Indiana Senate District 4 is one of the few genuinely competitive state senate seats in Indiana -- and it sits in the part of the state where the word "competitive" still means something. The district stretches across northern Porter County and northwestern LaPorte County, taking in the lakefront communities of Burns Harbor, Chesterton, Porter, and Portage on the Porter County side, and Michigan City and Westville on the LaPorte side. This is Northwest Indiana -- "The Region" -- where steel mills and the Indiana Dunes share the shoreline, where union halls still matter, and where the politics have historically been more purple than the rest of the state.
SD-4 falls entirely within Indiana's 1st Congressional District, represented by Democrat Frank Mrvan. At the presidential level, the broader region went for Trump, but the district itself is close enough that Rodney Pol Jr. won the 2022 general election with approximately 53% of the vote. That 6-point margin is neither safe nor hopeless. It is the kind of seat Republicans believe they can flip -- and the kind Democrats cannot afford to lose given their 40-10 minority in the Indiana Senate.
Rodney Pol Jr. arrived in the Indiana Senate through appointment, not election. When Karen Tallian resigned in 2021 after nearly two decades representing the district, the local Democratic caucus selected Pol as her replacement. His background is rooted in the region -- born in East Chicago, graduated from Chesterton High School, holds a JD from the IU Robert H. McKinney School of Law. He was elected Senate Democratic Caucus Chair in 2024.
Two Republicans are competing in the May 5 primary. Nate Uldricks is the Porter County Republican Party chairman with an unusually strong resume: three degrees from Purdue, Johns Hopkins, and UVA; twelve years in the private sector; and three successive federal chief of staff positions at the Department of Defense, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Department of Labor. He was selected as a Club for Growth Foundation fellow in 2024.
Johannes Poulard is making his second run for this seat. In the 2022 Republican primary, he received 21.2% of the vote. His 2026 campaign announcement was accompanied by a lawsuit against the City of Michigan City alleging malicious prosecution stemming from a 2025 arrest. That lawsuit has become the centerpiece of his platform.
The fundamental dynamic is geographic. Northwest Indiana is where Chicago's economic gravity meets Indiana's Republican politics. The lakefront communities and Michigan City lean Democratic; the inland Porter County townships lean Republican. SD-4 is drawn across that fault line, and every cycle the question is the same: which side turns out.