Kelly Thompson
A North Webster small-business owner and teen-suicide-prevention nonprofit founder, Thompson is the lone Democrat on the IN-3 ballot — running her second campaign after a 45% loss to incumbent Curt Nisly in the 2020 Indiana House race.
The 60-second story
Kelly Thompson is a North Webster small-business co-owner, teen-suicide-prevention nonprofit founder, and Democratic candidate for Indiana's 3rd Congressional District. She is the only Democrat on the May 5 primary ballot and will face the winner of the Stutzman–Kenworthy Republican primary in November.
She co-owns a concrete contracting company that serves Northern Indiana, Southern Michigan and Western Ohio with her husband Mike, and founded Crossover — a Sunday-night teen mentoring and suicide-prevention program — that grew to 70-80 weekly attendees from across north-central Indiana. She has six children and 12 grandchildren.
She has never held elected office. Her one previous campaign was for Indiana House District 22 in 2020, when she ran as a first-time candidate against four-term Republican incumbent Curt Nisly, knocking thousands of doors and earning bipartisan endorsements. She lost with 45% of the vote in a pandemic-era election. She has said the Republican-controlled redistricting process moved her home out of District 22 the following year, foreclosing a 2022 rematch.
Her 2026 platform is unusually substantive for a long-shot challenger in a R+16 district — including a 250-word policy white paper on securities-regulation reform to address market concentration, plus detailed proposals on healthcare, energy grid modernization, family farmland preservation, cannabis legalization, education funding, and a 2-cent Wall Street speculation tax to fund universal pre-K and student-loan forgiveness. Her stated tone is grassroots-populist rather than progressive-orthodox: she identifies as a lifelong Republican voter until 2016.
Quick facts
- Born Palo Alto, California (raised in northern Indiana)
- Residence North Webster, Indiana (Kosciusko County)
- Education Tippecanoe Valley H.S. (Salutatorian); Valparaiso University (Christ College honors program); B.S. Business Administration, University of Central Florida (1989)
- Family Husband Mike (married 36+ years); 6 children; 12 grandchildren
- Affiliations Planned Parenthood, ACLU, NOW, Habitat for Humanity, Working Families Party, Indiana Democratic African American Caucus
- Last election 2020 IN House District 22: 45% (lost to incumbent Curt Nisly, R)
Three things voters should know
She founded a teen suicide-prevention program
After a cluster of teen suicides in north-central Indiana about a decade ago, Thompson started Crossover — a Sunday-evening mentorship and support meeting for at-risk teens. It grew to 70–80 weekly attendees from South Bend, Warsaw, Mentone, Syracuse, North Webster and surrounding communities. She frames much of her congressional platform around the family-systems issues she encountered in that work.
Republican until 2016
Thompson identifies as a lifelong Republican voter who left the party in 2016 over President Trump. She says when she first considered running for office in 2020, the local Republican chair told her women should focus on the school board rather than the legislature. She registered as a Democrat instead and ran for the Indiana House.
She wrote a 1,500-word securities-reform policy
Among her published policy papers is a four-pillar plan to use securities regulation to combat what she calls oligarchic trends — including amending the Clayton and Sherman Antitrust Acts, a 'Competition in Capital Act,' beneficial-ownership transparency reform, and an inter-agency 21st-Century Monopolies Task Force. Unusually granular for a first-time congressional challenger.
Biography
Kelly Elizabeth Thompson was born in Palo Alto, California. She moved with her family to north-central Indiana as a child and graduated salutatorian from Tippecanoe Valley High School in Akron, Indiana. She attended the Christ College honors program at Valparaiso University before transferring after marriage to the University of Central Florida, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in 1989.
She and her husband Mike — her high school sweetheart — married more than 36 years ago, lived briefly in Florida for his work, and moved back to Indiana approximately 25 years ago to raise their family. They settled in North Webster (Kosciusko County) and have raised six children there. Today they have 12 grandchildren.
Thompson and her husband co-own a concrete contracting business that serves customers across Northern Indiana, Southern Michigan and Western Ohio. About a decade ago, after a cluster of teen suicides in her area's schools, she founded Crossover, a Sunday-evening mentorship and faith-based support meeting for at-risk teens. Crossover grew to 70–80 attendees per week from South Bend, Warsaw, Mentone, Syracuse, North Webster and surrounding communities.
Thompson identifies as a lifelong Republican voter who left the party in 2016 over President Trump. She entered electoral politics in 2020, running for Indiana House District 22 against four-term Republican incumbent Curt Nisly. According to her account, she first approached the local Republican party chair, who she says told her women should focus on the school board rather than the legislature; she registered with the Democratic Party instead. In a pandemic-era general election, she earned 45% of the vote. The 2021 Republican-led redistricting moved her North Webster home out of District 22, foreclosing a 2022 rematch under conditions of momentum she had built.
She announced her 2026 congressional bid in April 2025 and was the only Democrat to qualify for the May 5 primary ballot, after Phil Goss did not make the ballot. Her campaign committee, Kelly Thompson for Congress (FEC ID C00907816), is treasurered by Mason Brown and headquartered at PO Box 91, Columbia City, Indiana 46725.
Career
Business holdings & ownership
Memberships & affiliations
ACLU, Planned Parenthood, National Organization for Women (NOW), Habitat for Humanity, Human Rights Watch, Working Families Party, Indiana Democratic African American Caucus
Positions, in their own words
"Americans currently spend on average 12%-17% per year of their income on private health insurance... With shifting to a bigger pool and removing the administration costs that currently allow denial claims from private health insurance at an alarming rate of anywhere from 18% to 50% we can cut costs dramatically."— kellythompsonforcongress.com / Healthcare
"We know the best stewards of American farmland are the families who have been taking care of the land for generations. To preserve those families... we want to make sure that land stays in that family's hands, and does not get sold to a corporation or a foreign government."— kellythompsonforcongress.com / Policies — Protecting Family Farms
"The aging energy grid is a security issue according to the Pentagon... We will never not need oil and gas. But the reduced need will translate into jobs from the oil industry into our new infrastructure need."— kellythompsonforcongress.com / Policies — Jobs and Energy
"Cannabis is a naturally occurring plant that was used to prosecute individuals for centuries and will not be used further to financially harm Americans."— kellythompsonforcongress.com / Policies — Cannabis Freedom Bill
"A 2-cent speculation tax on every stock, bond, commodity and derivative traded on Wall St. to fully fund our education system, pay our teachers, erase the current student loan debt crisis..."— kellythompsonforcongress.com / Policies — Education and Childcare
Where the money came from
$92,249 raised this cycle · 92249 contributions
- In-district individuals (IN-3, 2025 visible detail)$37,729
- Q1 2026 itemized contributions (detail pending)$29,225
- Out-of-state individuals (2025 detail)$9,758
- Self-funded$8,726
- Indiana individuals outside IN-3 (2025 detail)$6,811