By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
December 26, 2025
The powerful Indiana Senate Judiciary Committee got new leadership this week after Sen. Liz Brown, chair of the committee since January 2021, was replaced with Sen. Cyndi Carrasco, former state inspector general.
In a statement following the shake up, Carrasco, R-Indianapolis, said she was honored and humbled to be tapped to preside over the judiciary committee.
“Alongside my colleagues, and using my experience in government and law, we will affect positive changes in our judicial system and work on a variety of legislative proposals,” Carrasco said. “We will continue working to ensure criminals are held accountable, victims are supported and laws are upheld. I look forward to the work ahead.”
The committee on the judiciary is one of 22 standing committees in the Indiana Senate. Former state lawmaker Michael Murphy, a Republican who served 16 years in the Indiana House, said he considers appropriations, which presides over state budget matters, and judiciary, which handles some of the most important bills in the legislature, as the two most powerful committees in the upper chamber.
“It’s very heavily populated by attorneys,” Murphy said of the judiciary committee. “Some of the stickiest issues are sent to the judiciary committee because everybody on that committee is considered to be thoughtful, serious, and whether Republican or Democrat, they have a lot of credibility within the (legislative) body.”
The judiciary committee met during the early December session with Brown presiding. Among the bills passed onto the Senate was Brown’s immigration bill, which she introduced after a similar measure died in the judiciary committee last session and sparked a fight with Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita.
Two other immigration bills and a landlord-tenant proposal are among the pieces of legislation that have been assigned to the judiciary committee thus far this session.
Murphy said Carrasco has a record of leadership the Republican party and the decision by Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, to put her in charge of the judiciary committee should be seen as a vote of confidence in her abilities.
“The (committee) chairs are the most trusted people in the majority at all times,” Murphy said of the hierarchy in the legislature. “They’re the people that Sen. Bray would call into a private meeting and talk about serious stuff.”
Murphy sees Carrasco as a good fit for leading the judiciary committee.
“She has great vision,” Murphy said of Carrasco. “She’s a great team player and she has handled assignments just as tough as this.”
A graduate of Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, Carrasco served two years as Indiana inspector general under former Gov. Mike Pence before becoming deputy general counsel for former Gov. Eric Holcomb.
In 2022, Carrasco challenged Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears, losing with 41% of the vote. A year later, she won a Republican Party caucus election to fill the Indiana Senate seat left vacant by the unexpected death of Sen. Jack Sandlin and was reelected to the Indiana Senate in November 2024 with 63% of the vote.
Brown, R-Fort Wayne, is also an attorney, having earned a law degree from the University of Iowa College of Law, and is currently in private practice as a mediator. She was first elected to the Indiana Senate in November 2014 and made an unsuccessful bid for Congress in 2016, losing in the Republican primary to Jim Banks, who went on to win the general election and now serves in the U.S. Senate.
Brown’s removal as judiciary committee chair follows a tumultuous December in which the state senate stopped an attempt to redraw Indiana’s congressional district before the 2026 mid-term election. A strong supporter of the redistricting bill, Brown, R-Fort Wayne, spoke in favor of its passage during the floor debate, but after the measure was defeated, she stepped down as assistant majority floor leader.
On Dec. 23, Brown announced on social media Bray had told her that she would no longer be leading the judiciary committee. She attributed the shake up to the bruising redistricting fight.
“It is apparent that effects linger from our failure to draw fair maps that would promote conservative Hoosier voices in Washington,” Brown wrote in her post of the social media platform X. “Senator Bray is utilizing his right to redefine Senate leadership after a tumultuous Fall. As I’ve said, our caucus has rebuilding to do to repair communication and trust with voters, and I will continue to do that.”
Murphy said removing an incumbent committee chair during a session is rare and possibly signals Bray’s dissatisfaction with Brown’s leadership. Also, he speculated Brown may have stepped down from her role as assistant majority leader rather than be removed from that position as well.
“Somehow the relationship broke,” Murphy said of Bray and Brown. “I don’t know the exact details, but it doesn’t take a genius to read the tea leaves and say that somewhere the relationship broke.”
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.
