Copp
By Noah Crenshaw and Andy East
AIM Media Indiana
FRANKLIN — A Franklin man is running for a long-held Indiana Senate seat that will be open next year.
James Copp, an U.S. Army and Indiana National Guard veteran, husband and father of two kids, is running for Indiana Senate District 41 as a Republican. The current seat-holder, Sen. Greg Walker, R-Columbus, is not seeking another term, a move he confirmed with The (Columbus) Republic, a sister newspaper to the Daily Journal, on Tuesday.
The District 41 senator represents all of Franklin, Needham, Nineveh and Blue River townships, and most of Pleasant Township, in Johnson County and all of Bartholomew County.
Walker, who is currently in his fifth term, declined to elaborate on his decision when reached by a reporter from The Republic. He is chair of the Standing Committee on Family and Children Services, the Senate chair of the Interim Study Committee on Child Services and Senate majority member of the Interim Study Committee on Elections. He also serves on the Senate Elections, Ethics, Pensions and Labor and Public Policy committees.
Walker launched his career in state politics in 2006 with an upset victory in the Republican primary over former Indiana Senate President Pro-Tem Robert Garton, who had held the seat for over three decades and had been the Senate’s leader for a record 26 years.
Walker’s victory surprised Republicans, with people watching election night results in Columbus being “stunned” after Garton conceded to Walker, according to coverage in The Republic at the time.
Copp previously ran for an at-large seat on the Johnson County Council last year, but was not selected during the GOP primary. He served 24 years as a soldier, including in Special Forces, before serving as a recruiting battalion commander in Indiana. He retired as a lieutenant colonel, Copp told the Daily Journal.
He previously worked at Patriot Products in Franklin, leaving in February. Now he works from home as a sales manager for BANAIR, a company that designs, manufactures and installs innovative engineered solutions for military clients worldwide, including unique storage and space management product lines, hurricane resistant tents, heavy armor ramps and more.
“Work from home opens up the time that really kind of said, ‘OK, this is an opportunity now to jump into this race. I’ve got the time to do it, so why not?,” he said.
Copp did not hold any events to make a formal campaign announcement for the seat. Instead, he updated his “James Copp for Johnson County Council” Facebook page to a “James Copp for State Senate” page on July 13 and made an appearance on WIBC’s “Hammer + Nigel” on July 30, which is where he announced his run for state senate.
One of the issues Copp is hoping to address is taxes. There are “a lot of people that are still hurting on taxes,” and Copp says that stewards of taxpayer dollars should make sure they’re spending the monies on “the right thing.”
“It’s a principled look at how we’re spending the people’s money because at the end of the day, that’s what it is — making sure that what we are putting forth is beneficial to the entire community and a good use of that money, that it’s not wasted,” Copp said.
Other priorities include education and health care. Through his role at the recruiting command, he saw different schools throughout the state, noticing things that they were doing right and wrong, he said.
“What I want to do is make sure that we, as a state, are setting conditions that allow parents the maximum amount of choice that they can have in getting their kids to the educational institution that they want to get them to,” Copp said.
As for health care, Copp is hoping to ensure the state’s health care is as good as it possibly can be. He has aging parents, and he wants to make sure the cost of care “is commensurate with everything, so people aren’t wasting money because we don’t have a whole lot of that to spend,” he said.
A theme throughout these issues important to Copp is a need for efficiency. As a battalion commander, Copp would tell his subordinates that they needed to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars as they are limited, and they need to maximum the use of what they get. He hopes to bring this to the Indiana Statehouse, he said.
“That’s been something I’ve done my entire career,” Copp said. “So I think bringing that to the Statehouse — that view, that experience — is really why I’m throwing my my hat in the ring, so to speak.”
Copp is not alone in seeking the now open seat. He is one of at least three people who’ve either expressed interest in running or are speculated to run for the seat.
Former Rep. Milo Smith, R-Columbus, who represented House District 59 from 2006 to 2018, has said he plans to run for the seat. He most recently ran for mayor of Columbus in 2023, but lost to current Mayor Mary Ferdon in the GOP primary.
“I am going to run,” Smith told The Republic earlier this week. “…In the General Assembly, we passed property tax caps, trying to protect homeowners from the property tax bill going up year after year drastically. That didn’t stop the tax bills from going up, and so I need to go back in session and lobby for taxpayers, so their tax bill won’t go up drastically from one year to the next.”
Former U.S. Rep. Greg Pence, R-Indiana, is also speculated to be considering a run for the seat. Pence told The Republic he has had conversations about the seat becoming vacant with leaders and others who may be interested in running in the GOP primary but cautioned that doesn’t mean he plans to run. He is the older brother of former Vice President Mike Pence.
“We’ve not made any decision at all. I talked to all of the people that are interested in running and said, ‘Hey, I’m not declaring,’ I’m just kind of talking to folks and kind of explain to them what I was thinking, the whys and the wherefores,” Pence said. “But we’re probably pretty far from making a decision. It’s August. …When you’ve served the district for six years and ran for a year before that, you kind of owe it to people to say, ‘Hey, I’m thinking about this.’ …But I haven’t really done anything since I had those calls with those folks.”
There is plenty of time for more candidates to announce. Filing for the 2026 primary starts on Jan. 7, continuing until Feb. 6.
Whoever wins the general election next year will be just the third person to hold the Senate District 41 seat since 1970.
Noah Crenshaw of the Daily Journal and Andy East of The (Columbus) Republic contributed to this report.
