Jackson Franklin
Jackson Franklin (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Indiana's 5th Congressional District. He lost in the Democratic primary on May 5, 2026.
Franklin completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Jackson Franklin was born in Muncie, Indiana. Franklin's career experience includes working as a paramedic and policy advisor. He began serving in the U.S. Army National Guard in 2019.[1]
Elections
2026
See also: Indiana's 5th Congressional District election, 2026
Indiana's 5th Congressional District election, 2026 (May 5 Democratic primary)
Indiana's 5th Congressional District election, 2026 (May 5 Republican primary)
General election
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
General election for U.S. House Indiana District 5
Incumbent Victoria Spartz and J.D. Ford are running in the general election for U.S. House Indiana District 5 on November 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
| Victoria Spartz (R) | ||
J.D. Ford (D) ![]() | ||
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House Indiana District 5
The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Indiana District 5 on May 5, 2026.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | J.D. Ford ![]() | 42.5 | 17,608 | |
Jackson Franklin ![]() | 17.0 | 7,023 | ||
| Deborah A. Pickett | 14.1 | 5,840 | ||
Tara Nelson ![]() | 13.5 | 5,573 | ||
Dylan McKenna ![]() | 7.5 | 3,098 | ||
| Phil Goss | 3.0 | 1,240 | ||
Steven Avit ![]() | 2.5 | 1,022 | ||
| Total votes: 41,404 | ||||
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Samuel Cooper (D)
- Todd Shelton (D)
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House Indiana District 5
Incumbent Victoria Spartz defeated Scott King in the Republican primary for U.S. House Indiana District 5 on May 5, 2026.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Victoria Spartz | 59.9 | 33,695 | |
Scott King ![]() | 40.1 | 22,526 | ||
| Total votes: 56,221 | ||||
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
Jackson Franklin received the following endorsements. To send us additional endorsements, click here.
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Jackson Franklin completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Franklin's responses.
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I have been greatly inspired by the likes of Bernie Sanders and others in the progressive movement to champion policies that prioritize fairness, equality, and opportunity for all. I believe in fighting for healthcare as a human right, investing in education, fighting against corruption, standing up for the working class, and ensuring that every voice is heard. That is why I have pledged never to take any corporate money and will fight the political establishment to end corruption in this country. This campaign is committed to real change that benefits all of us, not just the wealthy. That's why our campaign slogan is "People Over Profits!"
I am not running for Congress to climb some political ladder; I am running because working people in this district are getting left behind by a system and a representative that prioritizes the wants of the very wealthy over the needs of the rest of us. For too long, the working class has been ignored; this campaign will change that- This campaign is dedicated to standing up for the working class of this district and will bring the people's voice to Congress, not more corporate donors. Corporate lobbyists and other special interest groups have a stranglehold on our democracy, as they influence our politicians to serve their interests instead of the voters they swore to serve in the first place. This campaign is proud to say that we are a grassroots campaign, meaning we will never accept any corporate lobby money and will focus on what the working-class people of the 5th district want because that is what our republic is supposed to be about in the first place. We will fight to overturn Citizens United, ban corporate lobbying, and move to public funding of elections.
- Our healthcare system is fundamentally broken. More than 70,000 Americans die every year due to a lack of healthcare, more than 30 million Americans still don’t have health insurance, and even more are underinsured. That is why this campaign is calling for our country to catch up to the rest of the developed world and guarantee healthcare for all to everyone across the country, and is why we proudly advocates for Medicare for all. Even for those with insurance, costs are so high that medical bills are the number one cause of bankruptcy in the United States. As a paramedic, I have witnessed many people turn away from life-saving care because they did not want to undergo the high cost of our healthcare system. This is unacceptable.
- Standing up for human rights and accountability. Currently, we are witnessing an administration that is fighting to roll back many of the basic human and constitutional rights that people across this country have fought and died for. Once in Congress, I will continue to fight to uphold the Constitution and hold our leaders who have broken the law accountable, and fight to protect and expand women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, and other human rights. We must fight to uphold the rule of law and hold those accountable who have broken it, no matter what their position is, especially the President of the United States. We need to unapologetically fight for education, housing, healthcare, living wages, and much more, all as the human rights they are.
-Removing money from politics
-Medicare For All
-Living and dignified wages
-Protecting/Strengthening Unions, expanding democracy to the workplace
-Protecting Women's/LGBTQ+ Rights
-Universal Daycare, College/Trade school
-Paid family leave for all
-Ending the racist war on drugs / legalize cannabis
-Taxing the rich
-Progressive immigration reform
-A Green New Deal, saving the environment
-Stop funding the genocide ongoing in Palestine
-Helping Veterans by expanding the VA
Bernie Sanders: "It is okay to be angry about capitalism", and "Our Revolution".
Howard Zinn: "A people's history of the United States".
Noam Chomsky: "Manufacturing Consent".
"The Radical King", by Cornel West
“Medicare For All” - by Abdul El-Sayed and Micah Johnson
To name only a few!
Singers who influenced me early on in my engagement with politics:
Pete Seeger
Woody Guthrie
Tom Paxton
Phil Ochs
Almanac Singers
Macklemore
Songs:
“Which Side Are You On” - Florence Reece
“A Change Gonna Come” - Sam Cooke
“Banks Of Marble” - The Weavers
“Reagan” - Killer Mike
And many others!
Primary/frequent progressive news sources:
Youtube:
- Secular Talk, "The Kyle Kulinski Show"
- Breaking Points / Krystal Ball & Ryan Grim
- Status Coup News
- Drop Site News
- Majority Report With Sam Seder
Outside of politics or history, I am a not-so-hidden nerd for Sci-Fi, and I recommend the first "Dune" book, the "Dungeon Crawler Carl" series, as well as Warhammer 40K and Halo Books.
This life experience has given me added empathy for people who are pushed to the margins or fall between the cracks by rigid systems and then blamed for struggling within them. I believe the government should be built around real human needs, not one-size-fits-all rules that punish people for being different. My experience has strengthened my commitment to building policies that are accessible, humane, and focused on lifting people up rather than telling them to overcome systemic barriers on their own.
The House holds the power of the purse/budget, so it has the unique ability to either reinforce equality and economic justice, or the opposite. When controlled by corporate lobby interests, this body can serve the wealthiest in the nation rather than the working people it was intended to serve. When controlled by the working-class, an uncorrupted Congress can lead a nation into the progress it was intended to and to let ring the people's voice to challenge established power. The House can expose corruption, defund injustice, and redirect public resources toward healthcare, housing, education, and human dignity. The power is not in its traditions, but in the capacity to be a democratic force that translates organized people-power into meaningful and popular change.
By the end of the day, I rate politicians based on the vision/policies they advocate. If someone who has been in politics their whole lives does a disservice to the people they represent, then it is time to vote them out; if someone who has a popular vision for the future and the know-how and grit to make it happen, the ladder is undoubtedly a better representative.
- Whether we finally have a government that represents all Americans and not just the top one percent, or not.
- Push back against the large fossil fuel industry by moving to a renewable energy solution to prevent the further destruction of our environment, or not.
- Have a system where workers are not trapped in a broken economy where wages lag behind the cost of living, while billionaire oligarchs gain more power and influence in our politics and lay off countless workers amid record-breaking profits.
- If we, as a nation, can join every other developed nation in the world and guarantee healthcare to all as a human right and not just a privilege for the wealthiest in the nation to exploit and make unprecedented profits at our expense, or continue to have the most expensive healthcare system in the world at the cost of more than 120,000 lives every year as of 2026.
- Civil and human rights have been under attack, especially women's rights, LGBTQ rights, immigrant rights, and other marginalized communities. We must continue to fight for justice
Ultimately, this also allows the people to continue or halt much of the president's agenda at the halfway point of their term.
Listening to many veterans who have been denied healthcare, as I have seen it on the ambulance, where people who have served our communities are unable to afford expensive healthcare costs and go without the care they deserve. Then they eventually died because of that. We must fight to expand healthcare to all in the nation as a human right, we must have Medicare for all.
I have talked to many young people who wanted to go to college or trade schools to serve our communities, whether it is to get into education to be a teacher, or go into healthcare to become a nurse, but they were unable to because they feared the large amount of tuition debt that the American higher education system has. People are going into jobs they hate because they were simply too poor to start their education. Education is the building block of a healthy democracy, and we must move to expand public college access for all, as well as wipe out student debt in the country. I support proposals to pay for it by taxing Wall Street.
I do not believe that just because a bill is "Bi-partisan" that it is good for the American people, or that we should have bi-partisanship just for the sake of it. For example, the Iraq War, the Patriot Act, expanding the military budget to nearly a trillion dollars a year, the deregulation and bailing out of Wall Street, and other "Too big to fail" corporations are great examples of both parties coming together to undermine the American people in favor of the rich oligarchs that fund their re-election campaigns.
Revenue power should be used to redistribute wealth to benefit working people, as we are currently undergoing the worst wealth inequality in the history of the United States. The House should use this power to tax the extremely wealthy, and claw back the trillions of dollars that have been siphoned upward through tax cuts, subsidies, and loopholes. Congress can then use that money to benefit the nation’s people by having the popular policies I’ve laid out rather than funding endless military expansion and corporate welfare.
Money Out Of Politics
Beyond The Ballot
Hoosier Progressive Academy
Central Indiana DSA
Citizens Impeachment
Student for Justice in Palestine (SJP) Muncie
People For Bernie Sanders
Rogue DNC
- Energy & Commerce Committee: To fight for universal healthcare, rein in pharmaceutical and insurance corporations, protect public health, and advance environmental policies that put people over profits.
- Oversight & Accountability Committee: To expose corruption, challenge dark money and corporate influence, and hold the executive branch and federal agencies accountable to the people.
- Foreign Affairs Committee: To center human rights and civil liberties in U.S. foreign policy and end American support for war crimes, genocide, and ethnic cleansing. U.S. tax dollars must never be used to enable human suffering abroad.
We must also remove the influence of money in politics, overturning the disastrous Citizens United decision, period. Until then, the public should know where every cent of campaign funds comes from their politicians and not have dark money loopholes lobbying & influencing policymakers. We must move to public financing of our elections, and we must have a government and democracy that is not for sale! Currently we have "the best democracy that money can buy," and we must hold our leaders accountable.
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Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2026 Elections
External links
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Candidate U.S. House Indiana District 5 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on January 21, 2026

