustee and assessor, Lake County councilman from the Seventh District, chair of the Lake County Solid Waste Board, and member of the Lake County Planning Commission and Drainage Board Advisory Committee. He won a state house seat (District 11) in 2012 with 61.3%, then moved to the Senate in 2014 after Landske's retirement. [4]
His election record in SD-6 is strong: 67.6% in 2014, 63.2% in 2018, and unopposed in both the primary and general in 2022. [1] He currently chairs the Environmental Affairs Committee and serves on Local Government and Tax and Fiscal Policy. [4]
The redistricting vote is the defining event of this primary. On December 11, 2025, Niemeyer was one of 21 Republicans who joined all 10 Democrats to kill HB 1032, the Trump-backed congressional redistricting plan, in a 31-19 vote. He gave a specific, geography-based explanation for his no vote: the proposed new 1st Congressional District "put in seven counties, about 180 miles long, and it goes to other areas of the state that doesn't fit what our community is, and we don't fit them." [5]
He told ABC7 Chicago he "understood where the administration was coming from, and the importance of playing the game," but said he was "confident that I made the right decision that I needed to make for myself." When asked about primary consequences, he was dismissive: "I don't think they're going to use this issue to say, 'No, we're not going to vote for you.'" [5]
That confidence has some basis. Unlike the five senators Trump actively targeted with endorsed challengers and an Oval Office photo-op, Niemeyer is in a different tier. As of late March 2026, Trump has not endorsed either candidate in the SD-6 primary. Niemeyer, along with Dan Dernulc (SD-1) and Linda Rogers (SD-11), are the three anti-redistricting Republican senators facing primary challengers but without Trump weighing in against them. [3]
James Starkey
James Jay Starkey of Lake County filed for the Republican primary on January 20, 2026 -- two weeks before Niemeyer filed his own re-election paperwork on February 4. [6]
Beyond the filing record, Starkey has left an extremely light public footprint. He has no Ballotpedia biography, no campaign website indexed by major search engines, no local news coverage, no FEC-reportable fundraising (state races file with Indiana, not FEC), and no endorsements documented in any public source reviewed for this analysis. [6]
The timing of his filing -- weeks after the December redistricting vote and immediately after Trump allies announced they would back primary challengers to all Republicans who voted against the maps -- raises an obvious question about motivation. But without any public statements, campaign materials, or news coverage, there is no evidence to confirm or deny whether Starkey's candidacy is connected to the redistricting backlash, whether it is a personal political aspiration, or whether it is something else entirely.
What can be said is that Starkey is challenging an incumbent who has represented this district for over a decade, won every race comfortably, and has deep local roots. The structural challenge facing any primary opponent here is significant: Niemeyer is a known commodity with institutional support, committee chairmanship authority, and decades of community ties through his auction business and local government service.
General Election
Kate-Lynn Holley (D)
Kate-Lynn Holley of DeMotte is running unopposed in the Democratic primary. She filed on January 26, 2026. [6]
Holley's biography is one of the more unusual in this election cycle. She is a full-time realtor and managing broker based in Crown Point, serving northwest Indiana through Banga Realty since 2019. She holds a peer-elected seat as Director on the Northwest Indiana Realtors Association (NIRA) MLS Board. She specializes in first-time homebuyers and VA buyers. [7]
Before real estate, Holley was a professional wrestler. She trained at a church in Merrillville, caught the attention of WWE talent scouts, and in 2018 wrestled Bayley and Sasha Banks as part of a tag team in an on-camera WWE match. The paycheck from that match -- including what wrestlers call a "bump bonus" -- funded her transition to real estate, paying for licensing classes and her first year of dues. [8]
She has built a local social media following as the "Lemon Rice Realtor," combining restaurant reviews with real estate content across northwest Indiana. She describes herself as a first-generation homebuyer, a "dance mom," and a "Star Wars nerd." [7] [8]
Her campaign platform centers on the slogan "A Table. A Roof. A Future." She emphasizes "steady, common-sense leadership" and frames her candidacy around supporting working families and practical economic concerns rather than partisan politics. Her ActBlue page describes a grassroots campaign seeking to "bring a stronger voice to the Statehouse." [9]
The structural problem is clear. This is a district where Niemeyer won by 26.4 points in his closest contested race (2018) and ran unopposed in 2022. No Democrat has come within 20 points here in the modern era. Holley's non-partisan framing and working-family appeal may be the best available strategy for a Democrat in this geography, but the math is daunting.
Why It Matters
SD-6 belongs to a category of Indiana redistricting-related primaries that is analytically distinct from the five races where Trump deployed his full endorsement apparatus. In those races -- SD-23, SD-27, SD-28, SD-38, and SD-41 -- Trump endorsed specific challengers, brought them to the Oval Office, and turned the primaries into referendums on loyalty. In SD-6, SD-1, and SD-11, the anti-redistricting senators face primary opponents but without the weight of a presidential endorsement behind the challenger.
The difference matters. A primary challenge from an unknown candidate with no visible campaign infrastructure, no endorsements, and no media presence is categorically different from a challenge backed by a presidential endorsement and national media attention. Niemeyer's redistricting vote may have made him theoretically vulnerable, but the absence of an organized campaign against him suggests that vulnerability has not been exploited.
The deeper question is whether voters in southern Lake County, Newton, Benton, and Jasper counties even register this primary as consequential. Niemeyer has served for 12 years, chairs a committee, and comes from a family with multi-generational roots in local commerce and governance. Starkey has no public profile. Holley brings energy and an unconventional biography to the general election, but the partisan arithmetic of the district leaves no plausible path to a Democratic win.
SD-6 is the quiet corner of the redistricting aftermath -- the race where the machinery of retribution was threatened but never fully deployed, where the incumbent bet that local credibility would matter more than a single vote in a special session, and where the May 5 primary will likely confirm that bet.