Overview
Two rural and suburban Republican strongholds face contested May 5 primaries for the Indiana House -- but with very different underlying dynamics. In HD-38, a deeply entrenched rural incumbent faces a challenger with minimal profile running on COVID-era grievance. In HD-40, one of the most powerful attorneys in the Indiana House faces a self-funded immigrant entrepreneur who has already been disqualified from one Republican race and survived a party challenge in this one. Both races are incumbent vs. challenger, but the stakes, the money, and the backstory diverge sharply. [1]
HD-38: Carroll, Tipton, and Howard Counties -- The Home Builder vs. the Pastor-Farmer
House District 38 spans all of Carroll and Tipton counties, plus portions of Cass, Clinton, Howard, and Tippecanoe counties in west-central Indiana. [2] This is rural heartland territory -- corn and soybean country punctuated by small towns like Delphi (Carroll County seat), Tipton (county seat of Tipton County), Flora, and Cutler. The district's western edge brushes Tippecanoe County near Purdue University, but the core is agricultural and deeply conservative. Howard County's piece includes western Kokomo suburbs.
Republican incumbent Heath VanNatter has held this seat since 2010 and has never faced a serious electoral challenge. His 2024 margin was 75.3% to 24.7% against Democrat Carl Seese, and he ran unopposed in 2022. In 2020, he won 71.5%; in 2018, 70.3%. He has never won with less than 65% of the vote in a general election and has never faced a contested Republican primary. [3]
Heath VanNatter (R) -- Incumbent
Heath VanNatter was born and raised in Howard County, graduated from Northwestern High School, and has been a small business owner for more than twenty years. He is the owner and operator of VanNatter Construction, a residential construction firm based in Kokomo, founded in 2004. His professional trajectory runs through the homebuilder ecosystem: past president of the Howard County Home Builders Association, current board member of the Indiana Builders Association, and director of the National Association of Home Builders. He also served on the Howard County Plan Commission before entering the legislature. [2]
VanNatter chairs the House Employment, Labor and Pensions Committee, a position he has held since 2016, and also serves on the Commerce, Small Business and Economic Development Committee and the Public Policy Committee. [4] His legislative output reflects the committee portfolio: he authored legislation to increase pension benefits for police officers and firefighters under the 1977 Fund, and in January 2025, the Indiana House unanimously approved his resolution to rename a section of State Road 75 in honor of fallen Carroll County Sheriff's Deputy Noah C. Rainey. [4]
VanNatter lives in Howard County with his wife Felicia and their three children -- Madison, Bella, and Cole. The family attends Faith Church of Christ in Burlington.
Mark Hufford (R) -- Challenger
Mark Hufford is a Carroll County farmer and small business owner from Cutler who has been self-employed for roughly twenty years. He previously served as a pastor in Flora, Indiana for five years, and lived in Oregon for a decade before returning to Indiana. In October 2023, Hufford was one of four Carroll County Republicans who applied to fill a District 3 vacancy on the Carroll County Council, though he was not selected. [5]
Hufford's public profile is thin. He has no campaign website, and his platform has been communicated primarily through candidate forums. At a Clinton County forum in early 2026, Hufford -- the only candidate present for the HD-38 race -- framed his candidacy around "limited government" and opposition to pandemic-era government overreach. He described how, while pastoring in Flora, he organized a petition against local mask mandates: "When COVID struck, I was serving as a pastor in Flora. The health department told local businesses they couldn't serve anyone without a mask. We wrote a petition of grievance -- and they rescinded the mandate." [6]
Hufford has also referenced his decade in Oregon as formative: "I saw what happens when progressivism overtakes a state. Our government has gotten huge and too controlling -- at every level." On land-use issues, he supports local control, arguing that communities should make decisions about data centers and renewable energy projects "without interference from the Statehouse." [6]
At a separate forum at Purdue, Hufford could not attend; an associate named Michael Smith spoke on his behalf. [7]
The Race
HD-38 is a primary challenge that faces overwhelming structural headwinds. VanNatter has held the seat for sixteen years, has never been seriously challenged in either a primary or a general election, and holds a committee chairmanship that gives him institutional standing and access to the homebuilder, labor, and employer networks that constitute the district's Republican base.
Hufford's candidacy appears to be a conviction candidacy rooted in COVID-era frustration rather than a strategically resourced campaign. The absence of a campaign website, the thin public record, and the reliance on proxy appearances at forums all point to a first-time candidate with limited political infrastructure. His local-control and limited-government messaging has ideological coherence in a rural conservative district, but converting that into votes against an incumbent with VanNatter's entrenchment requires resources, name recognition, and organization that are not in evidence.
The structural question is whether there exists any constituency of Republican primary voters in Carroll, Tipton, and Howard counties who are dissatisfied with VanNatter's performance but would not otherwise have expressed that dissatisfaction. In a district this red and this rural, where the incumbent wins generals by 30+ points and has never drawn a primary challenger, the answer is likely no -- but the existence of the challenge at all is worth noting as a data point about the breadth of post-pandemic populist energy in Indiana's rural Republican base.
HD-40: Hendricks County -- The Criminal Code Architect vs. the Trucking Mogul
House District 40 covers a portion of Hendricks County in the western suburbs of Indianapolis, including Avon, Danville (the county seat), and surrounding communities in Guilford, Lincoln, and Washington townships. [8] This is suburban boom country. Hendricks County's population has grown from 104,093 in 2000 to an estimated 194,117 in 2025 -- an 86% increase in twenty-five years, driven by bedroom-community development for Indianapolis commuters along the I-74 corridor. [9] The district sits within Indiana's 4th Congressional District.
Unlike HD-38's deep-red margins, HD-40 has shown measurable competitive trends. Incumbent Greg Steuerwald won 58.4% in 2024 against Democrat Robert Pope III, and 57.7% in 2018 against MeChelle Callen -- margins that are comfortable but not impregnable for an incumbent with nearly two decades of service. Steuerwald ran unopposed in 2022 and 2016. Notably, he faced a contested Republican primary in 2024 from Brian Paasch, winning 63.2% to 36.8% -- meaning more than a third of Republican primary voters chose a challenger even then. [10]
Gregory Steuerwald (R) -- Incumbent
Greg Steuerwald is one of the most institutionally significant members of the Indiana House. Born September 12, 1952, in Terre Haute, he holds a B.S. from Indiana State University (1974), an M.A. in Criminal Justice from the University of Alabama (1977), and a J.D. from Indiana University-Indianapolis (1981). Before law school, he served as a certified probation officer with the Indiana Department of Corrections. Since 1981, he has practiced law at Steuerwald, Witham and Youngs, LLP in Hendricks County, where the firm has represented various units of local government including towns, libraries, and townships. [11]
Steuerwald has represented District 40 since 2007 and currently serves as House Majority Caucus Chair -- the third-ranking Republican in the chamber. [11] He sits on the Courts and Criminal Code Committee, the Judiciary Committee, and the Statutory Committee on Ethics. He previously chaired the Judiciary Committee from 2013 to 2017.
His signature legislative achievement is authoring House Bill 1006, which provided the foundation for a comprehensive revision of Indiana's criminal code -- the first overhaul in more than thirty years. The bill was signed into law by Governor Pence on May 6, 2013, as Public Law 158, after passing the House 86-10 and the Senate 34-15. The legislation created the Justice Reinvestment Community Grants Program, allocating $50 million toward community corrections programs, and sought to reduce recidivism by keeping low-level offenders in treatment programs rather than state prisons. Steuerwald received the Champion of Justice Award from the Indiana Judicial Association for this work, along with the President's Citation from the Indiana State Bar Association (2019) and Legislator of the Year from the Indiana Sheriffs' Association (2019). [11] [12]
In December 2025, Steuerwald became one of twelve House Republicans to vote against a controversial redistricting proposal that would have created a 9-0 Republican congressional delegation at President Trump's urging. The House passed the bill 57-41, but the Senate ultimately rejected it 31-19. Steuerwald's "no" vote was particularly notable given that he had been the lead sponsor of Indiana's previous 2021 redistricting plan. [13]
Steuerwald lives in Avon with his wife Christy. He has three adult children and is a member of Avon United Methodist Church and the Danville Chamber of Commerce.
Siddharth Mahant (R) -- Challenger
Siddharth "Sid" Mahant is a first-generation immigrant who came to America at age 23 with approximately $850 and worked his way through a series of low-wage jobs -- janitor, convenience store manager, nursing assistant, car salesman, small restaurant owner, truck driver -- before co-founding Mahant Transportation, LLC in 2015 with his brother Yogi. [14] [15] The company started with one truck and grew to approximately 80 by 2022, operating full truckload services across the eastern United States from a facility in Avon. Mahant is also president of the Indiana Diverse Truckers Association, representing approximately 200 member companies. His campaign website claims the business employs more than 400 Hoosiers. [15]
Mahant has deposited $500,000 into his campaign account for the HD-40 race, signaling a self-funded operation that far outpaces what most state house challengers can muster. [16]
This is not Mahant's first attempt at Republican politics, and the prior attempt is instructive. In 2024, he filed for the Republican primary in Indiana's 6th Congressional District (after initially planning to run in the 5th), loaning his campaign $2 million. The bipartisan Indiana Election Commission voted 4-0 to remove him from the ballot after Johnson County GOP Chair Beth Boyce and ten other county chairs challenged his candidacy. The grounds: under Indiana law, candidates must have cast a Republican ballot in the last two primaries or obtained certification from their county GOP chair. Mahant had voted in only one Indiana primary (the 2018 Republican primary), had not obtained certification, and had been registered in Steuben County until February 1, 2024 -- the same day he filed his candidacy claiming Johnson County residency. [17]
For the 2026 race, Mahant has satisfied the two-primary requirement by voting in two subsequent Republican primaries. However, Hendricks County GOP Chair J. Philip Clay filed a new complaint alleging Mahant was not a Republican in good standing because he had donated to state Rep. Renee Pack, a Democrat from Indianapolis, and to ActBlue. Mahant's attorney Michelle Harter established that the donation was made in 2021 (not 2024 as alleged), and that it had been made by either Mahant's wife or business partner from a business account under his name. Indiana Republican Party District 4 Chair Randall Head denied the complaint, concluding that Pack's campaign "made a mistake and listed (Mahant) as the contributor on their campaign finance report." [18]
Mahant's platform centers on property tax relief, school funding, teacher compensation, public safety, and infrastructure -- a standard suburban Republican platform. His campaign frames him as an outsider: "Too many families wake up early, work hard, and still struggle to pay their bills." [14]
The Race
HD-40 is the analytically significant race in this batch because the structural conditions for a competitive primary actually exist. Steuerwald's 2024 primary showed that 36.8% of Republican voters were willing to choose an alternative -- and Mahant brings dramatically more resources than Brian Paasch did. A half-million-dollar campaign deposit in a state house race is unusual enough to command attention.
The race also carries ideological undertones. Steuerwald voted against Trump's redistricting push in December 2025 -- one of only twelve House Republicans to do so. That vote put him on the same side as the Senate Republicans who killed the measure, but potentially at odds with the MAGA-aligned primary electorate in a district where Trump's influence is strong. Whether Mahant explicitly campaigns on that vote or not, it creates a vulnerability that did not exist in prior cycles.
Mahant's biography is compelling campaign material: immigrant arrives with nothing, builds business employing hundreds. But his political record is checkered. The 2024 disqualification from the IN-06 race raised questions about residency, party affiliation, and procedural competence. The good-standing complaint in the current race -- even though it was dismissed -- added another layer of partisan suspicion. The cumulative effect is a candidate who appears to be shopping for a Republican office without deep roots in Republican politics, backed by personal wealth rather than institutional support. The Hendricks County GOP chair filed the complaint against him; the state party apparatus is clearly aligned with the incumbent.
Steuerwald's vulnerabilities are real but limited. His 58.4% general election margin in 2024 reflects the suburban shift that has made Hendricks County's politics more contested than its reputation suggests. His criminal code reform work and nearly two decades of institutional service give him a record that is difficult to attack from within the party -- but institutional accomplishment is not always what drives primary voters. The redistricting vote and the general anti-establishment energy in Republican primaries create an opening that a well-funded challenger can attempt to exploit.
The core question is whether Mahant's $500,000 can buy enough voter contact in a single Hendricks County district to overcome the institutional advantages of a Majority Caucus Chair. In a low-turnout May primary in a suburban district, money matters more than in a general election -- and $500,000 in a state house race is a lot of mail, a lot of digital ads, and a lot of door-knocking. This is a race worth watching.