J. D. Ford (born November 6, 1982) is an American politician, currently a member of the

Indiana Senate The Indiana State Senate is the upper house of the Indiana General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Indiana. The Senate is composed of 50 members representing an equal number of constituent districts. Senators serve four-year ...

."Democrat J.D. Ford becomes first LGBT candidate elected to Indiana General Assembly"
.

WXIN WXIN (channel 59) is a television station in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Bloomington-licensed CBS affiliate WTTV, channel 4 (and its Kokomo-licensed s ...

, November 6, 2018. Elected in the 2018 elections, he represents Senate District 29 as a member of the

United States Democratic Party The Democratic Party is a Centre-left politics, center-left political parties in the United States, political party in the United States. One of the Major party, major parties of the U.S., it was founded in 1828, making it the world's oldes ...

. He earned a bachelor's degree from

University of Akron The University of Akron is a public university, public research university in Akron, Ohio, United States. It is part of the University System of Ohio. As a STEM fields, STEM-focused institution, it focuses on industries such as polymers, advance ...

in criminal justice and political science and a master's degree in education from

Purdue University Northwest Purdue University Northwest (PNW) is a public university with two campuses in Northwest Indiana; its main campus is in Hammond with a branch campus in Westville. It is part of the Purdue University system and offers more than 70 undergradu ...

. He was the first, and so far only, openly

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

person elected to Indiana's state legislature. He first ran for

District 29 in 2014 and lost to Republican incumbent Mike Delph but won four years later in a rematch. In September 2020, he made a guest appearance on the podcast ''The Popular Vote.'' In November 2020, he was elected as the Caucus Chair of the

Democrats. For the 2024 legislative session, Senator Ford serves on the following committees: Education and Career Development (Ranking Minority Member), Elections (Ranking Minority Member), Ethics, Family and Children Services (Ranking Minority Member), Health and Provider Services, Local Government, and Rules and Legislative Procedure In addition to these committee assignments, Ford was an Interim Senate Minority Member of the Legislative Council.

Electoral history

, + Indiana Senate 29th District: Results 2014–22 ! Year ! ! Democratic ! Votes ! % ! ! Republican ! Votes ! % ! ! Third Party ! Party ! Votes ! % , - ,

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

, , , , J. D. Ford , , 12,685 , , 46% , , , Mike Delph , , 15,094 , , 54% , , , , , , - ,

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

, , , , J. D. Ford , , 31,974 , , 57% , , , Mike Delph , , 24,403 , , 43% , , , , , , - ,

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, , , , J. D. Ford , , 22,636 , , 52% , , , Alex Choi , , 21,175 , , 48% , , , , ,

References

1982 births American gay politicians Democratic Party Indiana state senators 21st-century members of the Indiana General Assembly LGBTQ state legislators in Indiana Living people {{Indiana-politician-stub