Overview
Two Indiana House districts share a structural feature heading into the May 5, 2026 primary: both have contested Republican primaries in seats where the incumbent is not returning. HD-30 in Howard and Grant counties loses Speaker Pro Tem Mike Karickhoff after sixteen years; HD-34 in Delaware County loses Democrat Sue Errington after fourteen years. Each district tells a different story about what happens when a long-serving legislator steps aside -- one in deep-red territory where the primary is the election, the other in a competitive swing district where both parties have a plausible path to victory. [1]
HD-30: Kokomo and Grant County -- The Speaker Pro Tem's Open Seat
The District
House District 30 covers portions of Howard and Grant counties in central Indiana, including much of Kokomo (the Howard County seat) and surrounding communities. [2] The district sits within Congressional District 5. It is solidly Republican territory: incumbent Mike Karickhoff won with 67.5% in 2024 (19,303 to 9,309), 67.5% in 2022, and 66.1% in 2020. [3] No Democrat has come within twenty points of winning this seat in the last three cycles. Kokomo is a manufacturing city historically tied to the auto industry -- Chrysler's transmission plant has been a major employer for decades -- and the broader region has trended steadily Republican over the past two decades even as its economic base has shifted.
Why It Is Open
Mike Karickhoff, R-Kokomo, announced in November 2025 that he would not seek reelection, becoming the first high-ranking member of the legislature to step aside ahead of the 2026 cycle. [4] Karickhoff was first elected in 2010 and rose to Speaker Pro Tempore in 2019, serving as a key lieutenant to Speaker Todd Huston and frequently presiding over House floor sessions. Before the legislature, he spent seventeen years as Kokomo's Superintendent of Parks, then served as Executive Director of Facilities at Ivy Tech Community College overseeing campuses in Kokomo, Logansport, Peru, and Rochester. He also served on the Kokomo Common Council from 2004 to 2010, including stints as Finance Chair and President. [2]
Karickhoff highlighted his work combating the opioid crisis, strengthening economic development, and protecting natural resources. He also championed driving-privilege cards for undocumented immigrants and in-state tuition eligibility for noncitizens -- measures that failed due to opposition from his own caucus. [4] He was recognized by the Indiana Bankers Association for bipartisan consensus-building. His departure removes one of the more institutionally powerful and pragmatic Republican voices in the chamber.
The Republican Primary
Two Republicans are competing for the nomination on May 5.
Ray Collins is the President of the Kokomo Common Council and a Republican representing the council's 3rd district. He is a lifelong Howard County resident, a graduate of Kokomo High School, and a former student-athlete on the Wildkat basketball team. [5] Collins has served on the Kokomo Common Council since 2020 and was elected council president in January 2025. Before that, he spent over two decades as a supervisor at Howard County government and also worked in security operations management at Community Health Network. [5] His candidacy announcement came shortly after Karickhoff's retirement, positioning him as the establishment-aligned candidate with local government experience. Collins led the council's redistricting process in 2022, though some local Democrats criticized the effort as rushed and lacking in meaningful public input. He won reelection in 2023 with approximately 60% of the vote. [5]
Paula Davis is a Republican from Kokomo whose candidacy was announced on November 11, 2025, by the Howard County Republican Party. [6] Beyond her filing and the party announcement, publicly available details about Davis's professional background, platform, and community involvement are extremely limited. No detailed campaign website, endorsement list, or local media profile was found during research. This information gap does not reflect on the candidate's qualifications -- it may simply indicate a less media-visible campaign -- but it means voters will need to seek out local forums and party events to evaluate her candidacy.
The Democrat
Jack Chance is running unopposed in the Democratic primary. Chance is a Tipton native and Tipton High School graduate who now lives in Kokomo, where he manages an affordable housing complex for seniors. [7] He attended seminary in Oklahoma City, where he established a homeless mission, before returning to Indiana. In 2023, he left the for-profit sector to join a nonprofit housing organization. His platform centers on housing policy, public education funding, and healthcare affordability -- the last driven by his mother's experience navigating the healthcare system as a person with a long-term disability. [7]
Chance's candidacy is structurally quixotic. In a district where the Republican nominee has won with two-thirds of the vote in three consecutive cycles, the Democratic nomination is less a path to office than a placeholder on the ballot. But his focus on housing -- an issue with bipartisan salience in a region where affordability is increasingly strained -- at least ensures the topic gets a public airing.
The Race
The HD-30 Republican primary is the only election that matters here. The winner in May will almost certainly represent the district in January 2027. Collins enters with the clearer institutional advantage: council presidency, name recognition in Kokomo, and the implicit support of the local party apparatus that posted Davis's candidacy announcement. Davis is a less visible challenger whose campaign has not generated a significant public footprint. Without more information about her platform and backing, Collins appears to be the frontrunner, but primary elections in low-turnout cycles can surprise when one candidate out-organizes the other at the precinct level.
The bigger question for HD-30 is what kind of Republican replaces Karickhoff. He was an institutionalist who chaired the Ways and Means Committee, pushed bipartisan consensus, and was willing to break with his caucus on immigration. That brand of pragmatic conservatism is increasingly rare in Indiana Republican primaries, and whoever wins will inherit a seat that comes without Karickhoff's committee seniority or institutional leverage.
HD-34: Muncie and Delaware County -- The Democrat's Farewell
The District
House District 34 covers portions of Delaware County in east-central Indiana, including much of Muncie, home to Ball State University. [8] This is one of the few Indiana House districts that has been held by a Democrat in recent years -- and the margins tell the story of a genuinely competitive seat. Sue Errington won 55.1% in 2024 (12,156 to 9,910), 52.8% in 2022 (7,659 to 6,849), and 56.4% in 2020 (11,293 to 8,744). [3] The presence of Ball State University gives the district a younger, more educated demographic profile than surrounding rural areas, but the university population is transient and does not always translate into reliable midterm turnout. Outside the university's immediate orbit, Delaware County has trended red.
Why It Is Open
Sue Errington, D-Muncie, announced on December 31, 2025, that she would not seek reelection after fourteen years representing HD-34. [9] Errington was first elected to the Indiana State Senate in 2006, represented the 26th Senate District until 2010, then won the House seat in 2012. Before the legislature, she spent seventeen years as Public Policy Director for Planned Parenthood of Indiana. [9] Her legislative record focused on reproductive healthcare access, environmental protection, equal pay, sexual assault law reform (she championed adding consent to Indiana's rape statute definition, which finally passed in 2022), public school funding, and universal pre-K. [10]
Errington expressed concern in her retirement statement about one-party Republican dominance in Indiana, noting nearly two decades of GOP control. She was honored with a resolution on the Indiana House floor in February 2026. [11] Her departure creates a genuine partisan vulnerability: this is one of the few seats in Indiana where the outcome is not structurally predetermined.
The Republican Primary
The Republican field started with four candidates but narrowed to two after Chris Walker and Tim Overton both withdrew in February 2026. Neither provided a public statement explaining the withdrawal. [12]
For context on the original field: Chris Walker was the principal of Muncie Central High School for a decade and had emphasized community involvement, economic development, and the Cradle to Career initiative to end generational poverty. [13] Tim Overton was the Delaware County Republican Party chairman and a pastor. [14] Their departures simplified what had been one of the more crowded state house primaries in Indiana.
Richard Ivy is a Muncie resident who currently serves as Director of Human Resources for the Muncie Sanitary District. [15] His background in public service is extensive. He served on the Muncie City Council as an at-large Republican member before being selected as deputy mayor by Mayor Dan Ridenour in January 2021 -- the first person to hold that position in over a decade. [16] As deputy mayor, he oversaw multiple city departments including public works, community development, parks, and public safety. The position was eliminated when the Muncie City Council defunded it in 2024. [15] Before city government, Ivy worked as a quality improvement officer at LifeStream Services, where he was responsible for safeguarding the well-being of more than 19,000 seniors and people with disabilities across a twelve-county region. [15] He has spent over twenty-five years involved in youth sports programs and local civic organizations. [16] He attends Antioch Missionary Baptist Church with his wife Pamela, where he serves as finance secretary. [15]
Ivy's platform emphasizes strengthening transparency and restoring public trust, supporting seniors, veterans, and families, expanding youth opportunities and workforce pathways, advancing neighborhood revitalization and public safety, and ensuring fiscal prudence. He describes his approach as "people-first" and has stated that "public service is not about personal ambition, it's about responsibility." [15]
Randall McCallister is a self-described blue-collar conservative from Muncie running on a platform of faith, freedom, personal responsibility, and common-sense policies. [17] He has signed the U.S. Term Limits pledge supporting a convention for congressional term limits. [18] McCallister has been publicly vocal on local issues: he called for the termination of a Ball State University staff member over controversial statements and has advocated for political neutrality in university classrooms. [19] He has emphasized the need for political civility, stating that "both sides are getting very frustrated with each other, and they're not really talking." [19] His campaign website lists an endorsement from Colton Moore, a Georgia state senator running for Congress. [17] Detailed biographical information about McCallister's professional background and education was not publicly available at the time of research, making it difficult to fully assess his qualifications relative to Ivy's documented record of local government service.
The Democrat
Sara Gullion is running unopposed in the Democratic primary. Gullion is a Muncie City Council member representing District 4 -- the first Democrat to win that seat, which she attributed to door-to-door campaigning and listening to constituents. [20] She was endorsed by Sue Errington, who agreed to serve as her campaign chairperson. [9] Gullion was also recruited by the Indiana Rural Summit, a coalition that supported Democratic candidates in 2026 races across the state. [20]
Gullion has said she was motivated to run for the General Assembly after realizing on the city council that many local issues -- unemployment, underemployment, lack of a living wage, housing access -- require state-level solutions. [20] Her platform emphasizes accountability, transparency, and fairness. While detailed biographical information about her education and pre-council career was not found in public sources, her council record and community engagement provide a baseline for voters to evaluate her candidacy.
The Race
HD-34 is the rare Indiana House district where both parties have a realistic chance of winning. Errington held it with margins between 5 and 11 points across three cycles, but those margins were built on her personal incumbency advantage and reputation -- not on the district's structural lean, which is closer to even. Without an incumbent, the general election is genuinely uncertain.
The Republican primary between Ivy and McCallister pits a candidate with documented local government experience -- city council, deputy mayor, nonprofit leadership -- against a populist outsider running on values and grassroots energy. Ivy's resume is deeper and more verifiable; McCallister's appeal is to voters who distrust the political establishment regardless of party. The withdrawal of Walker and Overton likely consolidates support behind one or both remaining candidates, but it is unclear which benefited more from the field narrowing.
Whoever wins the Republican primary will face Gullion in a general election that could be one of the more competitive state house races in Indiana. The absence of a governor's race or US Senate contest at the top of the ticket reduces the structural turnout advantage that either party might otherwise enjoy, making local organizing and candidate quality the decisive factors. Errington's endorsement and campaign management give Gullion an institutional advantage on the Democratic side that her Republican opponent will need to match with their own ground game.