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Pejril seeking Indiana State Senate seat in 2024
Former Greencastle City Councilor Veronica Pejril has announced her candidacy for the Democratic Party’s nomination for the open seat representing District 24 in the Indiana State Senate.
A Hoosier by choice since 1996, Pejril resides in Greencastle with her family. She was elected to the Greencastle City Council in 2019, making history as Indiana’s first openly transgender elected official.
In her council service, she said she championed increased investments in city infrastructure, doubling Greencastle’s 2023 street repair budget. She also supported pay raises for police officers, firefighters and other municipal employees.
Though she lost her seat on the council in 2023, Pejril still serves on the city’s Human Relations Commission and the Putnam County Housing Stability Committee. She also is the president of the board of directors for the Putnam County Recovery Coalition and treasurer for Indiana Youth Group, and also serves on the boards for Main Street Greencastle and Fuller Center for Housing of Putnam County. She is a also member of 100 Women Who Care of Putnam County.
Pejril is a jazz pianist who plays most Sundays for church services and lends her musical talents to local and regional events. She is a fixture in Greencastle’s rich music scene, performing with groups like The Katz Pajamas, Hauskatz and Lincoln Street.
“I lost my sister to overdose in 2017, and I also lost a brother-in-law to a home gun-safety accident in 1989,” Pejril stated. “These events are part of what drove me to bring my voice in representation as a public servant in 2019. And they’re what drive me today to bring my unique experiences to the table for Indiana.”
The daughter of a municipal water treatment engineer and a public school math teacher, Pejril is the parent of twin sons, both Purdue graduates.
While studying at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Pejril invented innovative software tools for musicians and was awarded a full doctoral fellowship at Princeton University. While at Princeton, she founded Black Squirrel Software as a startup.
After time as a stay-at-home parent and as a K-8 music teacher, she now leads DePauw University’s instructional technology team and is a part-time assistant professor of music. Pejril also serves as vice president of the board of trustees for QPA, Princeton’s LGBTQ+ alumni organization.
In 2017, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin commissioned Pejril as a Kentucky Colonel, the state’s highest title of honor.
“I will work tirelessly to improve outcomes for Hoosiers with substance use disorder and their families, and to strengthen gun safety laws while protecting the constitutional rights of lawful gun owners,” Pejril provided. “I’ll also work to restore liberties for women and LGBTQ+ Hoosiers, who have seen their rights and freedoms eroded by the 80-percent supermajority in the Indiana State Senate.
“Women make up a majority of Indiana’s population, and yet we’re a disappointingly small proportion of the General Assembly,” Pejril continued. “Seven percent of Americans are LGBT, but only 0.2 percent of us serve in elected office. It’s time that our Statehouse looked more like the everyday Hoosiers it claims to represent. We shouldn’t see bills being written about us, without us in the room where it happens. I promise to support common sense solutions that will better the lives of all the workaday citizens of State Senate District 24.”
District 24 includes Clinton, Floyd, Franklin, Greencastle, Jackson, Madison, Marion, Monroe and Russell townships in Putnam County. In Hendricks County, Center, Clay, Franklin, Lincoln, Marion and Washington townships are included.