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Karen Whitney

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Karen Whitney
Democratic Party
Candidate, Indiana House of Representatives District 28
Elections and appointments
Last election
November 5, 2024
Next election
May 5, 2026
Education
Bachelor's
University of Houston, 1982
Ph.D
University of Texas at Austin, 2003
Graduate
University of Houston, 1990
Personal
Birthplace
San Marcos, TX
Profession
Higher Education
Contact
Campaign website
Campaign Facebook
Campaign Instagram
Campaign YouTube
Campaign TikTok
Personal Facebook
Personal X
Personal Instagram
Personal LinkedIn

Karen Whitney (Democratic Party) is running for election to the Indiana House of Representatives to represent District 28. She is on the ballot in the Democratic primary on May 5, 2026.[source]

Biography

Karen Whitney was born in San Marcos, Texas. Whitney's career experience includes working in higher education. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Houston in 1982, a graduate degree from the University of Houston in 1990, and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2003.[1]

Elections

2026

See also: Indiana House of Representatives elections, 2026

General election

The primary will occur on May 5, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.

The candidate list in this election may not be complete.

Democratic primary

The candidate list in this election may not be complete.

Democratic primary for Indiana House of Representatives District 28

Karen Whitney (D) is running in the Democratic primary for Indiana House of Representatives District 28 on May 5, 2026.

Candidate
Image of Karen Whitney
Karen Whitney

There are no incumbents in this race.

Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Republican primary

The candidate list in this election may not be complete.

Republican primary for Indiana House of Representatives District 28

Incumbent Jeffrey Thompson (R) and Sheila Zielinski (R) are running in the Republican primary for Indiana House of Representatives District 28 on May 5, 2026.

Candidate
Image of Jeffrey Thompson
Jeffrey Thompson
Image of Sheila Zielinski
Sheila Zielinski  Candidate Connection

Incumbents are bolded and underlined.

Candidate Connection = 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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Endorsements

Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.

2024

See also: Indiana House of Representatives elections, 2024

General election

General election for Indiana House of Representatives District 28

Incumbent Jeffrey Thompson defeated Karen Whitney in the general election for Indiana House of Representatives District 28 on November 5, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Jeffrey Thompson
Jeffrey Thompson (R)
 
71.8
 
23,989
Image of Karen Whitney
Karen Whitney (D) Candidate Connection
 
28.2
 
9,442

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 33,431
Candidate Connection = 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.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Indiana House of Representatives District 28

Karen Whitney advanced from the Democratic primary for Indiana House of Representatives District 28 on May 7, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Karen Whitney
Karen Whitney Candidate Connection
 
100.0
 
1,002

There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 1,002
Candidate Connection = 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 28

Incumbent Jeffrey Thompson defeated Joe Batic in the Republican primary for Indiana House of Representatives District 28 on May 7, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Jeffrey Thompson
Jeffrey Thompson
 
65.4
 
5,642
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Submit photo
Joe Batic
 
34.6
 
2,979

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 8,621
Candidate Connection = 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.

Campaign finance

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Whitney in this election.

Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

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

Who fills out Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey?

Any candidate running for elected office, at any level, can complete Ballotpedia's Candidate Survey. Completing the survey will update the candidate's Ballotpedia profile, letting voters know who they are and what they stand for.  More than 26,000 candidates have taken Ballotpedia's candidate survey since we launched it in 2015. Learn more about the survey here.

You can ask Karen Whitney to fill out this survey by using the button below or emailing karen@whitneyforindiana.com.

Email


2024

Candidate Connection

Karen Whitney completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Whitney's responses.

Expand all | Collapse all

I am a retired college president who has served over 40 years in various university leadership positions. I have served on a variety of boards and community organizations. Today, I am not a politician. I am asking the voters of Indiana House District 28 if they want to hire me to be their representative voice at our state house.
  • SMART Government: I want to work to move our legislature to be more balanced and smarter. Smart government is sensible, meaningful, accountable and trustworthy. Smart government has term limits, citizen-led initiatives and easy voting.
  • Great Jobs: Great jobs are secure, empowering you to pay your bills on time, affording emergencies, have health insurance and can retire comfortably. Every Hoosier should have a great job!
  • Quality Healthcare & Education: Prepare, employ and support the best, brightest and most qualified professionals to provide us and our children with the healthcare and education we want and deserve. Support includes competitive wages, inspiring working conditions and reasonable/sensible governmental regulations to ensure a quality of experience.
Policy areas that have my greatest interest are the ones that the state is constitutionally bound to advance which contribute to people’s lives and livelihoods. At present there is an overreach of state government in Indiana and I am committed to moving state government back into its lane to best serve the people.
I look up to my grandmother. She was fiercely loyal to family, god and country - all five feet of her. She was a force of nature and inspired me to dedicate my life as an educator and public servant.
This will sound really sappy but one of my favorite films is ‘Mr. Smith Goes To Washington” with Jimmy Stewart. I love it because it shows a regular guy who loves his community. He becomes an US Senator and takes heroic action to do the right thing against the corrupt self interests of the establishment. Its noble, inspiring and the good guys win.
As a state rep the most important principles that would guide me include: listening well, learning quickly and leading informed by what the voters in my district most want me to achieve on their behalf. I see leading from my heart focussed on my values of integrity and compassion. I would see my role in the community as an elected official as that of a convenor of many indcluding community and civic leaders to collaborate and work together to solve problems and achieve opportunities for the common good.
I work hard, listen well, learn quickly, and value collaboration.
Show up. The first responsibility is to show up with the voters in your district. Meet people where they are and have regular and on-going conversations with a willingness to have voters inform how one does their job of a rep. The second is to work to build trust. Do what you say and say what you do. Not just when you want someone vote. Be flexible in considering the variety of ways the work can be done. Be willing to work across differences with other elected officials to achieve results.
I want more citizens in west central Indiana to report that they feel that their state government is on their side as they work to make a great life for themselves and their families.
I really remember the moon landing in 1969. I was 9 and it was incredible.
My first job was working in the cafeteria of my middle school as a cashier. I had that job for 2 years. I made $2.00 an hour plus a free lunch.
Sherlock Holmes. Who doesn’t love a good mystery.
A healthy democracy needs 3 separate and independent branches of government. Checks and balances can only occur with separate branches that will check each other in order to ensure our basic principles of democracy are upheld. We have had a super overriding legislative majority for decades. For over 20 years both the executive branch and the legislative branch have been controlled by the same party. Over time, this has resulted in an unhealthy approach to democracy in the state.
I believe that it is important to have experience with listening to stakeholders and leading with compassion and collaboration to achieve what matters most to voters. I have done this kind of work for over 40 years as a leader in public higher education. I have worked on the other side of the table with state legislators to get things done.
Yes building relationships with every legislator would be my goal. It is childish to not work with every law maker. We have to be at or get to a place that we may have different ways of solving problems and we are all good people. Healthy democracies have a balanced legislature and all sides need each other to do our work. When over time, one side runs the place then relationships are lost and the best work does not occur and it is a loss for everyone.
My Indiana heroes include: Andy Jacobs a US Rep, Dick Lugar, US Senator and more, Birch Bayh, US Senator and Bill Hudnut US Rep.
. I am running to be the next Indiana House District 28 Rep and thats my plan.
Healthcare; Education; Employment; Legislative Accountability
I am a hyper transparent person. I believe not only the finances but what the money enables should be presented to all voters in a way we can understand and judge. As taxpayers we are investors in our government and we deserve to know not just a budget with a lot of numbers. We deserve a sensible breakdown of the budget and can tell us in a meaningful way what we are getting in term so of services and programs. This information should be available on line and updated quarterly.

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.

Karen Whitney campaign contribution history
YearOfficeStatusContributionsExpenditures
2024Indiana House of Representatives District 28Lost general$21,963 $29,705
Grand total$21,963 $29,705
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Election Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

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External links

Candidate

Indiana House of Representatives District 28
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    Personal

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    Footnotes

    1. ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on March 17, 2024


    Current members of the Indiana House of Representatives
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    Speaker of the House:Todd Huston
    Majority Leader:Matthew Lehman
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