Indiana, more than any other Midwestern state, received an influx of southern farmers who didn't mix well with northern manufacturers and businessmen.

Turbulent elections and heated Democratic passion ended up persuading 50 Whig legislators to switch parties by 1852.

Even though William Henry Harrison, a Whig and one of the first governors of the Indiana territory, ran for president in 1840, Democrats like Joseph Chapman were very critical of him and his supporters.

Marshall is perhaps best known for his humorous quote as vice president, said on the Senate floor: "What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar."

[1] Long considered a moderate, Bayh was rumored to be a top pick for Barack Obama's vice presidential nominee in 2008, but the spot ended up going to Delaware senator Joe Biden.

Kernan lost the 2004 gubernatorial election to Republican Mitch Daniels, ending sixteen years of Democratic control of the Governor's Mansion.

[3] Bayh, who had represented Indiana in the U.S. Senate since 1999, was reelected overwhelmingly in 2004 even as Republican George W. Bush carried the state in the presidential race.

Bayh declined run again in 2010, resulting in Republicans gaining the seat, and was defeated in his bid for a non-consecutive third term in 2016.

Donnelly sought reelection in 2018, campaigning on his willingness to compromise with President Donald Trump, but was defeated by Mike Braun.

[5] State Senator Greg Taylor became the first Black lawmaker elected as leader of an Indiana legislative caucus on November 6, 2020.

[7] With the Republicans in the majority, Democrats feared that what they consider to be a radical bill would be easily passed, and many of them relocated across the border in Urbana, Illinois.

The move largely took a cue from Indiana's counterparts in Wisconsin, where Democratic lawmakers there hid out in Illinois in protest of a controversial public-sector union bill in the same month.

Daniels supported the bill, but not the political timing of it, as it would distract from other parts of his legislative agenda he wanted to focus on.