Commissioner Tracy Brown files to challenge Rep. Sheila Klinker in Dist. 27
‘We all love Sheila,’ Brown says, but doesn’t want to pass up chance to run for a seat she’s held since 1982. Plus: Prosecutor Pat Harrington withdraws, county clerk Julie Roush files commissioner bid
Update: This edition has been updated with comments from Sheila Klinker.
Tracy Brown, a three-term Tippecanoe County commissioner, will pass up a run for a fourth term, instead lining up a challenge to state Rep. Sheila Klinker, a Lafayette Democrat who has been in the Indiana House District 27 seat for 44 years.
Brown filed to run Thursday, a day before the noon Friday, Feb. 6, candidate filing deadline ahead of the May 5 primary.
Brown, who served two terms as Tippecanoe County sheriff before being elected as county commissioner in 2014, said he’d been considering a run for the Indiana House seat for a while, after getting an early taste of the Statehouse with the Indiana Sheriff’s Association and continuing over the past dozen years as a county commissioner. Brown said his interest in the Indiana House seat was something he’d shared with Klinker through the years.
“As I’ve watched that process go on, I’ve always thought that it would be good to bring more perspective to what goes on at the Statehouse,” Brown said Thursday. “I’ve just been thinking about what it would mean to take the perspective of a 30-year law enforcement career, plus 12 years in local government, and be able to take that down there so that when issues come up that impact local government, they had somebody that has that experience.”
Brown, who is chair of the Tippecanoe County Republican Party, said he wasn’t certain he’d file in Indiana House District 27 until he read an article at the start of the filing period in January where Klinker said she wanted to run one more time.
“It was one of those things where ‘I’m just going to run one more time,’ and one became two became three,” Brown said. “I know it’s not going to be easy. I mean, we all love Sheila. … But I’ve passed this up a number of times, and at my stage in life right now, I just didn’t feel that I could do that again without regretting it.”
Klinker, a Lafayette Democrat first elected in 1982, is currently the longest-serving member of the Indiana General Assembly.
“I guess if someone is going to run, it’s good that it’s someone I consider a friend,” Klinker said. “Tracy’s a friend. … It’s going to be a little more pressure, as you can imagine. But I will work hard, whether I have an opposition candidate or not.”
In January, Klinker did, in fact, tell BiL in January that she wanted to run “one more time,” making it her 23rd campaign.
“I mean it, though, this time,” Klinker said, when asked whether she says that each two-year election cycle. “I’ve had people say, ‘Sheila, you want to run one more time?’ And then I have other folks saying, ‘Please don’t quit,’ which makes me feel really positive. And that comes from a lot of people that are younger than I am, that I thought maybe would want to run for this job.”
In her most recent campaign, in 2024, Klinker received 61.5% of the vote over Republican Oscar Alvarez. She won by similar margins in 2020 and 2022 over Lafayette Republican Jim Hass. Her closest matchup in the past two decades was against Chuck Hockema, a former county Republican Party chair, in 2014. In that campaign, Klinker won 51.8% of the vote.
Klinker also said then that she’s not ready to back away from a schedule around the district that is the stuff of actual ballads written about her everywhere-at-once presence in Lafayette.
“I’m enjoying it very much, and what really clinched it was the fact that the Republicans had the stamina and the guts to turn down that horrible redistricting map,” Klinker said about work she wanted to do in the next two years at the Statehouse. “I’m concerned about education funding. I really think we have an opportunity to make a difference in the upcoming session, and I think that the Republicans are looking at this funding and saying, Hey, we got to change this, we’ve got to do something about this. And they’re willing to step out in front. It gives me hope, and I want to be there for that.”
No other candidates had filed in Indiana House District 27, as of Thursday.
In other candidate filing news …
Clerk files to run as county commissioner: With Brown not running for re-election for the county seat, Tippecanoe County Clerk Julie Roush filed Thursday to run as a Republican for county commissioner. Roush is in the last year of her second and final four-year term as county clerk. Previously, she was elected as Fairfield Township trustee.
The District 1 county commissioner filings stood this way, as of Thursday:
Republican: Julie Roush and James Waters
Democratic: Andrea Burniske, AR Lane, Justin Kendall and Travis Dowell
Tippecanoe County commissioner candidates must live in the district they represent, though ballots across the county will include the race. District 1 includes much of Lafayette and eastern part of Tippecanoe County.
County prosecutor withdraws, chief deputy will run: Pat Harrington, first elected Tippecanoe County prosecutor in 2006, withdrew his name from the 2026 campaign on Thursday after previously filing to run again earlier this year.
Jason Biss, Tippecanoe County’s chief deputy prosecutor, on Thursday filed to run for prosecutor as a Republican.
Harrington said he made the decision after watching his staff work as part of an investigation that led to six arrests in the Jan. 18 attempted murder of Tippecanoe Superior Court 2 Judge Steve Meyer.
“It’s the right time because the right people are in place in our office, including chief deputy prosecutor Jason Biss,” Harrington said. “He started in our office as an intern, has been with us 20 years, and he’s moved to leadership in the office and understands everything that’s necessary to do to carry on the continuity of leadership and excellence that our community has seen in this office.”
Biss, a 1996 Lafayette Jeff grad, started working in the prosecutor’s office after getting his law degree from Creighton University.
“It’s what I love,” Biss said. “I love providing to the community that provided so much to me growing up. This is my town, this is my county, and I’m eager to continue the leadership and to give back to my community. This is all about the continuity of leadership. Pat has built a great team, and I want to continue that so this community stays a thriving and vibrant place and safe place to live.”
No other candidates had filed to run for prosecutor, as of Thursday evening.
CANDIDATE FILING DEADLINE: NOON FRIDAY: Candidates looking to get on Republican or Democratic ballots for the May 5 primary have until noon Friday, Feb. 6, to get that done. For a look at the candidates that already have filed for federal, state and county positions on Tippecanoe County ballots, check out this list compiled by the county’s elections office.
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I'd like for every local and state Republican candidate to be asked about their support for Donald Trump and the practices of ICE and on redistricting. While generally we shouldn't nationalize local elections, Trumpism tells us a lot about what politicians think, none of it good. If a candidate is a Trumpist then it's likely they will support authoritarian uses of local and state police, immunity from consequences for police who engage in violence and abuse, cooperation with ICE, etc. As we're seeing in other states, local police and state National Guard units may have to serve to protect local residents from federal violence. So no matter how well-liked a local candidate like Brown might be on local issues, we're going to need to ask him and others tough questions about what they'll do when violent ICE patrols come to Indiana and when they come to Tippecanoe County.
I wonder why Biss and Brown are not listed on the official candidate list published on the Election Board website?