Audiologist Chris Campbell has unseated Republican incumbent Sally Siegrist in the race to represent West Lafayette in the Indiana House of Representatives. Campbell beat the incumbent by a 13-percent margin Tuesday night.
Campbell says her base identified with her ideas about funding public education.
“We really need to start addressing the funding of the public education,” Campbell says. “The funds that have been diverted away from our schools to vouchers and charter schools have been very damaging to our schools throughout the state.”
Campbell says her other priorities include addressing living wages and the opioid epidemic.
Democrats did not field any primary candidates in the race, but Campbell says despite joining late, voters responded well to her message that the district was not as important as it should be.
“I felt that it was really important that District 26 be represented,” Campbell says. “I felt it had a voice that wasn’t being heard in Indiana, so I needed to step up.”
Campbell is one of two Democrats who won their House races in Tippecanoe County. The other was longtime Lafayette Representative Sheila Klinker, who was unopposed.