WL City Council member David Sanders plans another run for Indiana Senate seat
Sanders, a West Lafayette City Council member and Purdue professor, lost to Republican Spencer Deery in 2022 in the sprawling Indiana Senate District 23.
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SANDERS PLANS ANOTHER RUN FOR INDIANA SENATE SEAT
David Sanders, a West Lafayette City Council member, confirmed Sunday that he plans to run for the District 23 seat in the Indiana Senate.
The campaign would mark the second for the West Lafayette Democrat in a sprawling state Senate district that includes six counties, spreading from West Lafayette to Vermillion County to the southwest.
Sanders lost to Republican Spencer Deery in the 2022 election, getting 36.4% of the vote in a heavily red district.
Is it a district Sanders or another Democrat can win?
“I think so, if people are willing to support someone who is interested in increasing government accountability and transparency, someone who is a strong supporter of public education, someone who works across party lines,” Sanders, a Purdue biology professor, said Sunday. “That is something I’ve clearly demonstrated in the last few years – that I will work with anyone in order to achieve a common goal. And these common goals are ones that motivate a fairly large percentage of the population.”
Sanders’ plans emerged over the weekend in social media invitations posted by state Rep. Chris Campbell, a West Lafayette Democrat in House District 26, about a meet-the-candidate event Jan. 18 at Sharma’s Kitchen in West Lafayette. Sanders said Sunday that he plans to formally announce his campaign during that event.
Deery announced in the fall that he planned to run for re-election. Deery faces a primary rematch with Paula Copenhaver, a former Fountain County clerk and chair of the Fountain County Republican Party. Copenhaver, who finished third and a four-candidate GOP primary in May 2022, said when she announced her run in November that she was motivated in part by Deery’s unwillingness to back a redistricting plan advocated by President Donald Trump. Copenhaver has the backing of Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, who vowed to steer money into primary challenges of senators who didn’t go along with the redistricting push – and that included Deery’s District 23.
The first day to officially file for the 2026 elections is Wednesday, Jan. 7.
As the only Democrat in the race so far, Sanders said he would lean into his calls over the past few years as a city council member and a leader in the nonprofit Stop the Water Steal organization to eliminate the Indiana Economic Development Corp., the quasi-public agency created to lead bring jobs and business to the state. The IEDC has increasingly been called out – including by Sen. Deery and lately by Gov. Mike Braun – for not being transparent about its dealings and about accounting for results. That movement picked up momentum in 2025 after an Indianapolis Star series outlined how millions of dollars were funneled by the IEDC to businesses controlled, either in whole or in part, by IEDC officials.
Locally – and since the 2022 election – the IEDC drew vast ire from all sides when its plans emerged to develop a $2 billion pipeline that could have pumped as much 100 million gallons of water a day from the aquifer in western Tippecanoe County and sent it to supply large developments 35 miles away at the LEAP district in Boone County. That plan has been sidelined, after pushback from communities in Tippecanoe County and up and down the Wabash River. Sanders sponsored a West Lafayette City Council resolution condemning the pipeline plan.
“I’m concerned, as always, about government accountability and transparency, and I have been concerned about the IEDC for at least seven years,” Sanders said. “I’ve been concerned about their impact on the city of West Lafayette and then expanding that to Tippecanoe County and then to the state as a whole. The more I’ve learned about it, the more I’ve been concerned about that agency, and to say it has engaged in corrupt practices I don’t think that that’s too far to say. … I’ve called for the abolition of the IEDC, and I will continue to do that.”
Sanders said he’d also campaign on issues of public education, free speech and affordability in health care and utility costs.
Sanders has been elected three times to an at-large seat on the West Lafayette City Council, most recently in 2023. Before that, Sanders lost to Republican Ron Alting in Indiana Senate District 22 in 2002. He lost three campaigns for U.S. House 4th District, twice to former Rep. Steve Buyer and most recently, in 2010, to former Rep. Todd Rokita.
Deery said Sunday that he was focused first on the May primary.
“That race offers a clear contrast in leadership and public service, and in what principled leadership looks like in practice,” Deery said. “My approach — standing on principle, making decisions from facts, listening to constituents and acting on their priorities — helped stop the water pipeline and to avoid mid-cycle gerrymandering. Whoever wins the primary will be strongly favored to represent District 23, and that contrast is too important for me to take my eye off May 5.”
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If Copenhaver has Beckwith's backing, that's all we need to know to oppose her.
Mr. Deery did the noble thing in openly opposing redistricting. Mr. Sanders is a knowledgeable and passionate pugilist when it comes to transparency in government. In this recent period where our national and state politics have gone off the rails, I would love to see these two debate on how they would lead a necessary reset.