ST. JOESEPH COUNTY, Ind. -- All three St. Joseph Council races flipped blue, as District A was taken by Michael Hamann. District B would see Ranjan Rohatgi getting the nod, and District C won by less than 500 votes by Jan Cervelli.
The three winners emphasized to ABC57 that there is so much work now to be done, and the success of the council hinges on every member pulling in the same direction.
All three districts for the St. Joseph County Council saw victories for their Democrat representatives. In District A, incumbent Republican Joe Thomas was defeated by Mike Hamann, who earned 55 percent of the vote.
"When I saw the same day voting, and saw that we were behind, which is generally going to be the case, but the margins by which we were behind was so small, and we knew we had done really well with early voting, so we were just waiting for that dump of votes to come in, and then when it did, I exceeded his vote by 1200 votes with the early vote, and that swamped whatever small margin we had," said Hamann.
In District B, incumbent Republican Amy Drake was beaten by a newcomer to public office, Ranjan Rohatgi. In his first ever political campaign, Rohatgi garnered 57 percent of the vote.
"When I was thinking about how I was going to run my campaign, one of the people I wanted to emulate was Amy. In 2022, how many doors she knocked on and how much work she put in, and I did that just the same, so I think voters were fed up with some of the republican policies from the federal level down to the local level, and that gave us a boost but really, when I was knocking on doors, the message was how can you help us," said Rohatgi.
Finally, in District C, there was no incumbent candidate, as Republican Jamie O'Brien advanced past current councilman Dan Schaetzle in the primary. However, Tuesday night, O'Brien was defeated by Jan Cervelli, who brought in 52 percent of the vote, and is committed to working with Republicans on the council for the interest of the county.
"I think that's essential, that's what the public is looking for, they want responsive government, they want us to solve the problems, not play party politics. I'm committed to that, I think I've made some pretty good friendships with the republicans, not even just those remaining on the council but those that are not that are serving as spokespersons," said Cervelli.
Tuesday's results mean that the county has officially been flipped blue for the first time in four years, with a 7 to 2 majority on the council.