Ryan Pfenninger

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Ryan Pfenninger

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

May 7, 2024

Education

High school

North Central High School

Bachelor's

Indiana University, 2001

Graduate

Indiana University Kelley School of Business, 2005

Personal

Birthplace

Indianapolis, IN

Contact

Campaign website

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Ryan Pfenninger (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Indiana's 5th Congressional District. He lost in the Democratic primary on May 7, 2024.

Pfenninger completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Ryan Pfenninger was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He earned a high school diploma from North Central High School, a bachelor's degree from Indiana University in 2001, and a graduate degree from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business in 2005.

Elections

2024

See also: Indiana's 5th Congressional District election, 2024

Indiana's 5th Congressional District election, 2024 (May 7 Republican primary)

Indiana's 5th Congressional District election, 2024 (May 7 Democratic primary)

General election

General election for U.S. House Indiana District 5

Incumbent Victoria Spartz defeated Deborah A. Pickett, Robby Slaughter, and Lauri Shillings in the general election for U.S. House Indiana District 5 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Victoria Spartz (R)	56.6	203,293
		Deborah A. Pickett (D)	38.0	136,554
		Robby Slaughter (Independent)	2.7	9,790
		Lauri Shillings (L)	2.7	9,567

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 359,204
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Indiana District 5

Deborah A. Pickett defeated Ryan Pfenninger in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Indiana District 5 on May 7, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Deborah A. Pickett	59.5	11,858
		Ryan Pfenninger	40.5	8,082

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 19,940
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Jeremy Lee Edom (D)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Indiana District 5

The following candidates ran in the Republican primary for U.S. House Indiana District 5 on May 7, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Victoria Spartz	39.1	31,674
		Chuck Goodrich	33.2	26,865
		Max Engling	9.7	7,841
		Raju Chinthala	7.1	5,742
		Mark Hurt	5.5	4,431
	Submit photo	Larry L. Savage Jr.	1.9	1,569
		Matthew Peiffer	1.7	1,379
		Patrick Malayter	1.0	800
		Lonnie Powell	0.9	729

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 81,030
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Scott King (R)
• Scott Goad (R)
• Rodney Cummings (R)
• Jonathan Brown (R)

Endorsements

See also: Our approach to covering endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements or voter guide recommendations for Pfenninger in this election.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Ryan Pfenninger completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Pfenninger's responses.

Expand All

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Ryan Pfenninger is a technology entrepreneur who has spent his career creating transformative software companies.

Born and raised in Indianapolis, Ryan graduated from North Central High School and Indiana University in Bloomington, where he started and sold his first tech company from his dorm room.

Ryan spent the last two decades building tech companies, creating jobs and investing across life science, advanced manufacturing and software.

He lives in Carmel with his wife Kristina, son Jack, daughter Kate, and pets Theodore, Franklin, Jo, and Lucy.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• As an entrepreneur and job creator, I understand what businesses need to thrive: a stable environment to feel secure enough to create more jobs and a workforce matching their needs. We can bring more high-paying jobs to Indiana and continue to rebuild our manufacturing base by promoting economic stability and investing in education and training.
• Women and their doctors, not the government, should make decisions on things like family planning, IVF and abortion. Roe v. Wade was good case law that worked for almost 50 years in our country. The Supreme Court shattered women’s ability to oversee their own bodies and healthcare, and we should fight to reverse that. We’ve already seen women being turned away by physicians and hospitals until their lives are deemed at risk. Worse yet, the United States’ maternal mortality rate is the highest amongst developed nations. This is what happens when politicians get between patients and their doctors.
• For more than 80 years, Social Security has been an enduring promise to America’s seniors. Today it remains a safety net for seniors and offers all Americans peace of mind. Our seniors have worked their whole lives and paid into a system they expect to be there for them. We must keep our promises and ensure social security is protected for the future.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

The area of public policy that I am most passionate about is enacting policy that works towards ensuring all Ameicans have the ability to chase their American dream. While America professes to be the land of opportunity, today fewer of our neighbors genuinely have the opportunity. Specific areas of policy that can have an outsized positive impact on this include improving K-12 education outcomes, working to improve housing affordability, and enacting policy that encourages companies to create more high-paying jobs of the future.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

My first job was making pizzas at Donatos over summer break when I was fifteen. The next year, I started a computer consulting business, leading to a career in tech.

Do you believe that compromise is necessary or desirable for policymaking?

We must work together if we want to solve big problems. In the tech world, we have to be forward thinking. We can’t always rely on past solutions -- we have to come up with new ones. When something is broken, we don't sit around and point fingers. We jump in, find the bugs and fix them. Collaboration leads to success.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign website

Pfenninger’s campaign website stated the following:

“	The Economy As an entrepreneur and job creator, I understand what businesses need to thrive: a stable environment to feel secure enough to create more jobs and a workforce matching their needs. Congress should support policies that foster economic stability and invest in training that will support high-wage jobs, especially in the areas hardest hit by the economic downturn during the pandemic. Healthcare Our healthcare system is expensive and difficult to navigate. We need more price transparency and increased competition throughout the healthcare system, along with a national option such as Medicare for All that prioritizes low-cost healthcare while maintaining the option of private insurance. Reproductive Rights Women and their doctors, not the government, should make decisions on things like family planning, IVF and abortion. Roe v. Wade was good case law that worked for almost 50 years to guide our country. The Supreme Court shattered women's ability to oversee their own bodies and healthcare, and we should fight to reverse that. Immigration Our immigration system has been broken for far too long. We need a bipartisan, comprehensive solution that ensures our borders are safe and secure, keeping out drugs and weapons, while recognizing that those who come here legally, pay taxes and play by the rules are a vital part of the American experiment. Democracy Democracy must remain America's sacred cause and we must protect its future for our children. We must do everything in our power to protect our democracy, and that includes supporting electoral reforms like independent redistricting and campaign finance reforms. Our elected officials must be accountable to more than a small primary base and special interests. Education We must ensure every student in the Fifth District has access to a quality public education that meets their needs. Our teachers deserve to be paid like the professionals they are and provided with the resources they need in the classroom to bridge learning gaps and help our students recover from pandemic learning loss. Social Security For more than 80 years, Social Security has been an enduring promise to America's seniors. Today it remains a safety net for seniors and offers all Americans peace of mind. We must keep our promises and ensure social security is protected for the future. National Security America has historically played a unique role as a world leader deeply committed to democracy with extraordinary military might. We must stand with our allies to ensure they stand with us and be willing to hold them accountable when necessary. LGBTQ Protections No one should face discrimination because of who they are or who they love. Same-sex marriage is the law of the land, but there’s more work to be done. We should pass federal legislation to ensure all Americans are protected from discrimination in employment, housing and public spaces.	”
—Ryan Pfenninger’s campaign website (2024)

Campaign finance summary

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Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

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Ryan Pfenninger campaign contribution history

Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024	U.S. House Indiana District 5	Lost primary	$110,598	$110,598
Grand total			$110,598	$110,598
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Election Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

See also

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Candidate

U.S. House Indiana District 5

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Footnotes

[show]

Indiana's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Jim Banks (R)

Todd Young (R)

Representatives

District 1

Frank Mrvan (D)

District 2

Rudy Yakym (R)

District 3

Marlin Stutzman (R)

District 4

Jim Baird (R)

District 5

Victoria Spartz (R)

District 6

Jefferson Shreve (R)

District 7

André Carson (D)

District 8

Mark Messmer (R)

District 9

Erin Houchin (R)

Republican Party (9)

Democratic Party (2)

Capital: Indianapolis

Indiana

Elections

What's on my ballot? • Elections in 2026 • How to vote • How to run for office • Ballot measures

Government

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