House District 30 covers portions of Howard and Grant counties in central Indiana, including much of Kokomo. It is solidly Republican territory: incumbent Mike Karickhoff won with 67.5% in 2024, 2022, and 66.1% in 2020. No Democrat has come within twenty points of winning this seat in the last three cycles.
Karickhoff 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. He rose to Speaker Pro Tempore in 2019, serving as a key lieutenant to Speaker Todd Huston. His departure removes one of the more institutionally powerful and pragmatic Republican voices in the chamber -- he championed driving-privilege cards for undocumented immigrants and in-state tuition eligibility for noncitizens, measures that failed due to opposition from his own caucus.
Collins enters with the clearer institutional advantage: council presidency, name recognition in Kokomo, and the implicit support of the local party apparatus. Davis is a less visible challenger whose campaign has not generated a significant public footprint. The bigger question for HD-30 is what kind of Republican replaces Karickhoff. He was an institutionalist who 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.