James (Jay) Starkey was in the lead Tuesday night over incumbent State Senator Rick Niemeyer in the Republican primary for the State Senate District 6 race.
The winner of the Republican primary will face Kate-Lynn Holley, a Democrat running unopposed, in November.
Starkey, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night, had 2,360 votes. Niemeyer reported 1,873 votes, according to Lake County election data.
“The voters voted, and that’s what happened. That’s how the system works,” Niemeyer said Tuesday night.
Niemeyer, R-Lowell, faced a Republican primary challenger for the first time since 2014, according to Ballotpedia, likely because of his vote against the Trump administration’s push for redistricting.
President Donald Trump’s administration started pressuring Indiana leaders over the summer to consider midcensus redistricting to help Republicans win a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections. Redistricting typically occurs every 10 years after the release of census data.
After the Senate leadership announced it would cancel its special session in December – which ultimately didn’t happen – President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social condemning the decision and threatening to primary any Republican Senator who votes against mid-census redistricting.
In the hours and days after that post, several Republican senators, including Niemeyer and Sen. Dan Dernulc, R-Highland, received swatting calls.
Niemeyer said he voted against redistricting because the maps weren’t drawn by Indiana state leadership. Niemeyer said he asked to see the maps far in advance of a potential vote, but wasn’t given the maps until days before the vote.
Once he saw the maps, Niemeyer said he didn’t understand how the First Congressional District, which represents Northwest Indiana, was divided. Niemeyer said he also didn’t feel comfortable splitting up the district without talking to the residents living in the districts.
Niemeyer said he believes his vote against redistricting likely impacted his reelection campaign.
“It’s part of the dialogue in this election,” Niemeyer said.
Starkey wrote on Facebook that he supports redistricting because states like Illinois, California and New York have “aggressively” drawn Congressional maps in favor of Democrats, which “has been a real shift in congressional representation over time.”
After Virginia voters approved new congressional districts in favor of Democrats, Starkey took to Facebook to criticize Indiana Republicans for voting against redistricting. Starkey labeled a “no” vote on redistricting as supporting the Democratic Party, according to his Facebook post.
“The facts are that Indiana Republicans were warned that this was likely to happen. As recently as last December, Indiana Republicans could have taken action to reduce the impacts of Virginia’s latest act,” Starkey wrote.
