Republicans have been the leading political party in Indiana for most of its history. However, Democrats occasionally did very well in some parts of the state government from the 1960s to the early 2000s. At the presidential level, the state is also reliably Republican; Indiana voters opted for the Democratic Party only five times since
1892, all of which occurred amidst national Democratic landslides. In fact, no Republican has won the presidency without carrying Indiana since
1876, when Democrat
Samuel Tilden very narrowly carried the state amidst an extremely close (and still disputed) national election. In the
election of 1860,
Abraham Lincoln won all of Indiana's 13 electoral votes with 51.09% of the popular vote. When the
American Civil War broke out, Indiana had a strong, pro-South Democratic Party in the
Indiana General Assembly that, for the most part, claimed to be pro-Union but anti-abolition. Governor
Oliver P. Morton (elected 1861) had a close relationship with Lincoln, who called him the "shrewdest person I know". At the 1862
Loyal War Governors Conference in
Altoona, Pennsylvania, Morton put his full support behind Lincoln's
Emancipation Proclamation. A backlash followed the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, leading to a defeat of Republicans in the 1862 midterm elections. Morton feared that the Democratic majority in the General Assembly would be sympathetic to the
Confederacy, so he began to take steps to circumvent the General Assembly and mobilize Indiana in the war effort. When Morton stepped beyond the scope of his constitutional powers by establishing a state arsenal, the Democratic legislature moved to switch command of the militia from the governor to the General Assembly. Fearing that, with control of the militia, the Democrats would attempt to secede from the Union, Morton helped Republican legislators flee to Kentucky to prevent a
quorum. Unable to pass appropriations bills, the paralyzed government of Indiana teetered on bankruptcy until Morton once again stepped out of the scope of his powers and acquired millions of dollars in federal and private loans to keep the government running, support Indiana's role in the war effort, and circumvent the Democratic Assembly. For the remainder of the Civil War, Morton worked to keep Indiana secure by suppressing elements he viewed as anti-Union or sympathetic to the South. The searches, arrests, and even disruption of the Democratic State Convention in what would later be called the
Battle of Pogue's Run earned Morton much criticism, and he was called a "dictator" and "underhanded mobster". As the war ended and the Republican Party received an overwhelming majority in the government, Morton's questionable conduct during the war was moot, and he continued to serve a second term in the U.S. Senate until 1877. The party's darkest stain was after
World War I, following a rush of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe into the United States. By this period of time, the Indiana Republican Party, like the Republican Party elsewhere, had given up its former goal of African-American rights. Unlike the first
Ku Klux Klan that rose in the South during the
Reconstruction era to terrorize both white and black Republicans, the new Klan that started in Georgia in 1915 was a highly
nativist organization. Staunchly anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, antisemitic, and prejudiced against African Americans, the new Klan spread into Indiana in the 1920s under
Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson. The second KKK was almost exclusively Republican in Midwestern states such as Indiana as well as in northern and western states such as Maine and Colorado. However, the KKK remained exclusively Democratic in the South. Under Stephenson's leadership, the Klan flourished in Indiana and took over both the governor's office and much of the Republican Party in the General Assembly. With over 250,000 white males (approximately forty percent of Indiana's population) paying Klan dues in Indiana, Stephenson amassed a fortune estimated from two to five million dollars. In 1922, the Klan-dominated General Assembly passed a Klan Day at the
Indiana State Fair. Still, Republican Governor
Warren T. McCray vetoed the bill, earning the ire of Stephenson and the Klan. (1889–1893) In the 1924 Republican primary elections in Indiana, almost all candidates nominated for statewide office were Klansmen. One African-American newspaper said, "The Ku Klux Klan has captured boot and breeches, the Republican party in Indiana and have [sic] turned what has been historically an organization of constitutional freedom into an agency for the promotion of religious and racial hate. Nobody now denies the Ku Klux Klan is the dominating power in Indiana Republican politics. In fact, the Republican party exists in Indiana today only in name. Its place has been usurped by the Klan purposes and leadership and issues." Most Indiana blacks in 1924 cast their first-ever ballot for the Democratic Party, which had passed a resolution denouncing the KKK in its platform, though without mentioning the Klan by name. Black voters in other areas of the United States, in contrast, generally remained Republican until the 1930s. Despite the influx of Black voters into the Democratic Party, Klansmen won most seats in the Indiana legislature and most statewide offices in the November 1924 general elections. However, once in office, the Klan-controlled legislature passed little to no anti-black, anti-Jewish, or anti-Catholic legislation. The peak of the Klan's power and influence was in the early 1920s, when the Klan had Governor McCray arrested, imprisoned, and thrown out of office on a charge of mail fraud. Republican
Edward Jackson, a KKK member, was elected in the 1924 election. Stephenson became infamous for his words, "I am the law in Indiana." The Klan quickly fell apart under the revelation that Stephenson had abducted, raped, and murdered a young woman. More of a populist organization that believed in the Klan's image of defending the race and "Protestant Womanhood," the Klan's power and influence in both Indiana and its politics dissolved quickly. Governor Jackson refused to pardon his old ally Stephenson, so Stephenson retaliated from prison by revealing evidence that Jackson had received bribes from the Klan. Despite calls for his resignation for being associated with the Klan, Jackson's trial resulted in a
hung jury. over Republican
John McCain, the first time a Democrat won the state since
Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Obama made several large inroads in the state's rural counties. McCain still won most of these counties, but Obama's inroads contributed to his overall victory. Also, many counties in Indiana's blue-collar northwest swung away from McCain. This election was considered an upset due to the state's traditional Republican lean. The state was back to voting Republican in the 2012 presidential election, breaking for
Mitt Romney by more than ten points.
Donald Trump and his running mate, Indiana native
Mike Pence, won the state over Democrat
Hillary Clinton by a 20-point margin, improving on Romney's margin mainly due to third-party candidates in the 2016 election and the fact that Pence was on the ticket. In his unsuccessful
2020 reelection campaign, Trump won the state by three points less than in 2016, over Democrat
Joe Biden. In
2024, Trump won Indiana for a third time in a row over Democrat
Kamala Harris, winning by a margin of 19 points, an increase over his 2020 margins but just under his 2016 margins. Indiana has had a Republican governor since 2005. == Platform ==