Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray will serve a third term in the state legislature.
The Republican from Martinsville won 73% of the votes in Johnson County and 77% overall. His Democrat opponent Tom Wallace, an environmental engineer from Martinsville, won 27% of the votes in Johnson County and 23% of the votes overall.
District 37 encompasses a small portion of the west side of Johnson County, including Bargersville and Trafalgar, and most of Morgan County, along with Putman and Owen counties.
State Senators author and vote on bills that come before the General Assembly, as well as approve the state’s bi-annual budget. Bray, as president pro tempore, is the leader of the body elected by the majority party, and is largely responsible for setting the Senate’s agenda each session.
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Bray, 51, is a lifelong Martinsville resident, and he has practiced law at his own firm in the city for the last 25 years. He was elected to the Senate in 2012, and was later chosen to serve as president pro tempore during his second term in 2018.
Bray is humbled by the support to serve a third term in office, and he is ready to get going on the legislative session in January, he said. He also commended Wallace for running a positive campaign.
"I’m pleased with the race, and happy to have won. I’m humbled by the support," Bray said. "At this point, we’ve switched gears and starting to look at exactly what kind of policy we’re going to work on. I’m ready to get going, very energetic."
Bray plans to continue to address several priorities he started work on last session, including lowering health care costs and planning for redistricting in 2021, he said. The upcoming session, a budget year in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, is going to be particularly challenging, he said.
Typically, the state’s bi-annual budget is about $35 billion. But state leaders are expecting major shortfalls next year.
“We’ve seen revenue kind of head south on us,” Bray said previously. “Coming up with a budget in this time is going to be of paramount importance.”
The coronavirus will also be a big-ticket item on Bray’s agenda. The General Assembly plans to create a plan to deal with future pandemics, so the state does not have to rely on emergency executive orders used by the governor, Bray said. The plans will better layout the roles of the executive and legislative branches to work together during a public health crisis such as this one.
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Rodric Bray;77%
Tom Wallace;23%
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