FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 9, 2026

CONTACT:
Kate Shepherd 
317-442-1674 
kate@kateshepherdcommunications.com

Indiana Rural Summit Coalition Sends Record Number of Members to the Statehouse

STATEHOUSE – The Indiana Rural Summit is sending at least 16 members to the Indiana General Assembly next session, showing that rural races can be competitive if qualified candidates receive training, fundraising assistance and regional coordination.

Indiana coalition working to create more competitive districts and turnout voters

[L-R: Will Colteryahn (HD 40), Michelle Higgs (Indiana Rural Summit Founder), 
Ashlie Kehrberg (Organizer), Carrie Syczylo (HD 60), Jenna Webster (WTHR)]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 28, 2026

CONTACT:         

Kate Shepherd
317-442-1674
kate@kateshepherdcommunications.com

Sheila Kennedy writes:
I have frequently written about the multiple ways Indiana’s gerrymandering has harmed the state. For one thing, it has empowered rural voters over urban ones. Republicans in our legislature have married slices of urban areas to larger rural ones, confident that their strength lies in the less-populated portions of the state. In the past, that confidence has been bolstered by the failure of Democrats to contest many of those rural districts.

That is changing, thanks to a movement called the Indiana Rural Summit…

Op-ed by Michelle Higgs

Rural Indiana is at a crossroads, and the people who call our small towns home know it.

Although she said “no” the first time she was asked to run for public office, Coumba Kebe changed her mind when, she said, the Indiana General Assembly ignored the pleas of advocates and instead gutted Medicaid.

Kebe, the owner of a home-health-care business, votes and follows politics but never considered herself the right person to run in an election. After seeing how cuts to programs like Medicaid hurt seniors and the aging population, she reconsidered.

Just before the clock hit 8 a.m., seven candidates awaited the opening of the doors to Johnson County Voter Registration on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, in downtown Indianapolis, state candidates were filing for their offices.

Nearly 30 members of the Indiana Rural Summit coalition formally filed to be candidates for the Indiana House and Senate on Wednesday, which the organization said in a news release was a “united commitment to represent rural and small-town Hoosiers who are often overlooked at the Statehouse.”

INDIANAPOLIS — In what is being described as the largest coordinated group filing in recent Indiana history, nearly 30 members of the Indiana Rural Summit coalition officially declared their candidacies for the General Assembly on Wednesday.

The mass filing at the Statehouse serves as a high-profile opening for the 2026 election cycle, signaling a unified effort by Democrats to contest seats in small-town and rural districts that have traditionally been Republican strongholds.