Craig Haggard

Craig Haggard (Republican Party) (also known as Merle) is a member of the Indiana House of Representatives, representing District 57. He assumed office on November 9, 2022. His current term ends on November 4, 2026.

Haggard (Republican Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent Indiana's 4th Congressional District. He declared candidacy for the 2026 election.^[source]

Biography

Craig Haggard was born and lives in Mooresville, Indiana. Haggard graduated from Mooresville High School. He earned a B.A. from Hanover College in 1991. Haggard served in the United States Marine Corps from 1991 to 2000 and the Indiana Air National Guard from 2001 to 2012. His career experience includes owning a business and working as a commercial broker.^[1]^[2]

Committee assignments

Note: This membership information was last updated in September 2023. Ballotpedia completes biannual updates of committee membership. If you would like to send us an update, email us at: editor@ballotpedia.org.

2023-2024

Haggard was assigned to the following committees:

Elections

2026

Note: At this time, Ballotpedia is combining all declared candidates for this election into one list under a general election heading. As primary election dates are published, this information will be updated to separate general election candidates from primary candidates as appropriate.

General election

The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.

General election for U.S. House Indiana District 4

The following candidates are running in the general election for U.S. House Indiana District 4 on November 3, 2026.

		Candidate
		Jim Baird (R)
		Drew Cox (D)
		Thomas D. Hall Jr. (D)
		John Whetstone (D)
	Submit photo	Chad Elwartowski (R)
		Craig Haggard (R)
		Anthony Hustedt-Mai (R)

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Endorsements

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2024

State House

General election

General election for Indiana House of Representatives District 57

Incumbent Craig Haggard won election in the general election for Indiana House of Representatives District 57 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Craig Haggard (R)	100.0	22,413

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 22,413
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for Indiana House of Representatives District 57

Incumbent Craig Haggard advanced from the Republican primary for Indiana House of Representatives District 57 on May 7, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Craig Haggard	100.0	5,294

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 5,294
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Campaign finance

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Haggard in this election.

Pledges

Haggard signed the following pledges.

U.S. Term Limits

U.S. House

Indiana's 4th Congressional District election, 2024 (May 7 Democratic primary)

Indiana's 4th Congressional District election, 2024 (May 7 Republican primary)

General election

General election for U.S. House Indiana District 4

Incumbent Jim Baird defeated Derrick Holder and Ashley Groff in the general election for U.S. House Indiana District 4 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jim Baird (R)	64.8	209,794
		Derrick Holder (D)	30.9	100,091
	Submit photo	Ashley Groff (L)	4.2	13,710

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 323,595
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Indiana District 4

Derrick Holder defeated Rimpi Girn in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Indiana District 4 on May 7, 2024.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Derrick Holder	63.5	7,709
	Rimpi Girn	36.5	4,436

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 12,145
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Indiana District 4

Incumbent Jim Baird defeated Charles Bookwalter and John Piper in the Republican primary for U.S. House Indiana District 4 on May 7, 2024.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Jim Baird	64.7	48,723
	Charles Bookwalter	27.2	20,505
	John Piper	8.0	6,052

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 75,280
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Campaign finance

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Haggard in this election.

2022

General election

General election for Indiana House of Representatives District 57

Craig Haggard won election in the general election for Indiana House of Representatives District 57 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Craig Haggard (R)	100.0	14,055

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 14,055
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Indiana House of Representatives District 57

Craig Haggard defeated Melinda Griesemer in the Republican primary for Indiana House of Representatives District 57 on May 3, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Craig Haggard	66.7	3,315
	Submit photo	Melinda Griesemer	33.3	1,658

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 4,973
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Campaign finance

Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

Craig Haggard has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey. Send a message to Craig Haggard asking him to fill out the survey. If you are Craig Haggard, click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.

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You can ask Craig Haggard to fill out this survey by using the buttons below or emailing info@hoosiersforhaggard.com.

2024

State House

Craig Haggard did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

U.S. House

Craig Haggard did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

2022

Craig Haggard completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Haggard's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Craig Haggard graduated from Mooresville High School in 1987 and Hanover College in 1991. He was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps on May 25th, 1991. Craig was an AV8B Harrier Aviator and served in the Marines until January 2000. He then transitioned to an active-duty position with the Indiana Air National Guard. Craig flew F16 Falcons out of Terre Haute and was the Commander of the Air to Ground Range at Camp Atterbury. Craig retired in June of 2013 as a Lieutenant Colonel.

While serving in the military from 2001 to 2012 Craig led humanitarian groups to a small mountain village in central Mexico. He raised funds, handled logistics, operations and personally led all the groups to Calnali Hidalgo Mexico.

Also, during this time, he held leadership roles on the administrative board of the First United Methodist Church and was Trustee for 3 years.  While serving with the Friends of Calnali group and Church duties Craig helped with many local charitable projects.

After retiring from the military, he joined the not-for-profit National Rifle Association Foundation as the Indiana Field Representative for the next 6 years.

Craig currently resides in his hometown of Mooresville IN. Craig is married with 4 children. He is currently holds a license as a commercial Real Estate Broker and owns a couple small businesses in Indiana.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

I believe families should feel safe in the State they live. This means supporting the police, mental health programs and prosecuting habitual criminals.
I believe in small government, deregulation and promoting small business growth by taking down unnecessary barriers.
I believe our kids need to return to the basics of education. School should give our kids the foundation they need to advance academically and stay out of the social and sexual arenas reserved for the parents of the children.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Public safety is the biggest area of concern for me. There are no one solution answers to the issues we face today. The problems we face as Hoosiers involve mental health, education, family values and support for law enforcement to name a few. The most important role of the government is to protect its citizens. As a Marine I spent a large part of my life protecting those that could not protect themselves. It is a shame there is such a rise in crime in not only the cities but in parts of Indiana mostly free from violence for most of Indiana's existence.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign finance summary

Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

Craig Haggard campaign contribution history
Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2026*	U.S. House Indiana District 4	Candidacy Declared general	$98,860	$42,734
2024*	Indiana House of Representatives District 57	Won general	$24,846	$20,673
2024*	U.S. House Indiana District 4	Withdrew primary	$95,982	$35,340
2022	Indiana House of Representatives District 57	Won general	$195,780	$164,626
Grand total			$415,468	$263,373
Sources: OpenSecrets, Federal Elections Commission *This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete

Scorecards

See also: State legislative scorecards and State legislative scorecards in Indiana

A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.

Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.

Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of Indiana scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.

2024

To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2024, click [show].

In 2024, the Indiana State Legislature was in session from January 8 to March 8.

ACLU Indiana

Legislators are rated based on their votes related to civil liberties.

Indiana Family Institute

Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to social issues.

National Federation of Independent Business

Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.

Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter

Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to environmental issues.

2023

To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2023, click [show].

In 2023, the Indiana State Legislature was in session from January 9 to April 28.

ACLU Indiana

Legislators are rated based on their votes related to civil liberties.

Indiana AFL-CIO

Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to labor issues.

Indiana Chamber of Commerce

Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.

Indiana Family Institute

Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to social issues.

Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter

Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to environmental issues.

The American Conservative Union

Legislators are scored on their votes on conservative issues.

External links

Search Google News for this topic

Candidate

U.S. House Indiana District 4

Officeholder

Indiana House of Representatives District 57

Personal

Footnotes

Political offices
Preceded by Sean Eberhart (R)	Indiana House of Representatives District 57 2022-Present	Succeeded by -

[show]

Indiana's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Jim Banks (R)

Todd Young (R)

Representatives

District 1

Frank Mrvan (D)

District 2

Rudy Yakym (R)

District 3

Marlin Stutzman (R)

District 4

Jim Baird (R)

District 5

Victoria Spartz (R)

District 6

Jefferson Shreve (R)

District 7

André Carson (D)

District 8

Mark Messmer (R)

District 9

Erin Houchin (R)

Republican Party (9)

Democratic Party (2)

[bio-1] LinkedIn, "Craig Haggard," accessed January 13, 2023

[bio2-2] Indiana House of Representatives Republican Caucus, "Craig Haggard," accessed January 13, 2023

[1]

[2]

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Craig Haggard

Biography

Sponsored legislation

Committee assignments

2023-2024

Elections

2026

General election

General election for U.S. House Indiana District 4

Endorsements

2024

State House

General election

General election for Indiana House of Representatives District 57

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Indiana House of Representatives District 57

Campaign finance

Endorsements

Pledges

U.S. House

General election

General election for U.S. House Indiana District 4

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Indiana District 4

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Indiana District 4

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Campaign finance

Endorsements

2022

General election

General election for Indiana House of Representatives District 57

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Indiana House of Representatives District 57

Campaign finance

Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

2024

State House

U.S. House

2022

Campaign finance summary

Scorecards

2024

2023

See also

External links

Footnotes

Information about voting

2025 Elections

2026 Elections

2024 Election analysis

Trending

Public Policy

Information for candidates

Get Engaged

Services

Additional analysis

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