Indianapolis · how this place’s counties split between candidates in each party’s presidential nominating contest, cycle by cycle. A primary is a contest inside one party, so it has no Democratic–Republican margin and is not part of the general-election record above.
Akashic reports votes cast, not delegates awarded. The two can disagree: Clinton led the 2008 national primary popular vote by less than half a point and did not win the nomination.
Primary returns are published at county grain and there is no roll-up above it. Each cell counts how many of this place’s counties a candidate led — a count of records, not a vote total. Who led the place as a whole is not knowable from these returns, because county rows carry a leader and a lead but no per-candidate votes.
Presidential nominating contests in Indianapolis, by party and cycle.
○no contest record — Akashic holds no result for that party and cycle here. It is not a claim that no contest was held. Telling apart a contest that was cancelled, one that went uncontested, and one simply not yet ingested needs a nominating-contest calendar, which is a separate ingest from results and does not exist yet.
Republican presidential primaries are not yet ingested — the Republican series runs from 1856 and is in scope. The row is kept so its absence is visible: a Democratic-only panel would otherwise read as though no one else held a contest.
Akashic carries 10 states for 2012 and 3 states for 2024. Cycles in which an incumbent president seeks renomination are thin by nature — few states run a contested primary — so a sparse column is politics, not a hole in the record.
County returns carry a leader and a lead over the runner-up, and nothing more. The full candidate field with vote shares is published at state grain — follow a cycle above to the state contest for it.
voter registration
Registered voters
Total registered voters, over time
Registered voters
Voter registration in Indianapolis
Year
Total registered
2016
2,148,011
2018
2,001,110
2020
2,098,800
2022
2,118,840
2024
2,165,197
domestic migration
Who moves in and out
Net domestic migration over time
+6,596 net domestic migration · 2025
20112025
Net +46,760 over 2011–2025 · gain loss
Domestic migration in Indianapolis in Indianapolis: net domestic migration by year
Year
Net domestic migration
2011
+722
2012
+305
2013
+5,809
2014
−1,109
2015
−2,932
2016
+1,994
2017
+5,651
2018
+5,519
2019
+4,555
2021
+11,614
2022
+2,318
2023
+2,139
2024
+3,579
2025
+6,596
The Indianapolis DMA stretches well beyond Marion County into fast-growing exurban counties where college-educated suburbanites have shifted voting patterns measurably over the past three cycles, making it a reliable bellwether for statewide races.
Across the recorded series it reached a Democratic high of 20.6 points in 1912 and a Republican high of 38.6 points in 1972. Between 2020 and 2024 the market moved 1.6 points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was 11.9 points.
A population of 3,079,188, a 73% non-Hispanic-white share, and a median household income of $77,949 describe the market. The market's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Champaign & Springfield-Decatur and Lafayette, IN.
Akashic
Political twins — media markets
The media markets whose fingerprint — 2000–2024 trajectory, demographics, ancestry, religion — sits closest to this one, and why.
Twin score (0–100) = weighted cosine between tier-standardized fingerprints: presidential margins 2000–2024 with 12-yr trend and elasticity, ACS income, age, education, population and race, top reported ancestries, and religious adherence — chips name the closest-shared dimensions and the widest gap. Re-weight the groups in the twins explorer.
Compare two places, side by side
Twelve curated comparisons line up election history, demographics, and the divergence story for two places at a glance. Browse all comparisons →
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Indianapolis, Indiana. Akashic. https://akashic.app/dma/527/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
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In 2024, Indianapolis, Indiana voted Republican by 11.9 points (R+11.9), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 1,326,032 votes cast, 571,595 went Democratic and 729,622 went Republican.
When did Indianapolis, Indiana last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which Indianapolis, Indiana voted Democratic was 2008.
How many people live in Indianapolis, Indiana?
Indianapolis, Indiana has a population of 3,079,188 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Indianapolis, Indiana?
Median household income in Indianapolis, Indiana is $77,949 — below the national median of $80,734. The Indiana state median is $71,957.
What is the political history of Indianapolis, Indiana?
Akashic tracks 34 presidential elections in Indianapolis, Indiana from 1892 to 2024. Of those, 5 went Democratic and 29 went Republican.
