Voters Head to Polls for Primaries in Ohio, Indiana, Special Election in Michigan

Voters are heading to the polls in three states on May 5 ahead of the midterms.

Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan will be holding elections, although the contest in the Wolverine State is a special election.

Ohio

The Buckeye State is holding elections for governor, Congress, and other offices.

In the gubernatorial primaries, Amy Acton, former director of the Ohio Department of Health, is the presumptive Democratic nominee, while the candidates on the Republican side include entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and automotive entrepreneur Casey Putsch.

Ramaswamy is running on a platform of lowering taxes and energy bills, improving schools, fighting crime, and bringing people together. Putsch’s platform includes ending property taxes; implementing a clean energy policy; cracking down on illegal immigration; ending diversity, equity, and inclusion policies; preserving cultural heritage sites and institutions; ending human trafficking; fixing prisons; overhauling bureaucracy; and protecting the Second Amendment.

Acton’s campaign includes reducing costs, cleaning up corruption, improving education, lowering health care costs, growing jobs and businesses, and building safer communities.

The competitive congressional primaries are in the First, Ninth, 10th, and 15th congressional districts. This comes after Ohio redrew its congressional map after a judge ordered the state to do so because of a constitutional amendment that provided shorter expiration dates to maps enacted without bipartisan support.

In the First Congressional District, three Republicans look to take on incumbent Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio): manufacturing representative Holly Adams, Air Force veteran Eric Conroy, and businesswoman Rosemary Oglesby-Henry.

In the Ninth district, incumbent Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) will face one of five Republicans running for the seat. They are former Ohio state Rep. Derek Merrin, data science executive and nonprofit founder Anthony Campbell, Air Force veteran Alea Nadeem, former Trump administration official Madison Sheahan, and Ohio state Rep. Josh Williams. Merrin was the GOP nominee in 2024.

In the 10th district, six Democrats seek to take on incumbent Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio). They are Air Force veteran Janice Beckett, Army veteran David Esrati, community advocate Manuel Foggie, Air Force veteran Jan Kinner, Air Force veteran and nurse Kristina Knickerbocker, and systems architect and cybersecurity officer Tony Pombo.

In the 15th district, two Democrats look to challenge incumbent Rep. Mike Carey (R-Ohio): educator Don Leonard and Ohio state Rep. Adam Miller.

There is no GOP Senate primary as incumbent Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) is the presumptive nominee, while the Democratic primary is not competitive as former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is expected to win against IT professional and Special Olympics coach Ron Kincaid.

Indiana

The Hoosier State has competitive primaries in a couple of congressional districts.

In the First district, incumbent Rep. Frank Mrvan (D-Ind.) faces a primary challenge from former Gary Common Council member LaVetta Sparks-Wade, a progressive. The Republican primary includes Porter County Commissioner Barb Regnitz, former small business owner David Ben Ruiz, and Army veteran James Schenke.

In the heavily Democratic Seventh district, incumbent Rep. André Carson (D-Ind.) faces primary challengers including former Center Township Constable Denise Paul Hatch, former Obama administration official George Hornedo, and attorney and Army Reserve Lt. Col. Destiny Scott Wells. Carson has been in Congress since 2008.

The state’s elections have garnered attention as Republicans in the state Senate declined to engage in mid-decade redistricting despite calls from President Donald Trump to do so.

Michigan

A state Senate seat has been vacant since the 2024 election of Kristen McDonald Rivet to Congress. The Democrats hold a 19–18 majority in the chamber. The nominees for the seat are Democrat Chedrick Greene, Republican Jason Tunney, and Libertarian Ali Sledz.

Were Tunney to win, it would cause a 19–19 tie in the state Senate, meaning that the GOP would be able to block votes even though Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, a Democrat, has the ability to break ties in the chamber. The winner of the special election will serve the final eight months of McDonald Rivet’s term.

The area where the election is being held swings between Democrats and Republicans. Former Vice President Kamala Harris received 49.7 percent of the vote in State Senate District 35 in 2024.