GOP Indiana state senator eyes replacing Hollingsworth

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A southern Indiana state senator who lost a race for Congress to Republican Rep. Trey Hollingsworth six years ago is looking to replace him in the seat.

Republican Sen. Erin Houchin of Salem announced Thursday, a day after Hollingsworth said he would not seek reelection, that she would seek the GOP nomination for the 9th District seat.

Houchin finished second to Hollingsworth in a crowded 2016 Republican primary for the congressional seat, which the then-political unknown won after millions of campaign spending from his family’s wealth.

Houchin was first elected to the state Senate in 2014 and was the campaign chair for Republican state Attorney General Todd Rokita in 2020.

She calls herself a “conservative fighter” and says that she will “stand up to the radical Left and the Biden agenda.”

The Republican-dominated Legislature kept the 9th District solidly Republican in redistricting that takes effect for this year’s election. The revamped district covers the largely rural southeastern corner of Indiana, including the cities of New Albany, Jeffersonville, Bloomington, Greensburg and Madison.

Houchin's husband, Dustin Houchin, is the Washington County prosecutor.