I always got the impression that Indiana was a state that could elect someone very liberal, very conservative or anywhere in between. Kinda like my state.
Indiana rarely elects strong liberals to statewide office. The exception was during the 1960’s and 1970’s, when they elected the ideologue Birch Bayh and the corrupt Vance Hartke. Hartke was so obviously on the take, the running joke back in Indiana was that Indiana had two Senators- Bayh and Bought.