Hoosier State House Report Card: Most Republicans Hold the Line. A Few Don’t.

Hoosier Enquirer breaks down each of the Indiana State Rep GOP voting record.

The 2026 elections returned 47 Republican incumbents to the Indiana House, preserving the supermajority that has kept the state on a low-tax, pro-growth, pro-family path. Hoosier Enquirer reviewed their chamber voting records—the percentage of times each member voted with the Republican majority. The results are mostly encouraging. Most of these members are reliable. A handful are not.

Here is the full breakdown of the 47 returning Republican incumbents and how often they voted with their party in the House chamber:

- District 7 — Jake Teshka 96%

- District 11 — Michael Aylesworth 97%

- District 13 — Matt Commons 96%

- District 15 — Hal Slager 94.2%

- District 16 — Kendell Culp 93.4%

- District 17 — Jack Jordan 98.6%

- District 18 — David Abbott 99.4%

- District 20 — Jim Pressel 99.3%

- District 21 — Timothy Wesco 93%

- District 22 — Craig Snow 92%

- District 23 — Ethan Manning 96%

- District 28 — Jeff Thompson 93%

- District 29 — Alaina Shonkwiler 99%

- District 31 — Lori Goss-Reaves 96%

- District 33 — J. D. Prescott 89.8%

- District 35 — Elizabeth Rowray 94%

- District 38 — Heath VanNatter 96.6%

- District 41 — Mark Genda 94%

- District 42 — Alan Morrison 99.6%

- District 44 — Beau Baird 99%

- District 46 — Bob Heaton 97%

- District 47 — Robb Greene 98.8%

- District 48 — Doug Miller 99%

- District 49 — Joanna King 99%

- District 50 — Lorissa Sweet 99%

- District 51 — Tony Isa 99%

- District 52 — Ben Smaltz 91%

- District 53 — Robert Cherry 99%

- District 54 — Cory Criswell 97%

- District 55 — Lindsay Patterson 96%

- District 59 — Ryan Lauer 97%

- District 60 — Peggy Mayfield 87%

- District 64 — Matt Hostettler 95%

- District 65 — Chris May 94%

- District 66 — Zach Payne 96%

- District 67 — Randy Frye 96.6%

- District 68 — Garrett Bascom 98%

- District 69 — Jim Lucas 96%

- District 73 — Jennifer Meltzer 96%

- District 74 — Stephen Bartels (percentage not listed)

- District 75 — Cindy Ledbetter 97%

- District 76 — Wendy McNamara 90%

- District 78 — Tim O’Brien 96%

- District 79 — Matt Lehman 99%

- District 81 — Martin Carbaugh 94%

- District 82 — Kyle Miller 99%

- District 83 — Christopher Judy 89%

- District 85 — Dave Heine 96%

David Abbott (18) voted with the party 99.4 percent of the time. Alan Morrison (42) hit 99.6 percent. Matt Lehman (79), Lorissa Sweet (50), Tony Isa (51), Robert Cherry (53), Doug Miller (48), Joanna King (49), Beau Baird (44), Kyle Miller (82), Alaina Shonkwiler (29), and several others cleared 99 percent. Jack Jordan (17) reached 98.6 percent, Robb Greene (47) 98.8 percent, and Garrett Bascom (68) 98 percent. These numbers reflect consistent support for the agenda that has defined Indiana’s recent success: tax restraint, school choice expansion, Second Amendment protections, and resistance to the regulatory and cultural overreach that has burdened neighboring states.

Ronald Reagan understood that a party’s strength is measured by whether its members deliver when it counts. Indiana’s high-scoring Republicans have done that. They have kept the state competitive, protected parental rights in education, and avoided the spending traps that produce long-term fiscal problems. That reliability is why voters sent them back.

Not every member matched that standard. Peggy Mayfield (60) voted with the party only 87 percent of the time. Christopher Judy (83) came in at 89 percent, J. D. Prescott (33) at 89.8 percent, and Wendy McNamara (76) at 90 percent. Ben Smaltz (52) registered 91 percent, Craig Snow (22) 92 percent, and Timothy Wesco (21), Jeff Thompson (28), and Kendell Culp (16) all landed in the low-to-mid 93 percent range. Hal Slager (15) was at 94.2 percent. These are not catastrophic scores in a 100-member chamber, but they represent real divergence on enough votes to matter. In a supermajority, the difference between 99 percent and 87–90 percent is the difference between advancing the full agenda and watering it down on the margins.

Voters who expect Republican officeholders to hold the line on taxes, education, and cultural issues have a right to ask what those lower scores reflect. Indiana has avoided the worst excesses of blue-state governance precisely because enough Republicans have refused to split the difference. Soft votes on spending, regulatory carve-outs, or social issues accumulate. Over time they produce the kind of gradual drift that other states have already experienced. The members with the highest loyalty scores have treated the platform as a set of commitments rather than a set of suggestions. The lower scorers have treated it as more negotiable.

Indiana’s economic edge and relative cultural stability did not happen by accident. They happened because a critical mass of Republican legislators voted like Republicans. The 2026 results give that majority another term. The voting records show that most of the returning members intend to use it. A smaller number will require closer scrutiny if the state is to keep the advantages it has built. The choice is straightforward: continue governing as the high-scoring members have, or accept the incremental concessions that eventually produce the problems Indiana has so far avoided.