Election results indicate many Republicans in Carmel aren’t fans of President Donald Trump.
Although Trump decisively carried Hamilton County and the state of Indiana, he lost to President-elect Joe Biden in Carmel, even as Carmel voters supported Republicans in other races.
Biden received 30,008 votes in Carmel to earn 51.1 percent of the vote. Trump got 46.7 percent of the vote, with Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen and write-in votes making up the difference. Biden also won — by a much smaller margin — in neighboring Fishers.
In another high-profile race, Carmel voters supported Republican 5th District candidate Victoria Spartz with 49.7 percent of the vote compared to 47.5 percent for Democrat Christina Hale. In the governor’s race, 60 percent of Carmel votes went to incumbent Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, 33 percent to Democrat Woody Myers and 5.8 percent to Libertarian Donald Rainwater.
Hamilton County Republican Party Chair Laura Campbell said she was not surprised that Trump didn’t win in Carmel.
“When talking with voters, either by phone or during door-to-door, we heard a number of Republican-leaning voters say that they were supporting the governor and the rest of the Republican ballot but were not voting for Trump,” Campbell said.
Joe Weingarten, chair of the Hamilton County Democratic Party, also said the outcome wasn’t unexpected, although he had hoped it would lead to more wins for Democrats on the rest of the ballot.
“People split their ticket. I heard from Republicans before the election who said, ‘I’m going to vote for (a Democrat for president), but not anybody else,’ and that’s exactly what happened,” Weingarten said. “It fit what I felt was going to happen, and unfortunately it didn’t translate down.”
Although Republicans won in most of the other offices, Weingarten said the races continue to tighten, which is good news for Democrats. He said Republican candidates were forced to actively campaign this fall, which hasn’t been the case in recent history because most were accustomed to running unopposed or winning in a landslide.
Weingarten is optimistic about the future of the Democratic party in the next round of municipal elections in 2023. Democrats picked up a few seats during the 2019 municipal elections.
“If we get our base to go out and vote and the Republicans fall back into their normal old habits, we have an even greater chance of picking up more seats on commissions and councils,” Weingarten said. “We may even win a mayor, especially in Carmel.”
