Delaware County Commissioner, District 3

What this office does

In 91 of Indiana's 92 counties, a three-member board of commissioners is the county executive and conducts the county's business in the board's name ^{[1, 2]}. Commissioners administer county government affairs that state law does not assign to a separately elected officer, while the county council, a separate elected body, controls budgets, tax rates and salaries ^{[2, 3, 4]}. Marion County is the exception: under the consolidated Indianapolis–Marion County government (Unigov), the mayor holds most executive power, and the elected county assessor, auditor and treasurer serve as the county commissioners, with duties that mostly concern county finances ^{[5, 2, 6]}.

The job in full — the duties the Indiana Code puts in it, the term, what it pays and who sets that, and what to ask a candidate.

Term

4 years, starting January 1 after the election; seats are staggered, so one or two of the three seats are filled at each general election ^[7]

Elected

On the partisan general-election ballot; each commissioner represents a district and must live in it, but in every county except Lake and St. Joseph the whole county votes on every commissioner seat; in Lake and St. Joseph counties only the district's voters choose ^{[8, 9]}

Term limit

None stated; the statute that sets the four-year term does not limit how many terms a commissioner may serve ^[7]

Qualifications

Must have lived in the county at least one year and in the commissioner district at least six months before the election, and be registered to vote in the election district; a county employee who is elected must leave that county job on taking office ^{[10, 9]}

Pay

Set locally: the county council fixes the compensation of county officers in its annual salary ordinance ^{[4, 11]}

On the 2026 ballot

94 races; 41 contested ^[12]

What has changed in this job lately

Changes in the law the next officeholder will work under, most distant first.

1. 2023

   Under Senate Enrolled Act 4, the Health First Indiana public health fund required counties to opt in; Huntington County's commissioners, for example, voted to opt in in June 2023, and 86 counties covering about 96% of Hoosiers received funding while Whitley, Wells, Fountain, Johnson, Crawford and Harrison counties did not opt in ^{[17, 18]}.

2. 2023

   State law gave counties with 185,000 to 300,000 residents until September 1, 2023, to opt in to electing commissioners from three single-member districts with a nine-member council elected entirely by district ^{[15, 8, 19, 16]}.

3. 2025

   Commissioners in several counties faced data center rezoning requests; in Kosciusko County, commissioners did not approve a rezoning for a proposed Prologis data center after opposition from residents, and the Indianapolis Business Journal reported that a 2019 state law offers qualified data center operators tax breaks of up to 50 years ^[14].

4. April 15, 2025

   Gov. Mike Braun signed Senate Enrolled Act 1, a property tax law he called historic tax relief; Rep. Greg Porter (D-Indianapolis) said it would cost local governments and schools up to $1.8 billion over three years, and the law also gives local governments new income tax tools ^[20].

5. March 12, 2026

   House Enrolled Act 1210 delayed SEA 1's local income tax overhaul by one year, so current county income tax ordinances now expire January 1, 2029, and it lets counties create a Municipal Unit Strategic Taskforce of county and city representatives to negotiate how income tax revenue is shared ^{[21, 22]}.

Delaware County's numbers for this office

Legal Insights county office research (Oct. 13, 2026): Indiana Gateway budgets 2019-2026 and the indicator sources linked on each line.

• In most counties this department also holds countywide costs such as group and liability insurance, contracts and some capital projects. It is the department total, not the cost of the board of commissioners.

Also on the record for this office

• SEA 1 estimated county-unit revenue change in 2028 vs prior law: $-3,032,730 (LSA)
• MUST taskforce (LIT distribution talks): convened
• wheel tax: none found
• fiscal consultant named in records: Policy Analytics

Measured, for this county

A position compares this county with counties of similar size. It is not a grade: for most measures a higher or lower number is neither good nor bad on its own.

About this race

• Open seat: Commissioner Shannon Henry (Republican) is not seeking re-election ^[23]. County Councilman Matt Kantz (Republican, District 3) chose to run for commissioner instead of seeking re-election to the council ^[31].
• How the seat is elected: official county results show the District 3 commissioner contest drawing roughly the combined vote of all four council districts (5,476 Republican primary votes in 2026; 21,503 general-election votes in 2022, against 5,753 to 7,806 in each council district), which is consistent with countywide voting with a district residency requirement ^{[32, 25]}. No county statement on this was reviewed.
• Primary results (election-night county report): Kantz won the Republican primary over Donald R. Chambers Jr., 3,219 votes (58.78%) to 2,257 (41.22%); Ken Mace was unopposed for the Democratic nomination with 5,387 votes ^{[32, 33]}.
• Budget pressure: the Legislative Services Agency estimated the county would lose about $6.5 million in fiscal 2026 and $12.3 million by 2028 under the 2025 property-tax law (SEA 1) ^{[34, 29]}. In May 2026 the commissioners rejected a new building-repair tax fund after public objections; Commissioner Brand said residents had told the board to "trim up our government" ^[29].
• Data centers and growth: at the March 2026 State of the Community event, Commissioner Stephen Brand said seven data-center companies were interested in local land and had agreed to his "non-negotiable" terms that they fund their own projects, and said concerns about water and utility costs were not true ^{[35, 36]}. A June 2026 public education meeting on data centers was co-hosted by Muncie Resists and the League of Women Voters ^[37].
• Zoning and energy: the county spent several years on solar rules, extending a solar-project moratorium in February 2025 and adopting an updated solar zoning ordinance in October 2025 ^{[27, 28]}.
• Public safety and staffing: the 911 center reported needing 11 more employees it could not afford, leading to the AI non-emergency call contract in August 2026 ^[30].
• Key differences: Mace, a retired county probation chief, lists relations with the towns, support for farmers and advocacy for county employees as priorities ^[23]; Kantz, a sitting councilman, discussed SEA 1 and the county's future in an April 2026 podcast interview, but no detailed 2026 platform was found in a reviewable source ^[31].
• No 2026 general-election forum or debate for this race was found in reviewable coverage.

Who holds this seat now

Shannon Henry (Republican) — not on this ballot.

Shannon Henry (Republican) holds the District 3 seat and has said he will not be a candidate for re-election ^[23]. In a 2018 candidate statement he said he had become commissioner four years earlier, after careers with Delaware County EMS and the Albany Police Department, where he was appointed town marshal in 2002 ^[24]. He was re-elected without a Democratic opponent in 2022 ^[25], and was serving as president of the board of commissioners in May 2025 ^[26].

Henry's record in the job

• 2018 (his own re-election statement): credited the commissioners with paving or resurfacing more than 400 lane miles of county roads, landing state road grants of more than $1.7 million, and economic-development work he said created 279 jobs and recovered more than $1 million in incentive paybacks from companies that did not perform; said the commissioners were working toward a jail resolution without raising taxes ^[24].
• November 2022: re-elected with no Democratic candidate on the ballot ^[25].
• February 2025: the commissioners voted unanimously to extend a moratorium on solar energy projects until the county's solar zoning ordinance could be amended; Henry told the audience to look for the plan commission to take up the amendments at its April meeting ^[27].
• May 2025: as board president, announced the commissioners' approval of a partnership naming the Economic Development Alliance as the county's economic development organization, calling the Alliance "a consistent, effective partner in driving business growth in Delaware County" ^[26].
• October 2025: the commissioners adopted an updated solar zoning ordinance for farmland; county lawyers clarified that the moratorium lifted automatically on adoption ^[28].
• May 2026: the commissioners unanimously voted down a proposed cumulative capital development fund (estimated by Commissioner Stephen Brand at about $1.3 million a year for building repair) after residents at a public hearing objected to a new tax ^[29].
• August 2026: the commissioners approved an $85,000-a-year AI service to answer non-emergency 911 calls, paid from a statewide 911 fund, pending legal review and negotiations ^[30].

Candidates on the ballot

Key points

• Budget pressure: the Legislative Services Agency estimated the county would lose about $6.5 million in fiscal 2026 and $12.3 million by 2028 under the 2025 property-tax law (SEA 1). (Indiana Public Radio)
• In March 2026 a commissioner said seven companies were interested in East Central Indiana and had agreed to his terms that they fund their own projects. No county ordinance or moratorium was found. (indianapublicradio.org)

  Worth asking: A commissioner said seven data center companies are interested in the region, and the county has no data center ordinance or moratorium. Should rules be adopted before any project is filed, and what should they include?

• Delaware County government adopted a $64.7 million budget for 2026, about $572 per resident; that is +18.9% compared with 2023. (Indiana Gateway for Government Units)

Sources