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GOP Retains Supermajorities In Indiana House And Senate

Indiana Public Broadcasting

Republicans in both the Indiana House and Senate retained their supermajorities in Tuesday night’s GOP wave.

House Republicans poured hundreds of thousands of dollars in the final weeks of the campaign into races in northwest Indiana.

They were concerned about losing at least two or three seats there, possibly even more.

When the dust settled, they’d lost only one – Democrat Mara Candelaria Reardon took back a seat from Republican Bill Fine she’d lost in 2014.

The House GOP will return in January with a 70-30 majority, down from 71-29.

Speaker Brian Bosma says, moving forward, his caucus will maintain its strategy.

“We’ll do the same thing that we’ve done even in the minority, in a slim majority and in a supermajority – and that is set a vision for the future of the state of Indiana, get Hoosiers to buy into it and then take meaningful steps every day to achieve it,” Bosma says.

Senate Republicans added to their already overwhelming majority, picking up a seat in LaPorte vacated by Democratic Sen. Jim Arnold. The GOP’s Senate supermajority is now 41-9.

Brandon Smith is excited to be working for public radio in Indiana. He has previously worked in public radio as a reporter and anchor in mid-Missouri for KBIA Radio out of Columbia. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, Illinois as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, Missouri, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.