Indiana

[Schiff for Senate]

Indiana is very interesting, I have always wondered why it is so different than any state close to it, except Kentucky. Indiana probably has a higher population of rural voters and surburban voters than Ohio which could help the GOP there. There isnt a lot of urban area outside of Indianapolis.

It's mainly this. Ohio has Akron; Dayton; Youngstown; Cleveland; Colombus; Cincinatti, while Illinois has Chicago, which comprises 2/3 of the state. In contrast, Indianapolis proper is just 10% of the population, and so is northwest Indiana/Lake County (the part of Chicagoland spilling inton Indiana). The suburbs of Indianapolis are pretty conservative, and while (as of 2020) they are liberalizing somewhat, they are by no means strongholds. Indiana is mainly a rural/suburban state, and the Democratic areas (Indianapolis / Marion County; Northwest Indiana / Lake County) aren't that liberal, either. Indiana's 1st (home to Northwest Indiana) has trended more Republican in the age of Trump; it's now just D+1. And Indiana's 7th (Indianapolis) isn't a Democratic stronghold (or at least not as liberal as Chicago) either; it gave Andre Carson a 25-point victory in 2020, which is pretty good but not good enough given that the rest of Indiana is pretty Republican.

[Schiff for Senate]

SAMPLE RESPONSE:

Indiana is a much more rural state than its neighbours (excluding KY, of course). Michigan and Illinois are anchored by Detroit and Chicago, respectively, while Ohio is home to a conglomerite of cities, small and large (the three big C's - Cincinatti, Cleveland and Columbus - plus Youngstown, Toledo, Dayton, Akron, etc.). Pennsylvania is home to the sprawling and gigantic Philadelphia metropolitan area, as well as the smaller Pittsburgh. In contrast, Indiana has just Indianapolis and a collection of cities in Northwest Indiana that are really just a continuation of Chicagoland, the portion of Chicago that spills into the Hoosier State. Kentucky, similar politically to Indiana, similarly only has one or two big cities (Louisville and Lexington) plus a continuation of a metropolitan area from another state (a part of Northeastern Kentucky is home to the south suburbs of Cincinatti, Ohio). The congressional districts of these states explain it: Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia are all declining in population (either literally declining in population or comparative to the nation), leading to all their states (OH, IL, MI, and PA) losing a district each in 2020, while KY and IN, with stable or increasing rural and urban populations, have retained all their districts (six in Kentucky and nine in Indiana). But still, all four of the aforementioned, big-city states, have many more districts than KY and IN (again, following the 2020 census, KY still has six and IN still has nine - but OH has fifteen, MI thirteen, and IL and PA seventeen). New York, though it doesn't border Indiana, is similar to OH, PA, IL and MI in that way, since it's anchored by New York City, which has stagnated in population, leading to it losing a district while still holding many, many more than most other states, with a whopping 26 districts still retained.