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Incumbents look to earn congressional, legislative seats that serve county
Incumbent was the word of the day Tuesday as all four Republican incumbents serving Putnam County in the U.S. Congress and Indiana State Legislature decidedly earned re-election.
Greencastle resident Jim Baird won re-election to his second two-year term as U.S. representative from sprawling congressional District 4. Baird, a Republican who previously served as District 44 state representative, outpolled Democrat Joe Mackey of Lafayette with a final tally of 223,648 to 112,106.
Over the 16 counties of the Fourth District, Baird captured 66.6 percent of the vote to 33.4 for Mackey.
Mackey came the closest to the beating incumbent Baird in Tippecanoe County, Mackey’s home area. But he still trailed the Republican Baird there by 36,145 to 33,647. Baird claimed 51.8 percent of the vote in Tippecanoe, his lowest output on the night. His best effort came in Fountain County where Baird captured 78.6 percent of the vote, 6,161 to 1,674.
In Putnam County, Baird collected 12,594 votes, or 76.9 percent of the total vote, leading all contested candidates and outpolling even President Donald Trump (12,278 for 73.86 percent) locally. Challenger Mackey received 3,771 for 23 percent of the Putnam vote.
Baird’s son, Beau, meanwhile, cruised to re-election unopposed in District 44, which serves all of Putnam County and portions of Clay, Morgan, Owen and Parke counties. Beau Baird, who also resides in Greencastle, earned 13,709 Putnam County votes en route to a second two-year term in the Legislature.
District 37 State Sen. Rodric Bray (R-Martinsville), who serves the southern half of Putnam County, again won re-election, outdistancing Democrat Tom Wallace in Putnam County with 76 percent of the vote and a whopping 5,122-1,612 margin locally.
Bray, who serves as president pro tem of the State Senate, has represented District 37 since 2012. In addition to the southern half of Putnam County, Bray represents all of his native Morgan County and portions of Johnson and Owen counties within District 37.
With 95 of 108 precincts reporting, Bray had received a reported 78 percent of the vote in the district, leading Wallace 46,914 to 13,085.
District 24 State Sen. John Crane (R-Avon) grabbed 76.4 percent of the tally in turning back the challenge of Avon Democrat Stan Albaugh. Crane, who serves the northern half of both Greencastle and Putnam County and all of Hendricks County, overwhelmed his opponent, 7,242 to 2,233 in the local vote en route to a second term.
In Republican stronghold Hendricks County, Crane claimed 62.8 percent of the vote, outpolling Albaugh 25,460 to 15,079. That gave Crane a district-wide triumph of 32,702 to 17,312.
Crane was initially elected to represent Senate District 24 in November 2016, beating incumbent Pete Miller in the primary.
Republican candidates up and down the Putnam ballot benefited from 5,085 straight-ticket GOP votes. Democrats, meanwhile, cast 1,131 straight-ticket votes.
Like Indiana, Putnam County went for the Trump/Pence team with 74 percent of the vote to 23.74 percent for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Putnam County also mirrored Indiana in the governor’s race, voting to re-elect Republican Eric Holcomb. Putnam voters cast more votes for Libertarian candidate Donald Rainwater (4,269 for 25.8 percent) than for Democrat Woodrow Myers (2,876 for 17.4 percent).
In the attorney general’s race, perennial Republican candidate Todd Rokita of Avon captured a new post with 74.8 percent of the Putnam vote (12,186) to 4,099 votes (25 percent) for Democrat Jonathan Weinzapfel of Evansville.