Kevin Boehnlein's path to the Indiana Senate had a few twists and turns. When his predecessor in the downstate District 46, Ron Grooms, announced last year that he would not run for reelection, he endorsed Boehlein as his successor. Then, in the legislature's 2021 redistricting, District 46 changed significantly -- from a location along the Ohio River to one in the middle of Indianapolis -- due to shifts in population.
Grooms soon resigned rather than serve out the remainder of his term, and Republican officials chose Boehnlein, former chief of staff to the mayor of Jeffersonville, to replace him. Left without a district in which to seek election in his own right, Boehnlein filed as a candidate in the redrawn District 47 -- though at the time, that meant challenging incumbent Sen. Erin Houchin. But then Houchin resigned to run for Congress, leaving Boehnlein with the advantage of incumbency against two other candidates for nomination in the May 3 primary.