Like many Indiana Republicans, 44-year-old Michael Light thinks his political party has veered off course.
The Shelby County resident didn’t develop a serious interest in politics and voting until he was in his 30s. He identifies with Republican values and shares the party’s concern over immigration and border enforcement.
But President Donald Trump’s intervention into the policies and workings of other nations, and the wars in places such as Ukraine, Iran and Israel, trouble Light. The Fairland man wishes the current Republican administration would focus more on domestic issues he’s concerned about.
“I think that with our foreign policy we might have gotten a little aggressive where it was unnecessary. And it’s all been so prolonged,” Light said.
He suggested Republican party leaders get back on course and focus more on the needs and struggles of Americans. “I feel like more attention needs to be directed here.”
Like many Hoosiers, he waits until Election Day to vote and will be at his polling site on Tuesday.
Meredith Jones, a lifelong Republican in Washington County, disagrees with Light when it comes to foreign policy. He thinks Trump is doing a fine job leading the country with his policies at home and abroad.
The 79-year-old Jones appreciates U.S. military presence in troubled spots around the world, which he says supports democracy while fending off what he sees as threats to the freedoms American cherish.
“I was a (Barry) Goldwater Republican in 1964 when I wasn’t old enough to vote, and my family’s philosophy and mine supports Republican values,” he said. “I think sometimes the Democrats basically cater to communist sympathies and won’t stand up against them to support the rights of a democracy.”
Jones doesn’t always support Republicans once they get elected.
He’s disappointed in Indiana Sen. Todd Young, who he said has veered too far from Trump’s agenda.
“I think I would vote more like an independent if we had a better choice of candidates,” Jones said
His wife Georgia is like-thinking when it comes to political beliefs. They’ll cast their ballots together on Election Day at a community center a few miles from their Hardinsburg home.
Light and Jones were among 896 Hoosiers who answered questions for a pre-election poll commissioned by Free Press Indiana. The nonprofit news organization commissioned the independent survey to gauge voter sentiment as the 2026 midterm election nears.
About half of the respondents — 49% — said they were Republicans or leaned toward the conservative party’s platform, while 40% were Democrats or supported the more-liberal party’s policies.
Results were compiled from the responses of 839 of the participants who said they intended to vote. More than half of those surveyed in telephone interviews and online surveys from Oct. 8-11 — 56% — said they disapprove of Trump’s actions leading the country.
That low approval rating came as a surprise. For 58 years, from 1968 until to 2024, Indiana voters selected a Democrat for president just once. The unlikely support came in 2008 when Barack Obama won the state.
Jones joked that if he thought his wife intended to vote Democrat and cancel out his selections, he might not take her along to the polls.
“I’m just kidding, really,” he said, acknowledging that every voter must make their own choices.
FPI News reporter Laura Lane covers pressing issues throughout the state and how local communities are tackling those challenges. Reach her at or laura.lane@fpinews.org
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