Winfield T. Durbin was elected governor over his Democratic opponent, John W. Kern.

Durbin (member of the Indiana Republican Central Committee) was nominated to run for governor in 1900, and easily won the convention vote.

Opinion was strongly against Democrats, and the leading members of the party refused to run for governor that year.

The party fielded John Kern, a former state senator serving at the time as city solicitor of Indianapolis, to oppose Durbin.

Durbin's primary goal as governor was to bring efficiency to the state, and reform the government to function more economically, and to enact progressive legislation.