Nearly 30 Rural Summit Candidates Target Statehouse Seats
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.
The Indiana Rural Summit began in 2024 as a localized effort in south-central Indiana but has quickly expanded into a statewide movement. By filing as a block, these candidates for the Indiana House and Senate are pledging to represent “overlooked” Hoosiers through a shared infrastructure.
This collaborative approach allows the candidates to pool resources, technology, and training to strengthen down-ballot races and boost voter turnout in communities that often feel disconnected from the political establishment in Indianapolis.
The coalition’s platform is built on three core pillars: securing high-quality funding for public education, ensuring healthcare is both affordable and accessible, and fighting for living wages for working families. Leaders of the movement argue that by working together, they can reduce the duplication of campaign efforts and provide a more formidable challenge to the status quo.
Among the filers is Amy Huffman Oliver, a candidate for House District 62, who highlighted the intersection of education and community health. With a background as a history teacher, prosecutor, and school board member, Oliver emphasized that rural Indiana cannot thrive without a fundamental reinvestment in its schools. She noted that her experience across various sectors of public service has shown her that education is the primary building block for success in the state’s smaller counties.
Founder Michelle Higgs described the unprecedented mass filing as a visible symbol of solidarity.
Invoking the national motto E Pluribus Unum—out of many, one—Higgs stated that the goal of the 2026 campaign is to give rural residents a genuine choice at the ballot box. The group hopes that this “people-powered” strategy will finally give small-town Indiana a consistent and powerful voice in the halls of the Statehouse.
