By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
October 7, 2025
State Rep. Pat Boy, a Michigan City Democrat who championed social, economic and environmental justice, has announced that she will be retiring from the Indiana General Assembly on Oct. 17, after serving three terms.
Boy, who represents House District 9, which includes portions of LaPorte and Porter counties in northwest Indiana, was first elected to the Indiana House of Representatives in November 2018. She won the Democratic Party nomination in a three-way primary battle that year and then swept her Republican opponent, Dan Granquist, in the general election with 60% of the vote. However, in subsequent elections, GOP challengers ate into her winning margins with Boy winning just 51% of the vote in the November 2024 contest against Republican Joel Florek.
Prior to becoming a state legislator, Boy served on the Michigan City Common Council for nearly 15 years.
In a press release from the Indiana House Democratic Caucus, Boy said she had made the “bittersweet decision” to retire and focus on her family.
“Although I am stepping away from elected office, my heart will always be with the people I had the privilege to serve,” Boy said in her statement. “I wish my colleagues in the General Assembly continued success and thank them for their friendship and partnership throughout the years. I will be spending more time with my family and my cat, tending to my long-neglected garden and staying engaged in the community that has given me so much.”
In the Indiana House, Boy served on the Environmental Affairs Committee and the Elections and Apportionment Committee, and was the ranking Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee. Her work in helping Michigan City residents protect a wetland inspired her successful run for a seat on the common council in 2004 at the encouragement of many of her neighbors.
Boy authored several unsuccessful bills focused on the environment, including legislation requiring the reporting of certain spills into bodies of water, allowing a property tax deduction for maintaining a qualified wetlands area, and establishing a grant program for greenhouse gas emissions inventory and regulating coal combustion residuals. She also filed bills which sought to require lead testing in schoolchildren, increase the minimum wage, mandate all elections be conducted by mail, and repeal the state’s right to work law.
None of the legislation Boy introduced was passed into law until the 2025 session, when two of her bills were signed by Republican Gov. Mike Braun. Her bill expanding the definition of emergency medication to include overdose reversal drugs and removing the supplemental registration fee for electric vehicles from motor driven cycles passed with strong bipartisan support.
“This work has been both challenging and deeply rewarding,” Boy said in her statement. “I am especially proud of the work we have done together to protect Indiana’s natural environment, strengthen public health and safety, and give a voice to those who too often go unheard. Sometimes those attempts were unsuccessful, but they called attention to those issues. Getting two of my bills signed into law this past session, HEA 1376 and HEA 1380, was a milestone that reminded me how collaboration and persistence can lead to real results for our communities.”
House Democratic leader Phil GiaQuinta, D-Fort Wayne, credited Boy with “creating a better state” for all Hoosiers.
“It has been a pleasure to work alongside Rep. Boy for the past seven years,” GiaQuinta said in a statement. “During that time, she fought for vulnerable Hoosiers, worked to protect Indiana’s environment and enhanced public health and safety throughout our state.”
Boy, a college graduate with a bachelor’s degree in English, has been a strong proponent of education, believing “education is never wasted,” according to her biography on the House Democratic Caucus website. She was a union worker and, with her husband, owned a small secretarial/data management business from 1988 until just after his death in 2016.
The experience of caring for her husband, who became a quadriplegic after a car accident, taught Boy about the “desperate need” for Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, according to her biography. She credited the Affordable Care Act with helping her and her husband manage his medical bills and keep them from declaring bankruptcy.
Boy is a member of the League of Women Voters and the LaPorte County Chapter of the NAACP.
In contrast to recent years, Boy has so far been the only state lawmaker to leave the General Assembly in 2025.
Last year, three lawmakers – Democratic Reps. David Vinzant and Wendy Dant Chesser, and Democratic Sen. La Keisha Jackson – were elected in a party caucuses to fill the vacant seats of former legislators. Vinzant was defeated in the November 2024 election by his caucus opponent, Mark Spencer. In 2023, five lawmakers – Republican Reps. Lori Goss-Reaves and Alex Zimmerman, and Republican Sens. Randy Maxwell, Greg Goode and Cyndi Carrasco – were caucused into the legislature.
Also, three representatives did not run for re-election in 2024. Republicans Randy Lyness, of West Harrison, and Denny Zent, of Angola, retired last year after their terms ended while Democrat Ryan Hatfield, of Evansville, decided to forgo another run for the legislature in order to enter the race for Vanderburgh County Circuit Court Judge, which he won.
The process and date for selecting an individual to serve the remainder of Boy’s term has not been announced.
Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.
