2026 Primary: State Senator, District 39

Joseph Baughman – D

My name is Joseph Baughman. I am 47, married to my beautiful wife, Karen, for 14 years, with four children and five grandchildren and a follower of Jesus. I was born in Sullivan and lived there until 2008, serving in both the Sullivan Sheriff's Department and the Sullivan City Police Department between 1999 and 2004, moved to Linton for 17 years and recently relocated my family to Vincennes. I started on the factory floor 22 years ago and worked my way into engineering and quality, which is what I do today.

How will your experience serve you in this position? Why are you the best candidate?

Manufacturing and law enforcement have been two of the biggest influences in my adult life. In both of those professions, you learn to listen to the smallest of details, investigate systems and attempt to find a solution with the evidence. That's my approach to being a representative of the people and how I believe serving those people should be handled. Right now, we have a system in Indianapolis that's not working for any of the people that sent them there and this is what we must fix in, not only the near term, but for the future of our children and grandchildren as well.

What issues do you hope to address and how?

There are several issues that I would like to address, first among them being an audit of the power companies. We are always hearing in the news cycle that a power company is going before the regulatory commission for a rate hike to fix the grid. They get their rate hikes and use the added revenue for stock buybacks while our grid crumbles. We have got to stop them from strangling Hoosiers. I want to pass legislation that stipulates a certain percentage of profit must go back into the grid as well as help offset customer rates. This will need to be done with bipartisan support as well as further input from constituents.

What else should the public and voters know?

I am no more, no less than your next door neighbor. I don't make a large salary and could just as easily be the person reading this in the paper trying to decide whom to vote for. I am running because I don't like the direction our state or federal governments have taken. I want something different than the status quo or the "new" status quo that is forming, and I think the people do too.

‍

Additional Candidates

• Tanner Bouchie - R
• Jeff Ellington - R
• Kristi Risk - R