Overview
Two Indiana House districts carry contested primaries on May 5, 2026, each presenting a distinctly different political dynamic. House District 81 in Allen County (Fort Wayne) is the rarer specimen: it has contested primaries on both sides of the aisle, with two Republicans and two Democrats competing for their party's nominations. House District 94 in Marion County (Indianapolis) has a contested Democratic primary only -- no Republican filed, and the primary winner will take the seat unopposed in November. These are contrasting environments: HD-81 is a Republican-leaning suburban-rural district where the general election has been genuinely competitive in recent cycles, while HD-94 is one of the safest Democratic seats in Indiana where the primary is the only election that matters. [1]
HD-81: Fort Wayne's Insurance Chair Under Fire From Both Flanks -- Allen County
The District
House District 81 covers the northwestern portion of Fort Wayne and portions of central Allen County, encompassing a mix of suburban neighborhoods, rural areas, and parts of the Fort Wayne metropolitan area. [2] The district spans two school systems -- Fort Wayne Community Schools (the largest district in Indiana, serving students speaking 60+ languages) and Northwest Allen County Schools -- along with a significant Catholic school presence. [3] It sits within Indiana's 3rd Congressional District. District boundaries were redrawn following the 2020 Census and took effect in November 2022, with what Purdue University Fort Wayne political scientist Andrew Downs described as "a fairly significant redrawing of the House district boundaries in Allen County." [4]
HD-81 leans Republican but is far from safe. Allen County voted for Trump by a 12.4-point margin in 2024 (55.2% to 42.8%), making it considerably more competitive than most Indiana counties outside the Indianapolis metro area. [5] At the district level, the competitive trend is even more pronounced. Martin Carbaugh won his seat in 2012 with just 51.7% in a three-way race, and twice faced Democrat Kyle Miller in races decided by single digits -- 53.7% in 2018 and 52.0% in 2020. [6] Miller eventually won the adjacent HD-82 in 2022, demonstrating that Democrats can win Fort Wayne House seats. [7] Carbaugh's 2024 margin of 64.9% was his strongest general election performance, but that came against a candidate (Abby Norden) who had previously appeared only as a write-in. [6] The district's electoral history suggests a genuine swing-seat character that is unusual for Indiana House races.
Republican Primary
The Incumbent: Martin Carbaugh (R)
Martin Carbaugh has represented House District 81 since 2012, making this his eighth consecutive term bid. [6] A Fort Wayne native, he studied at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne and has spent over fifteen years as a financial planner at Financial Focus, specializing in helping business owners and families with financial planning. [2] He is married to Sally and has two daughters, Katelyn and Grace. He is a member of Concordia Lutheran Church. [2]
Carbaugh chairs the House Insurance Committee and serves on the Education Committee and Public Health Committee. [2] He also serves as vice chair of the Interim Study Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance and sits on the Pension Management Oversight Committee. [8] His professional background as an insurance and financial adviser directly informs his committee leadership.
Carbaugh's most significant recent legislative accomplishment is House Enrolled Act 1004, a House Republican priority bill signed by Governor Braun that targets rising healthcare costs at nonprofit hospitals. The legislation directs the Office of Management and Budget to set a statewide average price benchmark for hospital services, requires large nonprofit hospitals with over $2 billion in revenue to align their average prices with this benchmark by 2029 or risk losing their nonprofit status, and mandates transparency through annual tax document disclosures. [9] He has also authored legislation on surprise medical billing protections, ambulance billing reform, and adoption process improvements. [2]
Carbaugh's community involvement includes service as an elected precinct committeeman, membership in the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors and National Federation of Independent Business, and volunteer work with Junior Achievement teaching financial literacy. [2]
His campaign finance history reflects the resources of a long-serving incumbent: $152,010 raised in 2024, $387,277 in 2022, and $418,765 in 2020, for a total of over $1.7 million across his career. [6] He has handled primary challenges before -- defeating David Mervar with 65.3% in 2022 and 69.8% in 2024. [10]
The Challenger: David Mervar (R)
David Mervar is making his third consecutive primary challenge against Carbaugh, having lost with 34.7% in 2022 and 30.2% in 2024. [10] Born in Indianapolis, Mervar holds a bachelor's degree from Ball State University (1991) and has lived in Fort Wayne for over thirty years. [10] He is a broker and owner of Beer & Mervar Realtors, a past president of the Board of Realtors, and describes himself as "first and foremost, a follower of Jesus Christ." [11] He is married to Rebecca (32 years) and has five children. [11]
Mervar's platform is explicitly faith-driven and positions him well to Carbaugh's right. His four stated priorities are: passing a "Protection at Conception" bill (arguing that "abortion is still widely legal in Indiana, despite what politicians are telling you"), returning Indiana to paper ballots by eliminating electronic voting machines, restoring Indiana's "biblical marriage statute" recognizing marriage as one man and one woman, and repealing red flag laws that allow firearm seizure "without due process." [12] [11] He describes himself as "running to replace RINOs" and criticizes Carbaugh for giving "lip service" to conservative issues without using his vote to advance them. [12]
Mervar's community involvement includes Bible Study Fellowship, Awana children's ministry, and service as an elder at a local church. [10] His campaign finance reports show dramatically lower resources than the incumbent: $32,642 raised in 2022 and just $5,223 in 2024, for a career total of $37,865. [10]
Republican Primary Dynamics
The HD-81 Republican primary is a textbook establishment-vs.-movement-conservative contest. Carbaugh is a policy-oriented legislator whose signature work -- healthcare cost transparency at nonprofit hospitals -- reflects a pragmatic Republican focus on market reform. Mervar frames the race in explicitly religious and ideological terms, running on abortion, election integrity, traditional marriage, and gun rights.
The empirical evidence strongly favors Carbaugh. Mervar's vote share has actually declined between his two challenges -- from 34.7% in 2022 to 30.2% in 2024 -- suggesting he is losing ground rather than building a movement. [10] The fundraising disparity is enormous: Carbaugh raised nearly 29 times as much as Mervar in the 2024 cycle ($152,010 vs. $5,223). [6] [10] Unless something fundamentally changes the dynamics, Mervar's third attempt appears unlikely to produce a different result.
Democratic Primary
The presence of two Democratic candidates in HD-81 is notable because this is one of the few Indiana House districts where Democrats have been genuinely competitive. Kyle Miller's razor-thin losses in 2018 (46.3%) and 2020 (48.0%) showed that the district is winnable under the right conditions, and Miller's subsequent victory in the adjacent HD-82 in 2022 proved that Fort Wayne can elect Democrats to the Statehouse. [6] [7]
Sharon Wight (D)
Sharon Wight is a lifelong resident of Fort Wayne's District 81 and a product of Fort Wayne Community Schools. [3] She holds two master's degrees and works full-time as a project manager in educational technology while teaching as an adjunct college professor. [3] Rate My Professors listings confirm her teaching at Purdue University Fort Wayne (formerly IPFW). [13]
Wight completed a year-long Inclusion Institute program (2021-2022) with the League for the Blind and Disabled, focusing on accessibility and sensory-sensitive education design. Her second master's degree specifically addressed making education more sensory sensitive, informed by her personal experience exploring her own sensory sensitivities. [3]
Her campaign rests on three pillars. First, accessibility and inclusivity -- she advocates for physical, digital, and language accessibility, arguing that "making infrastructure and processes more accessible benefits everyone, not just those who explicitly need accommodations." [3] Second, LGBTQ+ rights -- she serves as an at-large member of the Allen County Stonewall Democrats steering committee and frames LGBTQ+ issues as freedom issues. [3] Third, state house process reform -- she criticizes Indiana's part-time legislature for meeting only twelve weeks annually and advocates spreading sessions throughout the year to address emerging crises and allow proper public comment. [3]
Wight says she was inspired to run after watching Kyle Miller's successful campaigns in the adjacent district. She had considered running throughout her adult life but delayed due to health issues and job constraints in public higher education. She completed the 2025 Campaign Institute with Advancing Voices, a program supporting progressive candidates. [13] Her fundraising operates through ActBlue, with campaign activities focused on grassroots outreach -- literature, signs, and phone banking. [14]
Chad Clevidence (D)
Chad Clevidence filed for the Democratic primary in HD-81 and is listed on both Ballotpedia and the Indiana Secretary of State's filing records. [1] Beyond his filing, publicly available details about Clevidence's background, platform, and campaign activity are extremely limited. No campaign website, detailed media profile, or local news coverage was found during research. This information gap does not reflect on the candidate's qualifications -- it may indicate a more locally focused campaign -- but it means voters will need to seek out local forums and party events to evaluate his candidacy.
Democratic Primary Dynamics
The Democratic primary in HD-81 matters because the general election is genuinely contested here. Unlike most Indiana House districts where the majority party's primary is the real election, HD-81 has seen general election margins in the single digits twice in the last four cycles. [6] The Democratic nominee will have a real, if challenging, path to victory.
Wight enters with a more visible campaign apparatus, a clear platform, and organizational connections through the Allen County Stonewall Democrats and progressive campaign training programs. Her background in education and accessibility advocacy gives her specific policy expertise on issues that resonate in a district with the state's largest school system. The race is likely Wight's to lose, given Clevidence's minimal public profile, but low-turnout primaries can produce surprises.
The broader question is whether either Democrat can replicate Kyle Miller's near-misses from 2018-2020 or, better yet, his 2022 win next door. Carbaugh's 2024 general election margin of 64.9% was his strongest, but that was against a weak opponent; his 2018-2020 performances suggest the seat remains competitive when Democrats field strong candidates. [6]
HD-94: The Floor Leader's Challenge -- Marion County (Indianapolis)
The District
House District 94 is located in central Indianapolis within Marion County. The district includes portions of Pike Township on the northwest side of the city and extends into surrounding neighborhoods. [15] It sits within Indiana's 7th Congressional District, the sole safely Democratic congressional seat in Indiana. Marion County voted for Kamala Harris by a 27.5-point margin in 2024 (62.6% to 35.1%), and HD-94 sits in one of the more heavily Democratic sections of the county. [5]
This is one of the safest Democratic seats in the Indiana House. Cherrish Pryor has run unopposed in the general election four of the last five cycles (2016, 2018, 2022, 2024), and when a Republican did appear in 2020, she won with 85.5%. [16] No Republican filed for 2026, and the Republican primary was canceled. [1] The winner of the Democratic primary on May 5 will represent the district without opposition in November.
The district's constituents have raised concerns about energy costs (high utility bills prompted discussions about energy assistance programs), data center development in residential areas (community opposition successfully blocked a Pike Township data center proposal), and access to pre-K education and mental health resources. [15]
Democratic Primary
The Incumbent: Cherrish Pryor (D)
Cherrish Pryor is one of the most experienced legislators in the Indiana House, having served since 2008 -- eighteen years as of 2026. [16] Born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, in 1973 or 1974, she relocated to Indiana in 1986, graduated from South Side High School in Fort Wayne, and earned a B.A. in Criminal Justice from Indiana University Bloomington and an M.S. in Public Affairs from IUPUI. [17] She moved to Indianapolis in 1995 as a legislative intern in the Indiana House of Representatives, advancing to full-time legislative assistant within two months -- a career trajectory that has kept her in and around the Statehouse for over three decades. [17]
Before entering the legislature, Pryor built a deep resume in Indianapolis government and civic life: chief deputy in the Marion County Treasurer's Office, real estate manager for the County Auditor's Office, lobbyist for the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, program director for the State Student Assistance Commission, and legislative and public affairs director for the City-County Council. [18] She served on the Indianapolis-Marion County City-County Council from January 2007 to November 2008 before winning her House seat. [16]
In the House, Pryor serves as Democratic Floor Leader -- the first African American to hold that leadership position, a role she has held since 2018. [18] She sits on three committees: the budget-writing Ways and Means Committee, the Elections and Apportionment Committee, and the Utilities, Energy and Telecommunications Committee. [18]
Her most significant recent legislation is House Bill 1114, which prohibits state employee health plans, the healthcare marketplace, and HMOs from requiring step therapy or "fail first" protocols for advanced cancer patients. The bill passed the Senate on February 24, 2026, and headed to the governor's desk. Pryor stated that "patients with advanced cancer cannot wait for effective treatment" and that "nobody should be denied coverage for a medication that may save their life due to the 'fail first' method." [19] She worked with Susan G. Komen on the legislation, addressing both financial barriers to breast imaging and step therapy protocols. [19]
Pryor's awards and recognition are extensive: the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award from President Biden, the 2025 IUI O'Neill School Distinguished Alumni Award, the 2023 National Black Caucus of State Legislators Legislator of the Year, the Crystal Gavel Award, the Breakthrough Woman Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, the Dr. Mozel Sanders Drum Major for Justice Award, the 2015 Indiana Farm Bureau Legislator of the Year, selection to Governing Magazine's 2015 Women in Government class, and the 2010 Marion County Judges Legislator of the Year. [18] She was selected as a 2024 Vital Voices Global Fellow. [20]
Her community involvement includes service on the Progressive Missionary Baptist Church usher board and as auxiliary treasurer, and memberships in Top Ladies of Distinction, the NAACP Indianapolis Chapter, and the Indiana University Alumni Association. She co-founded Hoosier Women Forward and serves as treasurer of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators and state director for the National Foundation of Women Legislators and Women Legislators' Lobby. [18]
Pryor's campaign finance totals are modest compared to contested-seat incumbents -- $48,212 raised in 2024 and $49,233 in 2022 -- reflecting the reality that she rarely faces serious opposition. [16] Total contributions across her career amount to approximately $678,250. [16]
The Challenger: Andre Sisk Sr. (D)
Andre Sisk Sr. filed for the Democratic primary against Pryor and is listed on Ballotpedia and the Indiana Secretary of State's filing records. [1] Professional records identify him as a real estate agent with Carpenter Realtors in Indianapolis, specializing in residential sales on the northwest side. [21] He maintains a professional social media presence on Facebook as "Andre Sisk - With Carpenter Realtors." [21]
Beyond his real estate career and filing records, publicly available details about Sisk's campaign platform, policy positions, endorsements, and community involvement are extremely limited. No campaign website, detailed candidate profile, or substantive local news coverage was found during research. [21] This information gap makes it difficult to assess what specific critique or alternative vision he is offering to HD-94 voters.
Democratic Primary Dynamics
Challenging a caucus floor leader with eighteen years of service, national recognition, and deep institutional ties is an uphill climb under any circumstances. Pryor's legislative portfolio -- healthcare access for cancer patients, leadership on the Ways and Means budget committee, utility oversight -- addresses bread-and-butter issues for the district. Her awards and institutional connections signal a legislator with influence that extends well beyond what a single House district typically commands.
Sisk's minimal public campaign profile raises the question of whether this challenge represents a substantive policy disagreement, a personality-driven candidacy, or a placeholder filing. Without a visible platform or campaign apparatus, it is difficult to identify what lane he is running in. His real estate background in the northwest Indianapolis area gives him potential local knowledge, but knowledge alone does not constitute a campaign.
In a district where the incumbent has run unopposed in the general election four of the last five cycles and has never faced a serious primary challenge, Pryor enters as the overwhelming favorite. The Democratic primary winner will serve the district unopposed in November. [1]