Who's In the Race

The 2026 race for Indiana's 7th U.S. House District heads to a Nov. 3 general election with two certified nominees. Democratic incumbent André Carson won his party's May 5 primary with 62.4 percent of the vote, taking 44,849 of 71,864 ballots cast. Republican Patrick McAuley cleared his primary the same day with 84.4 percent, winning 10,357 of 12,272 votes.

Carson holds the Indianapolis-area seat as an incumbent. McAuley won the Republican primary on May 5, with 84.4 percent of the vote, capturing 10,357 votes.

What They Stand For

André Carson

Carson's official campaign website outlines positions on the economy, education, veterans, immigration, and national security.

On the economy, Carson's campaign website states he supports extending tax cuts for working and middle-class families and reducing the financial burden of healthcare, housing, and education. His campaign website describes his economic focus as building a stronger middle class and growing jobs in the district.

On education, Carson's campaign website states he is committed to closing disparities in educational attainment and views expanding access to quality education as essential to the nation's long-term economic health. He views expanding access to quality education as essential to the nation's long-term economic health.

For veterans, Carson's campaign states that those who served deserve the best support available as they return to civilian life, with a focus on healthcare, housing, and educational benefits for veterans and their families.

On immigration, Carson supports creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and expanding legal visa programs, arguing the approach would keep families together and strengthen the economy.

On national security and foreign policy, Carson's issues page highlights his leadership of the UNRWA Emergency Funding Restoration Act, which advocates for reinstating humanitarian aid to Palestine, his co-sponsorship of a Ceasefire Now resolution on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and his leadership of a resolution condemning human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He has also identified China's military expansion and economic influence as a serious challenge to U.S. national security.

Patrick McAuley

McAuley's campaign website does not include a detailed issues page; his policy positions are drawn from the site's homepage language and from voter guide interviews with WFYI, the Indianapolis Recorder, IndyStar, Mirror Indy, and the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

McAuley identifies housing affordability and homelessness as his top priorities. He has pointed to vacant buildings in the 7th District that could be repurposed to address homelessness and proposes partnering with local organizations such as Wheeler Mission and Shepard Community Center while directing federal resources to those efforts.

Public safety and improving community-police relations are also central to his campaign. McAuley said those priorities emerged from a district-wide survey he conducted in 2025 that received more than 400 responses, according to an Indianapolis Recorder Q&A.

On infrastructure, McAuley's WFYI voter guide profile and IndyStar voter guide show he emphasizes fixing crumbling roads in Indianapolis and frames his relationships with Republican leadership in the White House, Congress, and the Indiana State House as the mechanism for bringing federal dollars to the district.

McAuley lists job growth and creating career pathways as priorities, with a particular focus on the next generation of workers, and has specifically mentioned helping residents build credit as an immediate economic goal, according to the WFYI voter guide and the Indiana Capital Chronicle voter guide.

A distinctive element of his pitch is the explicit argument that his alignment with the current Republican-controlled federal and state government gives him a unique ability to direct federal funding to a district that has long been represented by a Democrat — a pragmatic, community-first framing rather than a purely ideological one, as described in a WFYI primary preview.

The Money Behind the Race

Combined fundraising across all candidates in the race reached $1,401,338, according to the race record, but a breakdown of outside spending by party, by support versus opposition, or by individual committee is not available.

Race Outlook: Ratings and Betting Markets

Every major race-rating service calls this contest a lock for Democrats. The Cook Political Report rated the race Solid Democratic as of Sept. 25; Sabato's Crystal Ball rated it Solid Democratic as of Sept. 22; and Inside Elections rated it Solid Democratic as of Sept. 17.

Prediction markets agree: Kalshi gave the Democratic nominee a 95.7 percent win probability and the Republican nominee a 4.3 percent probability as of Sept. 28, based on a market volume of 21,130 contracts.

Carson won the 7th District in 2022 with nearly 67 percent of the vote. He won again in 2024 with 68.3 percent. The district has returned a Democrat in each of the last two federal cycles by margins well above 30 percentage points.

Indiana as a whole, however, is a red state: Republicans won eight of nine U.S. House races in both 2022 and 2024, and took the U.S. Senate race decided in each of those cycles. Donald Trump carried Indiana in the 2024 presidential election with 58.6 percent of the vote. The 7th District is the lone Democratic stronghold in an otherwise Republican-dominated congressional delegation.

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