Younger, more progressive City-County Council likely on the way

Democrats on the Indianapolis City-County Council are experiencing an unprecedented, youthful shift.

Three Democratic incumbents all over the age of 45—Council Vice President Zach Adamson, 30-year Councilor Monroe Gray and Councilor David Ray—were unseated in the primary election last week. And the election winners—all in their 30s—are expected to pull the council’s Democratic majority in a more youthful, progressive direction, political insiders told IBJ.

The biggest election shock for some may have been the ousting of Adamson, the council’s vice president for the past seven years, by Jesse Brown, a self-described Democratic Socialist. The challenger won with nearly 56% of the vote.

Brown’s win in particular means that the Marion County Democratic Party and the council Democratic caucus could be moving further left, observers say. The other winning challengers—Andy Nielsen and Brienne Delaney—also would give the council a more youthful perspective.

All three will now run in the general election in November in overwhelmingly Democratic districts, and only two of them have Republican opponents so far.

Kip Tew, a former chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party, said the wins are evidence there’s a progressive youth movement within the local party. It also shows that the end of pre-primary endorsement process, known as slating, may have made incumbents more vulnerable.

“When I was county chairman, we spent a lot of money trying to ensure that our slates won,” Tew said. “And now there is no slating process, and there’s no particular incentive for the county party to protect their incumbents.”

Incumbent Councilor Ali Brown said she’s losing some friends on the council through the turnover, but the council is also losing some important voices and gaining new ones.

Ray, who works for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, was a strong voice for unions, she said. He was also like an older brother, and she canvassed on his behalf.

Adamson was part of the council’s LGBTQ+ caucus—which Brown said will decrease from four voices to just her own after this election. (Brown, Adamson, Keith Potts and Ethan Evans were part of the caucus. Potts and Evans did not run for reelection.)

As a more progressive councilor, Ali Brown said that she looks forward to proposals and perspectives from the new new nominees. But she cautioned that there will be a learning curve for any new councilor.

“I think as a progressive myself, that’s something you always have to think about is, you know, my ideas may seem more forward or more progressive than where we’re at,” she told IBJ. “…that was a shock all of us hit when we first started, how much and how little we can do on the council.”

She added that often initiatives pursued by the Democratic City-County Council are thwarted by the Republican supermajority in the Statehouse. State lawmakers recently barred the city  from adopting a no-turn-on-red ordinance.

Here’s a look at the new Democratic nominees and the ideas they might bring to the council.

Jesse Brown

Jesse Brown, 37,  isn’t afraid to push back against decisions by Democratic Mayor Joe Hogsett—like his move to publicly finance and own the Pan Am Plaza hotel project.

“Suddenly we’re told that needs to be publicly financed to the tune of up to $625 million,” Brown told IBJ. “This is the sort of thing that Democrats have typically just closed ranks and just stifled any debate or discussion about. I think that’s really bad and will really be harmful, not just to the people of the city but the Democrats themselves.”

“…if we’re going to publicly own a hotel, we should make a living wage hotel that offers neutrality for workers who want to form a union,” he added.

In joining calls for the Indianapolis Public Library Board of Trustees to appoint Nichelle Hayes CEO and opposing a now-dead proposal by his former opponent and two other Democratic councilors to create regulations around charitable distributions to the homeless, Brown has shown a passion for advocacy. 

He got a start in politics just last year, when he won a precinct committee person slot. Precinct committee people, or PCPs, vote to fill elective office vacancies and used to be a part of the party’s slating process before it was put to an end in January.

Next Brown took on a role canvassing on behalf of Act Indiana, the political arm Faith in Indiana’s racial and economic justice campaign, in support of Victoria Garcia Wilburn, a Democratic candidate who a Statehouse seat in Hamilton County. He enjoyed the process of knocking on doors and talking to voters os much that it inspired him to take a stab at a council seat.

If he’s elected to the council seat in November, Jesse Brown hopes that his newly-elected colleagues would maintain their campaign promises and that incumbent councilors could join him in being more critical of the executive leadership of the city.

No Republican has filed to run in heavily-Democratic District 13.

Andy Nielsen

Nielsen, 32, is currently a policy analyst with the Indiana Community Action Poverty Coalition. But that may not be true for long.

“Our campaign has always been about putting the Eastside and the people who live here first, and I’m ready to make [the City-County Council] my full-time job,” he said in a release on election night.

The City-County Council is currently a part-time job for most councilors, especially because the current base salary is $11,400. Under an ordinance passed last year, that base salary will increase to $31,075 at the beginning of 2024.

Nielsen lives in Irvington with his wife, Kami. If elected, he plans to focus on policies involving street safety and housing homeless Indianapolis residents.

Nielsen said that, too frequently, big issues are not taken on by the council. At a minimum, he said, conversations need to be had on the council rather than just referred to the mayor.

“It’s not just the role of the executive branch of government to solve all the problems in our city,” he said. “There are 25 city councilors who are elected by their constituents to bring ideas, and to show leadership, and thought leadership on these issues, or at least bring them forward and have an honest conversation and dialogue about it.”

He said councilors too often blame inaction on interference by the Republican-controlled Indiana General Assembly.

His district encompasses the east-side neighborhoods of Irvington, Warren Park, Community Heights, Eastgate, and parts of the Far Eastside. He will face Republican Brenda Bishop-Kyle in November.

Brienne Delaney

Delaney received the party nomination with 67% of the vote against 30-year incumbent Monroe Gray. But the win wasn’t surprising to those paying attention, Tew said.

Gray was drawn into a new district that contained just a fraction of his former constituents, Tew noted. 

Delaney, 39, has a long history in Democratic politics and law, Her career includes eight years as Marion County’s director of elections and four years as a deputy prosecutor.

Delaney is an alum of Hoosier Women Forward, a political and leadership training program for Democratic women in Indiana. Candidates such as Sen. Andrea Hunley and former Secretary of State candidate Destiny Wells went through the program.

With her background in criminal justice, Delaney hopes to bring reforms and oversight to the city’s justice system.

She said the city is making good progress through the creation of the Assessment and Intervention Center at the Community Justice Campus and programs like the Mobile Crisis Assistance Team within the police department. But this work needs to continue to be funded and monitored, she added.

“What I would advocate for is studying these programs and making sure that we’re allocating money efficiently,” Delaney said.

Delaney told IBJ in March that she planned to bring a fresh voice to the council and increase the percentage of women on the governing body, which is currently less than 25% female.

“That is a huge motivation for me as well, to bring that perspective, in addition to the criminal justice perspective,” Delaney told IBJ.

Delaney will face Republican Matt Hills in the November election.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that Democrat Brienne Delaney does not face a Republican opponent in the fall. The GOP candidate is Matt Hills. The story also has been changed to clarify for whom Jesse Brown did voter canvassing last year. See all of our corrections and clarifications here.