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2026 General Election · Tuesday, November 3, 2026

Prosecuting Attorney of Hamilton County, 24th Judicial Circuit

Voted on across Hamilton County.

Find your exact ballotAll Hamilton County races

What this office does

The prosecuting attorney is the elected lawyer who brings criminal cases on behalf of the State of Indiana, conducting all prosecutions for felonies, misdemeanors and infractions within the prosecutor's jurisdiction [1]. A prosecutor is elected in each judicial circuit rather than by county, and Indiana has 91 prosecuting attorneys [2, 3]. Candidates must be admitted to practice law in Indiana before the election [4]. Since July 2025, a state prosecutor review board can investigate complaints that a prosecutor is not following state law [5, 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; prosecutors are elected in 2026, 2030, 2034 and every four years after that [2]
Elected
One prosecutor per judicial circuit, on the partisan November ballot; Democratic and Republican nominees are chosen in the May primary, while the Libertarian Party nominates prosecutor candidates at its state convention [2, 4]
Term limit
None; the office has a four-year term with no term limitations [7]
Qualifications
Must be admitted to the practice of law in Indiana before the election, be registered to vote in the election district by the candidate filing deadline, and file a statement of economic interest with the courts [4]
Pay
The state pays the minimum salary: for a full-time prosecutor, equal to the minimum salary of the circuit court judge in the same circuit, and 60% (66% in certain circuits) of that amount for other prosecutors [8]
On the 2026 ballot
91 races; 11 contested [9]
What the law puts in this job (12)
  • Conducts all prosecutions for felonies, misdemeanors and infractions within the prosecutor's jurisdiction, and performs other duties required by law [1].
  • Represents the state in criminal cases, conducts criminal investigations, and convenes and oversees grand juries [7].
  • Handles juvenile cases and prosecutes traffic and infraction violations [7].
  • Enforces child support orders entered in divorce and paternity cases; the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council runs a statewide child support services program to support this work [7, 3].
  • Gives information and help to crime victims [7], and must notify the victim when the prosecutor withholds prosecution under a diversion agreement [10].
  • May withhold prosecution of a misdemeanor, Level 6 felony or Level 5 felony if the person agrees in writing to a pretrial diversion program, with conditions such as treatment, restitution, fees or staying away from the victim; the program is not available for certain drunk-driving charges [10].
  • Superintends lawsuits in which the county or certain trust funds have an interest [1].
  • Appoints a chief deputy and other deputy prosecutors; the state pays set salaries for certain deputies, and the county council appropriates money each year for other deputies, investigators, clerical staff and office expenses [11].
  • Works with the county sheriff, a separately elected officer who arrests suspects and runs the county jail, and with local police agencies [12, 13].
  • Receives training, manuals and legal research support from the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council, a state judicial branch agency governed by a board of 10 elected prosecutors [3].
  • Since July 2025, can be the subject of a complaint to the state prosecutor review board, a board of five prosecuting attorneys that investigates whether a prosecutor is complying with state law and issues a report [6, 5].
  • What the prosecutor does not control: judges decide whether a defendant is released on bail [14]; the county council appropriates the county's share of the office budget [11]; and the state sets the prosecutor's minimum salary [8].

Hamilton 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.

This office's 2026 budget

$5,923,910

1.8% of the county's adopted 2026 budget · 76% more than 2019, before inflation

2019: $3,362,9932020: $3,423,0412021: $3,566,9632022: $3,826,6232023: $4,140,0622024: $4,923,3212025: $5,481,8792026: $5,923,910
2019 $3,362,9932026 $5,923,910
The year-by-year figures

Adopted budget, all funds, 2019-2026 (not adjusted for inflation)

  • 2019: $3,362,993
  • 2020: $3,423,041
  • 2021: $3,566,963
  • 2022: $3,826,623
  • 2023: $4,140,062
  • 2024: $4,923,321
  • 2025: $5,481,879
  • 2026: $5,923,910

Budget lines counted: 0009 PROSECUTING ATTORNEY; fund 9522 Pretrial Diversion; fund 9524 Deferral Program; fund 9578 93.563 Prosecutor IV-D Incentive

Adopted 2026 county budget (Form 1 line items, Form 4B) and earlier years' budgets

  • Includes $502,781 in funds named for the office (for example a commissary or perpetuation fund) that are not coded to its department.

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.

Trial-court workload per judicial officer · 2025

1.104

Weighted caseload: judicial need divided by judicial officers. Above 1.00 means more work than officers to handle it.

How much this is the officeholder's to decide: low: measures the trial courts' workload; the prosecutor's filings are one input

Position 7 of 11 counties with 150,000 or more residents that have this figure (1 = highest value)

source

Share of people in jail awaiting trial · 2023

45.0%

People held before trial as a share of the jail population.

How much this is the officeholder's to decide: low to partial: pretrial detention is decided by courts (bail) and prosecutors (charging); the county funds pretrial services

Position 10 of 11 counties with 150,000 or more residents that have this figure (1 = highest value)

source · source

About this race

  • The Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council lists Greg Garrison as the current officeholder; Greg Garrison is not a candidate for this office in 2026 [3, 9].
  • Only one candidate is on the ballot for this office [9].

Candidates on the ballot

Josh Kocher

Republican

Josh Kocher is the Republican nominee [20].

How Kocher got on the ballot

  • Won the May 5, 2026 Republican primary unopposed, with 21,987 votes [20].

What we could not find about Kocher

  • No campaign website, candidate questionnaire, news interview or biography was found in free sources as of Oct. 13, 2026.

Sources for Kocher

Key points

Sources

Researched Tuesday, October 13, 2026

  1. Indiana Code 33-39-1-5: Duties of prosecuting attorneys (FindLaw (Indiana Code, current as of 2026-01-01))
  2. Indiana Code 3-10-2-12: Election of prosecuting attorneys (FindLaw (Indiana Code, current as of 2026-01-01))
  3. Find Your Prosecutor: Hamilton County (Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council)
  4. 2026 Indiana Candidate Guide (Prosecuting Attorney) (Indiana Election Division)
  5. Prosecutors (H.E.A. 1006, P.L. 147-2025) (Indiana Legislative Update, Indiana Office of Court Services)
  6. How a new Indiana law about 'noncompliant prosecutors' could affect Indy (Mirror Indy)
  7. Prosecutor's Office (Clark County, Indiana)
  8. Indiana Code 33-39-6-5: Prosecuting attorney salaries (FindLaw (Indiana Code, current as of 2026-01-01))
  9. 2026 General Election Candidate List (Indiana Election Division)
  10. Indiana Code 33-39-1-8: Pretrial diversion (FindLaw (Indiana Code, current as of 2026-01-01))
  11. Indiana Code 33-39-6-2: Deputy prosecuting attorneys (FindLaw (Indiana Code, current as of 2026-01-01))
  12. Indiana Code 36-2-13-5: Duties of sheriff (FindLaw (Indiana Code, current as of 2026-01-01))
  13. 2026 ISA President Statement (Jeffrey A. Balon, Porter County Sheriff) (Indiana Sheriffs' Association)
  14. Amendment to deny bail to some offenders moves closer to November ballot (WFYI (via Indiana Public Media))
  15. 2026 Primary Election results (certified), Indiana Election Night Reporting (Indiana Election Division)
What's included
the U.S. House, statewide offices, every Indiana House and Senate district on the ballot, Indiana's statewide public questions and judicial retention questions, and county, township, city, town and school board races from the Indiana Election Division's candidate list.
Everything else
Local races (county, city, school board, judges) and anything else on your ballot are on your official sample ballot: IndianaVoters.in.gov.
Candidate lists
As of Sunday, October 18, 2026.
At the polls
Indiana law lets you bring a list of candidates and public questions into the polling place, including one stored on your phone, as long as you don't electioneer. IC 3-11-8-18.5

This is not an official ballot. Confirm your registration, polling place and ballot with your election office through vote.gov.