Primary election notebook: Geographic breakdown of Monroe County clerk's race

Tree Martin Lucas won the Democratic Party’s nomination for Monroe County by a comfortable margin, getting 47.7% (5,774) of the vote in a three-way race, where second place went to Tanner Branham with 31.3% (3,787).

But if it were up to just the voters in the eastern half of Bean Blossom Township in the northwest corner of Monroe County, Joe Davis would have won the nomination. In the Bean Blossom 2 precinct, Davis got 29 votes, while Martin Lucas got 24, and Branham 10. That was the only precinct where Davis prevailed.

The outcome in Bean Blossom 2 was a good reminder of the strength of the Republican Party in the unincorporated part of Monroe County. Julie Hays, who was the unopposed candidate for the Republican Party’s nomination for clerk, collected more votes than all the Democratic Party candidates combined: 68 for Hays compared to 63 for the Democrats.

For the Democrats, Branham managed to win a few precincts, one of them on the western half of Van Buren Township in the southwestern part of the county. But Branham’s strength judged by individual precincts was mostly inside the city of Bloomington, where he picked up a handful in the central area of Bloomington near the Indiana University campus.

Still, that was not enough to translate into a significantly better performance inside the city limits compared to outside, because those precincts are lightly voted. In fact, Branham was a half point better outside Bloomington, with 31.6% outside the city limits compared to 31.0% inside.

Martin Lucas was better inside the city, at 49.4%, than she was outside Bloomington, at 45.6%.

On Tuesday, Republican voters had some contested township races and contested state representative races, but no contested races for Monroe County offices. Outside Bloomington, GOP voters made up 30% of all primary election voters. Inside Bloomington, GOP voters accounted for just 8% of Tuesday’s primary voters.

The Nov. 3, 2026 general election race for Monroe County clerk is now set up as a contest between Tree Martin Lucas for the Democrats and Julie Hays for the Republicans. Martin Lucas is a former chief deputy clerk for Monroe County. Hays is a quality control inspector for Cook Medical.