Jefferson Shreve wins 6th District GOP primary

Jefferson Shreve

Just six months after an unsuccessful campaign for Indianapolis mayor, Jefferson Shreve has won a crowded primary for the Republican nomination in Indiana’s 6th Congressional District.

With 79% of the vote counted, Shreve, a former City-County councilor and the founder of self-storage business Storage Express, was leading six other candidates with 28% of the vote. Because the 6th District is a strong Republican district—it hasn’t elected a Democrat since 1983—he’s favored to be elected to Congress in November.

“I’m just honored to have earned the support of the voters of the 6th and I will work to consolidate the interests of my party and the broader electorate,” Shreve told IBJ after the race was called.

Shreve will face Democrat Cynthia “Cinde” Wirth in the general election.

His closest competitors in the primary were state Rep. Mike Speedy and Greenwood businessman Jamison Carrier, who each had about 22% of the vote. Other candidates were state Sen. Jeff Raatz, former state lawmakers John Jacob and Bill Frazier, and first-time candidate Darin Childress.

With a $4.5 million loan to his campaign that allowed him to advertise heavily, Shreve was able to overcome criticisms of his mayoral campaign where he took moderate stances in order to appeal to majority-Democratic voters in Marion County.

“It helps if you don’t have to directly address it and you control the message,” University of Indianapolis political science professor Laura Merrifield Wilson told IBJ, noting that his campaign declined interview requests from media outlets. “Shreve does have a tremendous advantage there,” because he doesn’t need to rely on earned media and can instead fund an avalanche of commercials.

Those ads magnified the name recognition he had from his mayoral run, during which he spent a total of $14.5 million of his personal money. Although just a small portion of the 6th District is in Marion County—it contains portions of Bartholomew and Randolph counties and all of Johnson, Shelby, Hancock, Delaware, Rush, Fayette, Union and Wayne counties—the commercials reached throughout the Indy media market.

Speedy, who also loaned his own campaign $1.3 million, used his ads to criticize Shreve’s decision to advocate for gun-control measures while running for mayor of Indianapolis, which landed Shreve an “F” rating from the National Rifle Association.

Chad Kinsella, director of the Bowen Center for Public Affairs at Ball State University, told IBJ that Shreve’s ability to beat the “NRA machine” shows his ability to spend money effectively.

While voters will likely still want to know about Shreve’s true stances are on issues such as gun control, Wilson said it won’t affect his chances of being elected this fall.

When asked how he would address concerns from voters about the discrepancy between his mayoral campaign and congressional campaign issues, Shreve said he would “get to work on the real issues that matter to voters.”

“They will see the real Jefferson Shreve as a representative that is working to advance the interests of our district and our state,” he said. “… I think they’ll be pleased.”

Carrier and Speedy both released statements conceding the election to Shreve following the call by the Associated Press.

In a statement posted to social media, Carrier said he called Shreve and “pledged [his] full support.” He referenced the death of his stepson by fentanyl overdose in 2022, a key driver for his campaign.

“I decided to run for Congress to ensure no other Indiana family has to go through what [my wife] Kathy and I have. During my conversation with Jefferson, I asked him to continue our mission, to which he agreed,” Carrier wrote.

Speedy said in his statement that he is proud of the campaign by his team and supporters, and congratulated Shreve “on an effective campaign strategy.”