Coming off of an over 10-year reign of Republican supermajority, according to IPB News, Indiana Democrats are searching for what, or who, could bring back Democratic voting to the Hoosier state.
Indiana has been under Republican control since Democratic Governor Joseph E. Kernan left office in 2005, according to the National Governors Association. University of Indianapolis Associate Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean for the Ron and Laura Strain Honors College Greg Shufeldt said states like Indiana are overwhelmingly Republican today, due to the demographics lining up with the base support of the party. Indiana has voted Republican in every presidential election but one since 2000, according to Ballotpedia.
“It’s not really specific to the candidates or the people in office that we’ve had,” Shufeldt said. “It’s about national forces that have made urban areas really Democratic and rural areas really Republican. And in general, Indiana kind of fits the demographic of the Republican coalition today.”
With the large Republican population, along with the supermajority in Indiana, young Hoosiers have never seen a period of time when their state was Democratically controlled. Along with the younger generations, Indiana residents have been searching for Democratic representation in their state, and some think the answer is 29-year-old Beau Bayh.
Beau is one of the top prospects for reviving the Indiana Democratic Party, according to KPC News. He not only has a Harvard University Law degree and experience as a Marine Corps Captain, but he is also the grandson of former U.S. Senator Birch Bayh and the son of former U.S. Senator and Indiana Governor Evan Bayh. The Bayh family has won over 11 million votes since 1954, with both Birch and Evan Bayh running in multiple elections, according to Yahoo News. Beau is currently in the running for Indiana secretary of state, according to IndyStar.
According to UIndy Associate Professor Laura Merrifield Wilson, your average Hoosier will probably say that judging Beau based solely on things like his Harvard degree could be seen as elitist. And though the Bayh name is memorable to older generations of Indiana Democrats, the younger generations may not recognize the significance behind the name.
“I think there’s a lot more like, quite frankly, liabilities and challenges for [Beau], than there are necessarily benefits,” Wilson said. “The Democratic Party [in Indiana] has really struggled, so this could be the savior. This could be the opportunity. He has name and money, and that matters a lot. But that’s not everything.”
