Veronica Pejril (rhymes with EDGE-ril) announces her candidacy for Indiana State Senate District 24. The daughter of a municipal water-treatment engineer and a public school math teacher, Pejril is a parent of twin sons, both Purdue graduates.
A Hoosier-by-choice since 1996, Pejril resides in Greencastle with her family. She was elected to the Greencastle City Council in 2019, making history as Indiana’s first openly-transgender elected official. In her council service, she championed increased investments in city infrastructure, doubling Greencastle’s 2023 street repair budget. Councilor Pejril also supported pay-raises for police officers, fire fighters, and other municipal employees to promote morale and retention. Pejril’s public service continues today with the city’s Human Relations Commission, and the Putnam County Housing Stability Committee. In 2017, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin commissioned Veronica as a Kentucky Colonel, the state’s highest title of honor.
Veronica Pejril’s commitment to her community is also revealed in her organizational service. She serves as the President of the board of directors for the Putnam County Recovery Coalition (substance use recovery services), and is Treasurer for Indiana Youth Group (serving LGBTQ+ Hoosier youth with access to healthcare and rapid rehousing). She also serves on the boards of Main Street Greencastle and the Fuller Center for Housing of Putnam County.
“I lost an immediate family member to overdose in 2017,” Pejril states, “and I also lost a brother-in-law to a home gun-safety accident in 1989. These events are part of what drove me to bring my voice in representation as a public servant in 2019. And they’re what drive me today to bring my unique experiences to the Statehouse for Indiana State Senate District 24. I will work tirelessly to improve outcomes for Hoosiers with substance use disorder and their families and to strengthen gun safety laws while protecting the constitutional rights of gun-owners. I’ll also work to restore liberties for women and LGBTQ+ Hoosiers, who have seen their rights and freedoms eroded by the Republican supermajority in the Indiana Statehouse who hold a four-to-one lopsided representation in the Indiana State Senate.”
Pejril points out: “Women and LGBTQ+ folks make up a majority of Indiana’s population, and yet we’re a disappointingly small proportion of the Indiana General Assembly. It’s time that our Statehouse looked more like the everyday Hoosiers it claims to represent.”
Veronica Pejril is the product of 17 years of public education. In college, she invented innovative software tools for musicians and composers, and was awarded a full doctoral fellowship to Princeton University. While at Princeton, she founded a startup business, Black Squirrel Software. After time as a stay-home parent and as a K-8 music teacher, she now leads DePauw University’s instructional technology team and is a part-time Assistant Professor of Music. Pejril is Vice President of the Board of Trustees for Princeton’s LGBTQ+ alumni organization.
With a population over 130,000 Hoosiers, Indiana State Senate District 24 includes both rural and suburban townships in Hendricks and Putnam Counties, including the county seats of Danville and Greencastle. In Putnam County, Indiana State Senate District 24 includes the Townships of Clinton, Floyd, Franklin, Greencastle, Jackson, Madison, Marion, Monroe and Russell. In Hendricks County, included Townships are Center, Clay, Franklin, Lincoln, Marion and Washington.
Indiana State Senate District 24 is home to agricultural, hunting and recreational lands, historic churches and covered bridges, as well as a nationally recognized university, shopping malls, industrial properties and one of the largest railroad yards in the state.
The people of Indiana State Senate District 24 are as diverse as its landscape, including farmers, artists, trades-workers, teachers, business leaders, healthcare professionals and every kind of hardworking Hoosier.
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