House District 48 covers the northern half of Elkhart County in Indiana's far northeast corner. This is the industrial heart of Indiana's RV manufacturing corridor -- Elkhart County produces roughly 80% of all recreational vehicles manufactured in the United States. Republican incumbent Doug Miller has held this seat since 2014 and faces no primary challenger.
The contested primary is on the Democratic side, where Carl Stutsman and Emily Yaw are competing for the nomination. Stutsman's daily radio show gives him name recognition across northern Elkhart County that most first-time legislative candidates would spend years and thousands of dollars to build. He has given multiple in-depth interviews about his platform and has a professional network of contacts from years of local journalism. Yaw, by contrast, filed later and has generated no public-facing campaign materials.
Whoever wins the Democratic primary will face Miller in November in a district where the last Democratic challenger lost by nearly 29 points. The Democratic nominee's realistic ceiling is registering enough votes to demonstrate the party's presence in northern Elkhart County. But HD-48 is not flipping in 2026.