All signs show red

Polls closed across Indiana at 6 p.m. Tuesday, concluding the primary election season and beginning the contentious campaigning season leading to the general election in November.

Exactly 14,939 Tippecanoe County residents voted in the 2024 Primary Elections, according to Tippecanoe County’s final election summary report. Turnout was 13.01% of the registered voter population (114,833); 9,939 voted on Tuesday (66.53%), 4,408 voted walk-in absentee (29.5%); and 592 voted paper absentee (.03%).

For almost every race, Democratic candidates received close to a third of the votes that Republican candidates received.

With a closed, “partisan” primary, voters were confined to voting along party lines, regardless if they actually identify with the party whose ballot they requested. The primaries can give good insight into how Hoosiers may vote, as well as preparing the ballot with fewer candidates in November’s general election, but it doesn’t mean that’s how people actually plan to vote.

Federal, state election results

Of the 13,910 Tippecanoe residents who voted in the presidential primary, 3,817 votes went President Joe Biden and 6,937 votes to former president Donald Trump, according to Tippecanoe County’s final election summary report.

Though officially having dropped out of the race, Nikki Haley did qualify for Indiana’s primary and appeared on the ballot, taking 3,156 votes from Trump. About 31.27% of Republican voters voted for Haley and 68.73% for Trump.

Across the state, the Associated Press reported Wednesday morning that 697,673 Hoosiers voted in the presidential primary race, Trump sweeping Haley with 78.1% of the vote (414,931 votes). Biden received 166,400.

AP called early in the night that Mike Braun won Indiana’s Republican gubernatorial primary, sweeping the primary by receiving 236,641 votes and taking nearly 40% of the vote.

Braun received 30.12% of the vote in Tippecanoe County with 3,152, according to the final results from the Tippecanoe County Election Summary Report.

Braun ran against four other Republicans in the primary, including Suzanne Crouch (23.39%), Eric Doden (20.81%), Brad Chambers (16%), Jamie Reitenour (6.10%) and Curtis Hill (3.57%), according to the final results from the Tippecanoe County Election Summary Report.

He will face Jennifer McCormick, a Purdue alumna, who ran uncontested for the Democratic gubernatorial primary and received 3,980 votes in Tippecanoe County, according to the Tippecanoe County summary report. She received 168,282 votes across the state.

McCormick will need to swing voters if she wants to win, trailing the current U.S. senator in the primary by 68,359 votes, but with almost 350,000 Republican votes across the state up for grabs, she may be able to make the gubernatorial race a contentious one.

Incumbent Jim Baird (66.86%), U.S. District 4 representative, defeated Republican opponents Charles Bookwalter (25.22%) and John Piper (7.92%), percentages from the final results from the Tippecanoe County Election Summary Report. Baird, who received 6,514 votes, will face Democratic challenger Derrick Holder, who received 2,267.

Jim Banks, U.S. District 3 representative, ran uncontested for the Republican Senate seat. Banks will face Democrat Valerie McCray, who received 2,890 votes in Tippecanoe County, according to the summary report, and 121,590 votes in the state, according to the AP.

County race results

With 10 candidates for county council at-large making it to the primaries, six won their primaries and will be on the ballot in November. Of those who qualified were all the Republican incumbents, Kevin Underwood (25.32%), Barry Richard (21.80%) and John Basham (21.71%), as well as Democratic newcomers Katy O’Malley Bunder (24.75%), Ben Carson (24.37%) and Amanda Eldridge (19.79%).

David Byers (R) defeated opponent Jeff Findlay in the position for county commissioner District 2, edging him out with 55.59% of the vote. Byers does not face a Democratic challenger so far.

Many of Tippecanoe County’s primary elections went uncontested, including county treasurer (Yadira Salazar (R)), county coroner (Carrie Costello (R)), county surveyor (Zach Beasley (R)), and county commissioner for District 3 (Tom Murtaugh (R)).