The election outcome remained uncertain in one Indiana House district where Republican incumbent Becky Cash was leading Democrat Tiffany Stoner by less than one-tenth of a percentage point.

Two other House incumbents — Republican Rep. Dave Hall and Democratic Rep. Wendy Dant Chesser — prevailed with narrow victories that aren’t expected to face recount challenges.

Republicans have secured at least 69 House seats to the 30 Democratic seats, extending the GOP supermajority in place since the 2012 election.

House District 25: Cash leads with Stoner awaiting final vote tally

Stoner said Thursday she was waiting for every ballot to be counted in the suburban Indianapolis district that includes the Zionsville and Whitestown area of Boone County and part of Brownsburg in Hendricks County.

Preliminary results that were last updated by county officials on Wednesday have Cash with 18,793 votes (50.088%) to Stoner’s 18,727 votes (49.912%). That is a 66-vote margin out of 37,520 votes tallied.

The biggest remaining variable in the outcome is a possible 100 uncounted ballots in Hendricks County. 

County Clerk Marjorie Pike said she did not know how many of those ballots were from District 25 residents and that they would not be tallied until a Nov. 15 county Election Board meeting.

Stoner said she had campaign representatives tracking the Hendricks County process but did not have any complaints so far.

“The Hendricks County Election Board staff is doing a highly professional job at making sure every vote is counted, and that means provisional, absentee, overseas and military,” Stoner told State Affairs. “As a candidate, we’re just going to try to remain really patient during the process, as hard as that is.”

The Boone County clerk reported only four provisional ballots remaining uncounted as of Thursday.

Cash won her first term two years ago with 53% of the vote as she was among the handful of candidates backed by the hard-right Liberty Defense PAC who won Republican primaries in 2022. 

Cash did not return a message from State Affairs seeking comment Thursday.

Her husband, Chris Cash, said they were confident she was the election winner.

“We are currently just waiting for the results to be certified,” he said. “We are not expecting any substantial change in the numbers.”

Stoner said she would not decide about seeking a recount until after the vote tallies are certified.

County officials have a Nov. 18 deadline set by state law to certify election results. Candidates face a Nov. 19 deadline to file a recount petition, but a county political party chair has until Nov. 22 to seek a recount.

House District 62: Hall holds Bloomington-area seat for Republicans

Democrat Thomas Horrocks conceded defeat Thursday to Republican Rep. Dave Hall.

Preliminary results gave Hall 51.1% of the vote for a 795-vote margin to win a second term. 

Hall’s 50-vote win for his first term was the closest legislative race in the state two years ago for an unexpected Republican victory in the Democratic-leaning district that includes outlying parts of Bloomington and rural areas of Monroe, Brown and Jackson counties.

Horrocks received 56% of the Monroe County vote, but Hall prevailed with 66% support in Brown County and 86% support in the Jackson County section of the district where he lives.

Some confusion surrounded the vote tallies as five Monroe County precincts in the district were listed as uncounted by computer software since they were tallied at a central election office because of technical difficulties Tuesday night.

Horrocks told State Affairs he called Hall to congratulate him after confirming the Monroe County vote totals.

Hall said he was confident the ballot counting was done correctly. He joked that before Election Day he had predicted he would “blow them out of the water and win by 2% — because in my world 2% is a blowout.”

“I’m prepared to lose every time I sign up in a district like this because it’s a tough district to run in,” Hall said.

House District 71: Democrat Dant Chesser tops Hawkins in Clark County

Democrats held on to the Jeffersonville-area district with Dant Chesser’s win as a first-time candidate less than six months after she was picked in May to replace retiring Rep. Rita Fleming.

Dant Chesser won with 49.9% of the vote over Republican Scott Hawkins’ 46.3%. Libertarian Gregory Hertzsch received 3.8%.

Hawkins, a Jeffersonville City Council member, was making a second run for the seat after receiving 49.4% in a two-candidate race against Fleming in 2022.

Hawkins did not reply Thursday to a message from State Affairs seeking comment. 

Clark County Republican Chair Ron Grooms, a former state senator, said he had spoken with Hawkins and didn’t have any reason at this time to question the vote tally.

“It’s just a tight race,” Grooms said. “Probably the next time, it’ll be another tight race. It just happens to be the makeup of the district, just very balanced between Republicans and Democrats.”

Dant Chesser, a longtime area economic development official, worked during her campaign to link Hawkins to the public corruption case involving longtime Republican Party heavyweight and former Clark County Sheriff Jamey Noel.

But Republican candidates otherwise prevailed in Clark County races, indicating little impact from the Noel scandal.

Dant Chesser said she was surprised the Noel case didn’t play a bigger role in the election outcome.

“The economy was a bigger factor than I had expected,” she said. “But I’m thankful that my background in economic development was seen as a positive contribution.”

Tom Davies is a Statehouse reporter for State Affairs Pro Indiana. Reach him at [email protected] or on X @TomDaviesIND.

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