Ken Tucker (Indiana)

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Ken Tucker

Independent

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 8, 2022

Education

Bachelor's

Purdue University, 2004

Personal

Birthplace

Munster, Ind.

Profession

Educator

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign X

Campaign Instagram

Ken Tucker (independent) ran for election to the Indiana House of Representatives to represent District 24. He lost in the general election on November 8, 2022.

Biography

Ken Tucker was born in Munster, Indiana. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Purdue University in 2004. Tucker’s career experience includes working as an educator.

2020 battleground election

See also: Indiana's 5th Congressional District election, 2020

Victoria Spartz (R) defeated Christina Hale (D), Ken Tucker (L), and write-in candidate Ellen Kizik (I) in the general election for Indiana's 5th Congressional District on November 3, 2020. Incumbent Susan Brooks (R), first elected in 2012, did not seek re-election.

Susan Brooks had held the seat since 2013, winning her 2016 and 2018 elections by margins of 27.2 and 13.6 percentage points, respectively. Leading up to her tenure, the district had been represented by Republicans since 1993. Donald Trump (R) won 53 percent of the vote in the 5th District during the 2016 presidential election. During the 2018 midterm elections, U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly, a Democrat, won 48.4 percent of the vote in the 5th District over Mike Braun's (R) 47.9 percent. Braun ultimately won the statewide election that year.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee listed the 5th District as one of its 2020 target districts and included Hale in its Red to Blue program. Spartz was included in the National Republican Congressional Committee's Young Guns program.

The outcome of this race affected partisan control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 117th Congress. All 435 seats in the House were up for election. At the time of the election, Democrats had a 232 to 198 majority over Republicans. The Libertarian Party had one seat. Four seats were vacant. Democrats defended 30 districts Donald Trump (R) won in 2016. Republicans defended five districts Hillary Clinton (D) won in 2016.

Elections

2020

See also: Indiana's 5th Congressional District election, 2020

Indiana's 5th Congressional District election, 2020 (June 2 Republican primary)

Indiana's 5th Congressional District election, 2020 (June 2 Democratic primary)

General election

General election for U.S. House Indiana District 5

Victoria Spartz defeated Christina Hale and Ken Tucker in the general election for U.S. House Indiana District 5 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Victoria Spartz (R)	50.0	208,212
		Christina Hale (D)	45.9	191,226
		Ken Tucker (L)	4.0	16,788

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 416,226
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Vernon Moore (Independent)
• Ellen Kizik (Independent)

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Indiana District 5

Christina Hale defeated Dee Thornton, Jennifer Christie, Andy Jacobs, and Ralph Spelbring in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Indiana District 5 on June 2, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Christina Hale	40.8	30,123
		Dee Thornton	27.1	20,049
		Jennifer Christie	18.1	13,345
	Submit photo	Andy Jacobs	13.3	9,817
	Submit photo	Ralph Spelbring	0.8	575

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 73,909
= 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 U.S. House Indiana District 5

The following candidates ran in the Republican primary for U.S. House Indiana District 5 on June 2, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Victoria Spartz	39.7	34,526
		Beth Henderson	17.6	15,343
		Micah Beckwith	12.7	11,063
		Carl Brizzi	6.5	5,619
		Kent Abernathy	5.6	4,901
		Kelly Mitchell	5.3	4,643
		Chuck Dietzen	4.7	4,071
		Matthew Hook	2.5	2,147
		Andrew Bales	1.5	1,329
		Mark Small	1.2	1,057
		Danny Niederberger	0.8	675
		Victor Wakley	0.5	465
		Allen Davidson	0.5	411
		Russell Stwalley	0.4	379
		Matthew Hullinger	0.4	333

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 86,962
= 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.

Watch the Candidate Conversation for this race!

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Mark Jay (R)
• Steve Braun (R)
• Jeremy Miner (R)

Libertarian convention

Libertarian convention for U.S. House Indiana District 5

Ken Tucker advanced from the Libertarian convention for U.S. House Indiana District 5 on March 7, 2020.

		Candidate
✔		Ken Tucker (L)

---

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

Candidate profile

Ken Tucker

Party: Libertarian Party

Incumbent: No

Political Office: None

Submitted Biography:  "My name is Ken Tucker. I want to earn your vote, not buy it. Currently I'm a stay at home dad. Previously I was an Indiana Public School teacher for 11 year where I taught 5th and 6th grade within the Noblesville Schools. I want to be the voice of public education. I'm a product of Indiana. I was born, raised, and have always lived here. I want to be a voice for my state. I want to be part of the conversation that moves Indiana forward. I'm a tree huggin, sun lovin, dirt worshiper that understands the importance and the value of alternative energy for our future. I want to be a voice for wind, solar, hemp, and marijuana to make Indiana a leader in those areas to help create jobs and new markets here in Indiana. Personally I am passionate about equality, education, and the environment. If elected I promise to do everything I can to ensure equality for any and all American Citizens irregardless of gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or any other way we as a society tend to categorize ourselves. I'll never ask for a dime. Just some of your time."

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Key Messages

To read this candidate's full survey responses, click here.

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Education

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Equality

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Environment

This information was current as of the candidate's run for U.S. House Indiana District 5 in 2020.

Polls

See also: Ballotpedia's approach to covering polls

Indiana's 5th Congressional District election, 2020: General election polls
Poll	Date	Hale	Spartz	Tucker	Other	Margin of error	Sample size	Sponsor
Global Strategy Group	August 17-19, 2020	47%	40%	4%	9%	±4.9	400	House Majority PAC

Campaign finance

The chart below contains data from financial reports submitted to the Federal Election Commission.

Name	Party	Receipts*	Disbursements**	Cash on hand	Date
Christina Hale	Democratic Party	$4,019,767	$4,008,303	$11,464	As of December 31, 2020
Victoria Spartz	Republican Party	$3,270,606	$3,161,482	$109,124	As of December 31, 2020
Ken Tucker	Libertarian Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2020. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). * According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." ** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election. *** Candidate either did not report any receipts or disbursements to the FEC, or Ballotpedia did not find an FEC candidate ID.

Race ratings

See also: Race rating definitions and methods

Ballotpedia provides race ratings from four outlets: The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections, Sabato's Crystal Ball, and DDHQ/The Hill. Each race rating indicates if one party is perceived to have an advantage in the race and, if so, the degree of advantage:

• Safe and Solid ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge and the race is not competitive.
• Likely ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge, but an upset is possible.
• Lean ratings indicate that one party has a small edge, but the race is competitive.
• Toss-up ratings indicate that neither party has an advantage.

Race ratings are informed by a number of factors, including polling, candidate quality, and election result history in the race's district or state.

Race ratings: Indiana's 5th Congressional District election, 2020
Race tracker	Race ratings
	November 3, 2020	October 27, 2020	October 20, 2020	October 13, 2020
The Cook Political Report	Toss-up	Toss-up	Toss-up	Toss-up
Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales	Tilt Democratic	Toss-up	Toss-up	Toss-up
Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball	Lean Democratic	Toss-up	Toss-up	Toss-up
Note: Ballotpedia updates external race ratings every week throughout the election season.

Endorsements

See also: Ballotpedia: Our approach to covering endorsements

This section lists noteworthy endorsements issued in this election, including those made by high-profile individuals and organizations, cross-party endorsements, and endorsements made by newspaper editorial boards. It also includes a bulleted list of links to official lists of endorsements for any candidates who published that information on their campaign websites. Please note that this list is not exhaustive. If you are aware of endorsements that should be included, please click here.

Click the links below to see endorsement lists published on candidate campaign websites, if available.

• Christina Hale

President Donald Trump (R)|| ||✔

Noteworthy endorsements
Endorsement	Hale (D)	Spartz (R)
Newspapers and editorials
The Herald Bulletin	✔
Elected officials
Sen. Kamala Harris (D)	✔
Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Jennifer McCormick (R)	✔
Vice President Mike Pence (R)		✔
Individuals
Former Vice President Joe Biden (D)	✔
Former President Barack Obama (D)	✔

Campaign themes

2020

Ken Tucker completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Tucker'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.

My name is Ken Tucker.

I want to earn your vote,

not buy it.

Currently I'm a stay at home dad. Previously I was an Indiana Public School teacher for 11 year where I taught 5th and 6th grade within the Noblesville Schools. I want to be the voice of public education.

I'm a product of Indiana. I was born, raised, and have always lived here. I want to be a voice for my state. I want to be part of the conversation that moves Indiana forward.

I'm a tree huggin, sun lovin, dirt worshiper that understands the importance and the value of alternative energy for our future. I want to be a voice for wind, solar, hemp, and marijuana to make Indiana a leader in those areas to help create jobs and new markets here in Indiana.

Personally I am passionate about equality, education, and the environment. If elected I promise to do everything I can to ensure equality for any and all American Citizens irregardless of gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or any other way we as a society tend to categorize ourselves.

I'll never ask for a dime.

Just some of your time.

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?

• Education

• Equality

• Environment

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Personally I am passionate about equality, education, and the environment. If elected I promise to do everything I can to ensure equality for any and all American Citizens irregardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, or any other way we as a society tend to categorize ourselves.

Professionally I am passionate about education. Our public education system has been broken my entire life. Having politicians make education policy has proven to not be beneficial to our most important natural resource, our children.

I love the natural world. I love my country. There has to be a way that America can continue to be an industrial nation and also care for the overall health of our world.

As a human being I am passionate about equality for all irregardless of gender, race, religion, sexual orientation or identity.

Finally, I am also passionate about maintaining the physical, mental, and emotional health of our citizens. Specifically our most vulnerable. Those being the young, the old, and our military veterans. If you fall into either of those categories you should not want for anything, especially basic health care services irregardless of your personal finances or socioeconomic status.

If I could focus on nothing but those four things while in office. I think I could leave the world a better place for my children, your children, their children, and so on.

Thank you for your time,

Ken

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

As a human being, I have always looked up to my mom and my grandmother. Married, divorced, single mothers. For my mom it was before she could legally drink. Neither ever complained. Both always looked on the positive sides of their situations. Both fiercely independent, kind, open minded, imperfect, full of love, and smart enough to ask for help when needed.

In life I have always tried to emulate the work ethic of my grandfather. He was a doer. He always went to work. Placed his family above all else and believed if a job's worth doing it was worth doing the right way. A measure twice, cut once type of a guy.

My grandfather was the type of person who, even later in life, would brake for squirrels, or park and help an injured animal to safety. But the real reason I look up to him and my grandmother was the fact that they welcomed three complete strangers into their home and raised them as if we were their own daughter and grandsons.

Not to ruin the suspense but those three strangers were me, my brother, and my mom upon first being introduced by my moms boyfriend to his parents as his girlfriend Lynn and her kids Timmy and Kenny. From that moment on even though my last name has always been Tucker. I was now a Montasiewicz.

As a potential Hoosier politician names like Richard Lugar and Birch Bayh are names that I have always respected for different reasons. The more and more I learn about those two men the more I respect them. Mr. Bayh for his progressive nature and Mr. Lugar for his honesty and morality.

Is there a book, essay, film, or something else you would recommend to someone who wants to understand your political philosophy?

Mr. Smith goes to Washington

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

I think the most important principle any elected official should have is to remember they are the elected voice of the people of their district, not just their party. I believe it is incumbent upon any and all elected officials to be open minded to their constituents. Especially those that might have differing ideas and beliefs.

Honesty.
Open Mindedness.
Dedication to serve in the best interest of their constituents.

I care about the future. I want what is best for the 5th Congressional District of Indiana, Indiana as a whole, America, and the entire world. I am just one person trying to do the right thing.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

Honesty.

Empathy.

Transparency.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

I believe the core responsibilities for someone elected to any office is to represent their constituents in a transparent way.

What legacy would you like to leave?

I honestly would like my political legacy to have multiple parts.

First, I'd like to get money out of politics.

I want to utilize my time in politics to help build a more sustainable Indiana, America, and World for our future.

I hope to be a spark that begins to turn our political establishment from a two party system to a three to four party system. I believe that is the only way any of us can hope for real political change in our lifetimes.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

Meeting my mom's boyfriend's parents for the first time. I was 4.

When I was 6 I remember sitting with my family in front of the TV and witnessing The Challenger Disaster. We had been learning about in my Kindergarten class.

I remember George H. Bush's inauguration in 1988. I was 9.

I also watched the Berlin Wall come tumbling down live on TV when I was 10.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

My first job was as a dishwasher. I worked at a greasy spoon just down the road from my home the summer before entering 7th grade. I worked from 5am-11am. I was paid cash. I got a free meal at the end of my shift. I saved up enough money to buy a new pair of school shoes. I believe they were called Nike Max X.

My first legitimate jobs were working as a gate attendant at the Cedar Lake pool one summer. Followed by a summer or two detasseling corn the next summer. Regardless, during the school year I was a live-in babysitter for my two younger siblings.

During high school I did various odd jobs for friends and family. I was an independent contractor of sorts for various odd jobs such as wood splitting, yard and field maintenance. Some of my friends and I were also contracted to do some preservation work within a historical landmark in Crown Point.

The summer before attending college I worked for what is now known as Regional Mental Health as summer maintenance. In college I was a clerk then assistant manager at The Discount Den. I also worked at a before and after school daycare within Klondike Elementary School. Muck like the Den working my way up to middle management. During my summer and winter breaks from Purdue I worked in a steel fabrication warehouse that supplied slide gates to US Steel, Bethlehem Steel, and Great Lakes to name a few. After graduation I continued to work at this warehouse for two years while trying to land a teachign positions. During that time I also tutored at Sylvan Learning Center. After relocating to Indianapolis I continued working with Sylvan and was also employed as a substitute teacher within Noblesville Schools, MSD's of Lawrence, Washignton, and Pike townships on the northside of Indianapolis.

However, my first professional job was as an educator for Noblesville Schools.

What is your favorite book? Why?

Understanding Power by Noam Chomsky.

I was first introduced to Noam Chomsky in college during my linguistics course which lead me to his philosophical, cognitive science and historical, social, and political works.

All of his books have been eye opening in their brutal honesty about the relationship between government and people. In this book Chomsky's main subject is the hegemony of power as it relates to our society and politics. I believe it is even more important now to understand this disproportionate power that our two political parties, a handful of wealthy citizens, and large corporations have over our society.

If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be?

Jon Snow

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

The Room Where it Happens

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

Honestly, as many struggles as I have had to overcome in my life the one I most struggle with is my own role in this world. I have always wanted to do good while I'm here. Not because someone told me that is what I'm supposed to do but because I truly believe we are what we do. I spent 12 years as a teacher. Each year was filled with successes and failures. Which is good. As I look at where my life is currently I struggle to find where I fit and where I can best utilize my skill set for the common good of this world. So, before I get back into teaching I figure I'll try to be the voice of the People of Indiana.

What process do you favor for redistricting?

Fair and nonpartisan.

What qualities does the U.S. House of Representatives possess that makes it unique as an institution?

As an institution the U.S. House of Representatives is our most localized seat in our Federal Government. I believe the key to the polarization is localization. Change has to come from within. I want to change the culture of our politics at the Federal level.

Do you believe that it's beneficial for representatives to have previous experience in government or politics?

No.

What do you perceive to be the United States’ greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

Over the next decade I believe the greatest challenges facing our nation are fixing our public education system, having honest conversations about social unrest, racism, and workers rights, as well as combating climate change/climate crisis.

If you are not a current representative, are there certain committees that you would want to be a part of?

Any committees focused on education, equality, and our environment.

Do you believe that two years is the right term length for representatives?

No.

What are your thoughts on term limits?

Yes.

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.

See also

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Footnotes

[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)