Porter County Republican Party Chair Nathan Uldricks is running against Johannes Poulard for the GOP nomination for state Senate District 4.
The winner in the May 5 primary election will face incumbent Rodney Pol, who is unopposed in the Democratic primary, in November.
Uldricks is a member of the Pine Township Advisory Board, having been elected in 2022. “I felt that Pine Township had been overlooked, really, by the county,” he said. Porter County’s extreme northeast corner is part of Michigan City Area Schools.
Last year, he was named county GOP chairman. Uldricks said his role as GOP chair includes recruiting good people to run for office.
In 2024, he failed to win election to the Porter County Council.
Poulard’s political experience includes an unsuccessful campaign against fellow Republican Jeff Larson for the Senate District 4 nomination. “We had a pretty hostile race,” he said. “There was some nasty politics going on there, not on my part.”
Poulard, whose father was on the Michiana Shores Town Council, said he’s been around politics his whole life. The COVID-19 pandemic is what got him involved. Poulard didn’t buy any personal protective equipment, he said. “I didn’t buy into any of the propaganda.”
Uldricks is focused on some key issues he’d like to address in the Senate, including “really figuring out what our next chapter is economically” in Northwest Indiana.
He wants to bring high-quality, high-wage jobs to the region so people don’t have to commute to Chicago.
Preserving the Hoosier dream of being able to afford a house and have a good, comfortable cost of living, “putting more money in people’s pockets,” is also a priority for Uldricks.
Poulard said a deciding factor in his campaign this year was his arrest in Michigan City last year on an operating while intoxicated charge, “despite the fact that I don’t drink. I don’t use any illegal drugs.”
“I basically learned how corrupt our government really is,” he said.
“I blew all zeros in the breathalyzer three times,” Poulard said, and was taken to Franciscan hospital to submit to a blood test for illegal substances.
Once the charges were dismissed, Poulard filed a lawsuit against Mayor Angie Nelson Deuitch and a host of others. “No attorney would take this case, so I filed it pro se,” he said. The suit is pending.
“We need to expose the corruption that’s involved with our elected officials” and police officers, Poulard said. “Maybe we should elect our police chiefs.” In Indiana, sheriffs are elected.
“I also want to go after NIPSCO. I think NIPSCO is getting way out of hand, gouging everybody,” Poulard said.
Making the district friendly toward small businesses includes removing a lot of the taxes on businesses, he said.
“I have problems with the minimum wage,” Poulard said. Add up benefits like insurance, worker compensation and other costs, he said, and “they’re getting paid over $50 an hour or more.”
“I want small businesses to have a good relationship with their employees,” so employers should pay workers as they see fit, he said.
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Poulard also favors removing limits on steel mills so they can employ more people. “They shouldn’t be burdened down with all this green energy stuff. That would help them be able to produce more.”
“I also believe that NIPSCO should not be able to close down the coal-fired plants. Let’s face it. Solar farms and windmills are not environmentally safe,” he said, citing wind turbine blades killing birds and toxins in solar panels that could leach into the soil.
“You shut down these coal-fired plants, what’s going to happen. You’re going to have all these rolling blackouts,” he said.
Uldricks said Northwest Indiana has a lot to offer. “I think it’s such a unique place. We’re right on the lake. We have this industrial heritage,” but also natural areas like Lake Michigan and the dunes.
“I wanted to raise my son in the area because I’m really proud of it,” Uldricks said.
Pol said he’s running on making lives affordable in Northwest Indiana. House Bill 1002, which aimed at making utility costs more affordable, didn’t go far enough. “I don’t think anybody out there is happy with NIPSCO right now,” he said.
Pol is also trying to fully fund childcare so parents can go back to work. Adequate access and affordability remain issues.
He’s proud of his record on public safety, having brought the gun crimes task force to Porter and LaPorte counties.
In Marion County, in 2025, there were 1,900 arrests, 2,800 illegal guns taken off the streets, 128 stolen vehicles recovered and 204 pounds of illegal substances seized. “That was just in Indianapolis, and that was just in one year,” he said.
The gun crimes task force will bring a huge drop in crimes in areas that really, truly need it, Pol predicted. “That bleeds out into Michigan City and ultimately out to South Bend.”
He’s also focused on affordable housing. “The most common comment I get from these kids is, ‘Do you think I’ll ever be able to own a home? Because I don’t.’”
“To me, it’s really indicative that they are really informed on the housing issues,” he said.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.