In the 2024 general election cycle, Democrats failed to break the Republican supermajority in the Indiana General Assembly. Republicans attained a supermajority in the state Senate in 2010 and a supermajority in the state House of Representatives in 2012. Both supermajorities have maintained power since then and remained unbroken during the 2024 election cycle, allowing Republicans full power over Indiana legislation.
A state legislative supermajority is when one party not only holds the majority of legislative seats but also has enough power in numbers to override the governor’s veto. When there is a statehouse supermajority, legislation voted for by the supermajority party can be passed with or without the governor’s support.
Indiana Republicans currently hold 70 out of 100 seats in the House and 40 out of 50 seats in the Senate, meaning they control over two-thirds of legislative seats. The election results revealed the number of Republican seats in the House and the Senate will remain unchanged at the beginning of the next term. Due to this continued supermajority, Republicans can pass legislation without support from Democrats.
The election also maintained the Republican trifecta in Indiana, meaning Republican’s control the governor’s office and the two houses of the General Assembly.
Marjorie Hershey, professor emeritus of political science at IU, said supermajorities are becoming more common across the U.S., with most states maintaining supermajorities trending Republican.
“It’s not that Indiana is unusual,” Hershey said. “Party competition is declining all over the United States.”
Indiana’s Republican supermajority allows very little room for Democrats to have a hand in legislation.
“The thing that’s a challenge with that is that the minority of residents and voters in that state are left completely without a voice,” Hershey said.
Hoosier Democrats hoped to break the Republican supermajority and gain partisan balance in Indiana, traveling across the state in the spring of 2024 on their “Break the Supermajority” tour. Democrats currently hold only 40 out of 150 seats in the state legislature and will hold the same number of seats in the next term.
Shelli Yoder, Democratic Indiana Senator of Monroe County and senior lecturer at the Kelley School of Business, highlighted her and fellow Democrats’ hopefulness prior to the election.
“Breaking the supermajority has, for the last several cycles, been our goal, and we were hopeful that we would be able to do that this cycle,” Yoder said.
She also noted that certain House races were closer than in the past.
“It’s a lot more progress that we need to make each and every cycle to be able to see some of those wins happen,” Yoder said.
The next session of the Indiana General Assembly is a budget cycle, where legislators work to build a budget for the next two years.
“Regardless of your political party, regardless of how you voted, we are going to be working hard for the individuals in our districts,” Yoder said of her fellow Democratic General Assembly members.
The Indiana Democratic Party released a statement late election night from Chair Mike Schuml expressing the party’s disappointment in the 2024 Indiana election results.
“Tonight, the results were not what we hoped for, but we want to thank the millions of Hoosiers who made their voices heard in this election,” Schuml said in the statement. “We still believe Hoosiers deserve more balance in our state’s politics and a party that works every day to hold our state government to account, and fights for more freedoms and opportunity.”
Yoder expressed concern about the Democrats’ lack of bill-blocking power regarding issues she is most concerned with.
She listed abortion rights, fully funding public schools, investing in safe and affordable pre-kindergarten and childcare, maintaining the availability of Medicaid, ensuring baseline gun control measures, making housing affordable and keeping toxic PFAs clearly defined as some issues that warrant her concern under a Republican legislative supermajority.
Another impact of having a supermajority is how it affects the redistricting process. Every 10 years, the Indiana legislature is responsible for redrawing state Senate and House district lines. These lines are generally drawn by the Senate and House election committees, which are chosen by caucus leaders. When one political party creates the maps, it often leads to gerrymandering.
Gerald Wright, professor emeritus of political science at Indiana University, said Indiana has a history of both parties using the power of their majority to gerrymander.
“If you have a supermajority, you can change the rules to make it more difficult for the other party to get back into power,” Wright said.
Hershey agreed.
“When the legislature, which is Republican nominated, draws the state legislative district lines so as to gerrymander them in order to favor the election of the Republican candidates, then there is the percentage of the state who are Democrats whose voices are not heard,” Hershey said.
Though both Democrats and Republicans gerrymander in other states, evidence shows Indiana as an outlier state when it comes to extreme and effective gerrymandering. A study commissioned by Women 4 Change Indiana revealed Indiana legislative maps are currently more biased towards one party, Republicans in Indiana’s case, than 95% of other American states’ legislative maps.
As for how long Indiana’s prolonged legislative supermajority could continue, Wright highlighted the unpredictable nature of politics.
“There's a possibility, if there's a large, probably nationwide, rejection of the Republican Party, that the Democrats could get back enough seats, so they (Republicans) don't have a supermajority,” Wright said. “But nobody knows if and when such a thing will happen. It's possible, but I wouldn't predict it.”
