Jay Hart

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

Jay Hart

Republican Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

May 7, 2024

Personal

Birthplace

Frankfort, Ind.

Religion

Christian

Profession

Artist

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Personal Facebook

Personal LinkedIn

Jay Hart (Republican Party) ran for election to the Indiana State Senate to represent District 37. He lost in the Republican primary on May 7, 2024.

Hart completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Jay Hart was born in Frankfort, Indiana. His career experience includes working as a artist.

Elections

2024

See also: Indiana State Senate elections, 2024

General election

General election for Indiana State Senate District 37

Incumbent Rodric D. Bray defeated Kimberly Schofield in the general election for Indiana State Senate District 37 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Rodric D. Bray (R)	75.9	50,188
	Submit photo	Kimberly Schofield (D)	24.1	15,938

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 66,126
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Indiana State Senate District 37

Kimberly Schofield advanced from the Democratic primary for Indiana State Senate District 37 on May 7, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Kimberly Schofield	100.0	1,771

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,771
= 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 State Senate District 37

Incumbent Rodric D. Bray defeated Jay Hart in the Republican primary for Indiana State Senate District 37 on May 7, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Rodric D. Bray	63.0	10,453
		Jay Hart	37.0	6,146

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 16,599
= 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.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Hart in this election.

Pledges

Hart signed the following pledges.

• Taxpayer Protection Pledge, Americans for Tax Reform
• Taxpayer Protection Pledge, Americans for Tax Reform

2020

See also: Indiana House of Representatives elections, 2020

General election

General election for Indiana House of Representatives District 58

Michelle Davis defeated Cynthia Reinert in the general election for Indiana House of Representatives District 58 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Michelle Davis (R)	67.6	22,282
		Cynthia Reinert (D)	32.4	10,664

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 32,946
= 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 58

Cynthia Reinert advanced from the Democratic primary for Indiana House of Representatives District 58 on June 2, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Cynthia Reinert	100.0	2,848

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 2,848
= 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 58

Michelle Davis defeated Jay Hart, J. David Hopper, Bruce Armstrong, and Heather Bline in the Republican primary for Indiana House of Representatives District 58 on June 2, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Michelle Davis	42.9	2,878
		Jay Hart	32.8	2,201
	Submit photo	J. David Hopper	13.2	884
		Bruce Armstrong	7.3	488
	Submit photo	Heather Bline	3.7	251

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 6,702
= 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 themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Jay Hart completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Hart'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.

Jay Hart is a Christian Conservative America First Republican. He studied Economics and Political Science at IUPUI. Jay cut his teeth on Gasoline Alley near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a motorsports designer/fabricator, restoring vintage American motorcycles and early racing cars. He’s a homeschool dad, telecaster guitarist, avid firearms hobbyist and collector of vintage American memorabilia.

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?

• States can no longer wait for action from the federal government. Indiana, has the ability to care for itself. With proper conservative leadership in our legislative branch, we can relieve the burden of taxation and lower costs for property owners and small businesses across the state.
• By supporting term limits throughout state government, we can greatly improve the legislative process, reduce the amount of corruption and save our state billions of dollars. This means, term limits for state legislators as well as term limits for committee chair holders.
• Combating globalism at a state level is key to a healthy future for Hoosiers and our way-of-life. Honest, hard-working people in Indiana cannot and should not be forced to compete with black market labor. We can shut down illegal immigration in Indiana with bold legislation and adherence to our state constitution. Doing so will also shut down the flow of poisonous drugs and human trafficking in our state.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

-Economic policy: Corruption within economic development

-Child policy and Education: Increasing the number of great educators, encouraging competition in the industry.
-Welfare: Separating those who can not help themselves from those who will not help themselves. People who truly need assistance, deserve an effective system that operates with efficiency.

-Foreign policy: Geopolitical knowledge and understanding is vastly important when considering Indiana’s approach to economic development.

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

President. John Adams. His appreciation for the rule of law.

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

The Bible

The Constitution of the United States
Common Sense by Thomas Paine

Letters of John and Abigail Adams

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

Honesty, Integrity, Perspective. Ability to listen, reason, convince and negotiate. An excellent understanding of our founding design along with our United States and Indiana Constitutions.

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

I love people. I love our country. I have a great understanding of our founding design and believe it is brilliant. I am passionate, persistent and detailed.

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

Elected officials are obligated to understand the people they serve and carry their voices into the office. They are obligated to inform, convince and listen to the public so that each decision made on behalf of constituents is the best representation of their collective will.

What legacy would you like to leave?

I would like people to know that I loved Christ. And for this reason, I loved people and enjoyed serving them.

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

Indiana Bicentennial. 1976. I was four years old

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

Drywall hanger. Three years

What is your favorite book? Why?

(Besides the KJV Holy Bible),
How to restore your Harley Davidson by Bruce Palmer

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

Hilary Norman Peterson

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

if I could only fly – Merle Haggard

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

I was born quite poor.

What do you believe is the ideal relationship between the governor and state legislature?

One of checks and balances.

What do you perceive to be your state's greatest challenges over the next decade?

Opposing globalism

Do you believe that it’s beneficial for state legislators to have previous experience in government or politics?

Possibly. “Experience” is highly subjective.

Do you believe it’s beneficial to build relationships with other legislators? Please explain your answer.

Extremely important.

Is there a particular legislator, past or present, whom you want to model yourself after?

I believe legislators should have the ability to adjust their service to present time in order to best serve their constituents. . Admiration of past legislators is not pertinent when considering the style of service I will offer.

Are you interested in running for a different political office (for example, the U.S. Congress or governor) in the future?

Not that I could imagine at this moment.

Tell us your favorite joke.

My favorite joke is inappropriate for open audiences.

Should the legislature oversee or grant the use of emergency powers?

Absolutely!

What is the first bill you would introduce if elected?

Term limits for state legislative offices and committees.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

What committees interest you?

Family and Children Services, Education and Career Development , Tax and Fiscal policy, Local Government, Appropriations, School Funding,

What are your views on financial transparency and government accountability?

Financial systems in this country are far too complex, lead to corruption and assure zero accountability.

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.

2020

Jay Hart did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign finance summary

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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.

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Jay Hart campaign contribution history

Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024*	Indiana State Senate District 37	Lost primary	$10,696	$8,743
2020	Indiana House of Representatives District 58	Lost primary	$18,060	N/A**
Grand total			$28,756	$8,743
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
** Data on expenditures is not available for this election cycle
Note: Totals above reflect only available data.

See also

2024 Elections

What's on the ballot? U.S. President U.S. Congress U.S. Congress special elections State executives State legislatures State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards Election analysis hub

Government

Who represents me? U.S. Congress State executives State legislators State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards

Newsletters

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External links

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Candidate

Indiana State Senate District 37

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Footnotes

[show]

Current members of the Indiana State Senate

Leadership

Majority Leader:Chris Garten

Senators

District 1

Dan Dernulc (R)

District 2

Lonnie Randolph (D)

District 3

Mark Spencer (D)

District 4

Rodney Pol (D)

District 5

Ed Charbonneau (R)

District 6

Rick Niemeyer (R)

District 7

Brian Buchanan (R)

District 8

Mike Bohacek (R)

District 9

Ryan Mishler (R)

District 10

David Niezgodski (D)

District 11

Linda Rogers (R)

District 12

Blake Doriot (R)

District 13

Susan Glick (R)

District 14

Tyler Johnson (R)

District 15

Liz Brown (R)

District 16

Justin Busch (R)

District 17

Andy Zay (R)

District 18

Stacey Donato (R)

District 19

Travis Holdman (R)

District 20

Scott Baldwin (R)

District 21

James Buck (R)

District 22

Ronnie Alting (R)

District 23

Spencer Deery (R)

District 24

Brett Clark (R)

District 25

Mike Gaskill (R)

District 26

Scott Alexander (R)

District 27

Jeff Raatz (R)

District 28

Michael Crider (R)

District 29

J.D. Ford (D)

District 30

Fady Qaddoura (D)

District 31

Kyle Walker (R)

District 32

Aaron Freeman (R)

District 33

Greg Taylor (D)

District 34

La Keisha Jackson (D)

District 35

Michael Young (R)

District 36

Cyndi Carrasco (R)

District 37

Rodric Bray (R)

District 38

Greg Goode (R)

District 39

Eric Bassler (R)

District 40

Shelli Yoder (D)

District 41

Greg Walker (R)

District 42

Jean Leising (R)

District 43

Randy Maxwell (R)

District 44

Eric Koch (R)

District 45

Chris Garten (R)

District 46

Andrea Hunley (D)

District 47

Gary Byrne (R)

District 48

Daryl Schmitt (R)

District 49

Jim Tomes (R)

District 50

Vaneta Becker (R)

Republican Party (40)

Democratic Party (10)