Overview
Two Indiana House districts carry contested primaries on May 5, 2026 -- but the contests fall on opposite sides of the aisle. In House District 28, a west-central Indiana seat anchored in Hendricks County, a veteran nurse practitioner is challenging one of the most powerful Republicans in the Indiana House in the GOP primary. In House District 29, a Hamilton County suburban seat covering Noblesville and Fishers, two Democrats are competing for the right to take on a freshman Republican incumbent in November. Neither district is competitive in the general election -- Thompson won HD-28 by 41 points in 2024, and Shonkwiler won HD-29 by 27 points -- making the primary contests the only real elections in these districts this cycle. [1]
HD-28: The Budget Chairman vs. the Nurse -- Hendricks County
The District
House District 28 stretches across portions of Boone, Hendricks, and Montgomery counties in west-central Indiana. [2] The district is anchored in the rural and small-town communities west of the Indianapolis suburbs -- Lizton, Pittsboro, North Salem, Jamestown, and Amo -- with portions extending into the edge of the growing Hendricks County corridor that includes parts of Danville and Brownsburg. It sits entirely within Indiana's 4th Congressional District, currently represented by Jim Baird. [2]
This is deep-red territory. Jeff Thompson has held the seat since 1998 -- twenty-eight years and counting. In 2024, he defeated Democrat Karen Whitney with 70.55% of the vote, a 41-point margin. [1] In 2022, he ran entirely unopposed. The district's partisan lean makes a general election challenge essentially ceremonial. The Republican primary is the only election that matters.
The Incumbent: Jeff Thompson (R)
Jeff Thompson is not merely an incumbent; he is the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee -- the single most powerful committee in the Indiana House, which controls the state budget. [3] Speaker Todd Huston appointed Thompson to the chairmanship in September 2022 after his predecessor departed, putting the state's purse strings in the hands of a 12-term representative who had spent decades on education policy.
Thompson's biography is unusually cohesive for a career politician. He graduated from Purdue University with a B.S. in Physics in 1978, then spent more than thirty years teaching chemistry, physics, and math at Danville Community High School. [3] [4] He was elected to the House in 1998 while still teaching. Since 2003, he has served on the House Education Committee and chaired the K-12 Subcommittee of Ways and Means. Under his leadership, the General Assembly fundamentally restructured Indiana's school funding formula, shifting from funding school corporations to funding individual students -- a change that has reshaped education finance across the state. [3]
As Ways and Means chairman, Thompson authored House Bill 1001 -- the state budget -- which included K-12 school funding with 2% tuition support increases each year and total education budgets of $9.4 billion in 2026 and $9.6 billion in 2027. [5] He lives in Lizton with his wife. They have six children and two grandchildren.
Thompson faced a primary challenge in 2024 from Joe Batic and dispatched him comfortably. [4] He is accustomed to periodic challenges from the right and has survived them all across his long tenure.
The Challenger: Sheila Zielinski (R)
Sheila Zielinski is running for public office for the first time, bringing a healthcare-centered career to a district represented by a career educator. [6]
Zielinski is a long-time Pittsboro resident who spent 42 years in nursing at IU Health before recently retiring. Her educational credentials are substantial: a bachelor's degree in nursing from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois; a master's in nursing with a Clinical Nurse Specialist focus from Wichita State University; a post-master's certificate as a Nurse Practitioner from Indiana University (1995); and a doctorate in nursing practice from Indiana University Indianapolis. [6] She accumulated adult nurse practitioner (1995), acute care (1996), and family (1998) certifications during her career. Her specialty at IU Health Methodist in Indianapolis was emergency medicine and critical care.
Her professional honors include the Indianapolis Star Salute to Nurses Inspiration Award (2009) and the IU Department of Medicine Outstanding Advance Practice Provider Award (2024). [6]
Zielinski's community involvement signals her Republican bona fides: she volunteers with the Hendricks County Medical Reserve Corps, the Indiana Guard Reserve, and Hendricks County Republican Women. [6] She raised four children with her husband Paul; all graduated from Tri-West High School.
Since retiring from IU Health, Zielinski has continued practicing as a nurse practitioner at the Gennesaret Free Clinic, which provides care to low-income families -- an interesting credential for a Republican primary candidate, grounding her in both healthcare policy and direct service to underserved populations. [6]
Her campaign website does not lay out extensive policy positions, focusing instead on her service record and community ties. [6] The implicit argument is experiential rather than ideological: she is offering healthcare expertise as a contrast to Thompson's education-and-budget expertise, without mounting an explicitly ideological challenge from the right.
The General Election: Karen Whitney (D)
Karen Whitney is running unopposed in the Democratic primary. She is a retired college president with a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin (2003), who served as president of Clarion University in Pennsylvania and as interim chancellor for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. [7] She ran against Thompson in 2024 and lost by more than 41 points, receiving 29.45% of the vote. [1]
Whitney's platform centers on jobs, healthcare, and education -- themes that resonate generally but face the arithmetic wall of a district where Republicans regularly exceed 70% in general elections. Her candidacy ensures a name appears on the Democratic ballot line in November but does not meaningfully threaten the Republican nominee.
What to Watch
The HD-28 Republican primary is a test of incumbency at its strongest. Thompson is not just a long-serving incumbent -- he is the budget chairman, arguably the second or third most powerful member of the Indiana House after the Speaker and the majority floor leader. Challenging a Ways and Means chair in a primary is difficult precisely because that position controls the flow of money to every district in the state. Members who depend on Thompson's committee for budget priorities in their communities have every incentive to support him, and those networks of obligation extend into donor circles.
Zielinski's path to an upset would require significant dissatisfaction with Thompson within the district's Republican electorate -- not dissatisfaction with his ideology, necessarily, but perhaps with his long tenure, his Statehouse focus, or his perceived distance from constituent concerns. Her healthcare background is a genuine credential, but she enters the race without a clear ideological wedge or a visible institutional base of support beyond her personal network.
HD-29: The Democratic Primary in Hamilton County's Suburban Core
The District
House District 29 covers portions of Noblesville and Fishers in Hamilton County -- the fast-growing suburban corridor north of Indianapolis. [8] Hamilton County has been one of the fastest-growing counties in Indiana for decades, driven by corporate relocations, new housing development, and top-rated schools. The district sits within Indiana's 5th Congressional District, currently represented by Victoria Spartz.
The district has been in Republican hands for its entire modern history. Chuck Goodrich, a construction executive, held the seat from 2018 to 2024 before leaving to run for Congress in the IN-05 race. [9] Alaina Shonkwiler won the 2024 open-seat contest, defeating Laura Alerding in the Republican primary and then winning the general election over Democrat Christopher Hartig with 63.37% of the vote -- a 27-point margin. [8]
That margin means any Democrat running here faces long odds. But the district's suburban demographics -- young families, college-educated professionals, corporate transplants -- are the same demographics that have produced Democratic gains in other suburban seats nationwide since 2018. Hamilton County has not shifted blue, but it has shifted less-red in recent cycles, particularly in higher-turnout presidential years.
The Incumbent: Alaina Shonkwiler (R) -- Unopposed
Shonkwiler is a first-term incumbent with no primary challenger, meaning she will advance directly to the November general election. [8]
Her background is rooted in the Noblesville community. A Noblesville High School graduate (2001), she earned a bachelor's degree in public affairs management from Indiana University Bloomington and a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership and Public Administration from North Central University in 2024. [10] Her career has spanned workforce development (coordinator for Noblesville Schools), government consulting (manager at Katz, Sapper & Miller), economic development (director at Veridus Group), construction business development (Garmong Construction), and congressional staff work -- she served as district director for U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz. [10]
The Spartz connection is notable. Victoria Spartz is one of Indiana's most controversial Republican members of Congress, and Shonkwiler's time as her district director places her squarely within the establishment Republican network in Hamilton County. [10]
Democratic Primary: Coumba Kebe vs. Devon Wellington
Two Democrats are competing for the chance to challenge Shonkwiler in November. Both are Noblesville residents. Both are first-time candidates. And both have built their campaigns around specific policy expertise -- healthcare for Kebe, education for Wellington -- rather than broad partisan messaging.
Coumba Kebe (D)
Coumba Kebe is a public health professional and small business owner who holds a Master of Public Health from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. [11] [12] She owns a home-health-care consulting business (Scope Consulting) and has spent nearly a decade working with health care systems, providers, and families across Indiana, with a focus on senior care, disability services, and Medicaid programs. [11]
Kebe's stated motivation for running is specific and policy-grounded: the Indiana General Assembly's cuts to Medicaid, which she saw directly harming seniors and the aging population she serves professionally. [12] "I feel like we're at a point in our country, in our state, where it's important to be transparent, to be honest and to tell people the truth, call out hypocrisy, and to be a voice of the people and work for people," she told the Hamilton County Reporter. [12]
Kebe is part of the Indiana Rural Summit coalition, a nonprofit that trains and supports candidates for state and local office. She was among a cohort of about two dozen Summit members who filed their declarations of candidacy on January 7, 2026 -- the first day filing was open. [13]
Her campaign is tightly focused: healthcare access, senior care, caregiver support, and Medicaid protection. This is a candidate who can speak from direct professional experience about the consequences of state healthcare policy, a credential that distinguishes her from a typical first-time candidate running in a district with heavy Democratic headwinds.
Devon Wellington (D)
Devon Wellington is an education policy consultant, small business owner, and parent who moved to Noblesville in 2023. [14] [15] Her professional background is in developmental psychology, with a focus on policy for students with special needs and adolescent brain development. [14] She has served on three district-level school committees and has been actively involved in Noblesville Schools governance. She has a first grader and third grader in Noblesville Schools. [15]
Wellington's campaign centers on education funding and property taxes, with a specific target: SEA 1, the state's new fiscal formula, which she calls "a one-size-fits-all approach that projects a $1.3 billion hole in local revenues for schools, roads and emergency services." [14] Her other stated priorities are affordability and opportunity.
Wellington has described herself as having "helped shape proven policy recommendations in the rooms where legislation is written" -- suggesting a background in policy advocacy at the state level, though the specific engagements are not detailed in available campaign materials. [15]
Her relative newcomer status in the community (arriving in 2023) could be a factor in a primary where both candidates need to establish credibility with a Democratic electorate that is itself a small minority in this Republican-leaning district.
Why This Primary Matters
The HD-29 Democratic primary will not determine who controls the seat in 2027 -- Shonkwiler is the overwhelming favorite in November. But it will determine what kind of Democratic argument gets made to Hamilton County suburban voters, and that matters for longer-term party-building in a county where the margins have been slowly shifting.
Kebe and Wellington represent two distinct lanes. Kebe runs on healthcare -- specifically, Medicaid and senior care -- issues where the Republican supermajority's policy choices have created visible harm that affects families across partisan lines. Wellington runs on education -- specifically, school funding formulas and property tax implications -- issues that matter intensely in a community that defines itself by the quality of its schools.
Both are substantive candidacies built on professional expertise rather than partisan grievance. The primary will tell Democrats in Hamilton County which issue set resonates most strongly with their own base and, potentially, with the persuadable suburban voters they would need to make HD-29 competitive in future cycles.
The Structural Story
These two districts illustrate the two faces of Indiana's one-party dominance. In HD-28, the Republican incumbent is so entrenched that the only meaningful challenge comes from within his own party -- and even that challenge faces towering structural barriers, because the incumbent controls the state budget. In HD-29, the Democratic primary is technically competitive, but it produces a nominee who will face a 27-point deficit in November.
In neither district does the general election function as a genuine contest. The meaningful choices -- a veteran nurse challenging a budget chairman, two policy professionals debating which Democratic message belongs in Hamilton County -- happen in primaries where turnout is low and the electorate is self-selected. This is not a bug in Indiana's electoral system. It is the system working exactly as the legislative mapmakers intended.