Staff

Karen Tallian is the Chair of the Indiana Democratic Party since March 2025, and has spent her career advancing the needs of labor and working Hoosiers.

Karen was first elected to the State Senate for District 4 in 2005, and served until 2021, winning four re-election campaigns in 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2018. She represented portions of Lake, Porter, and LaPorte Counties during her time in the State Senate. She served as Caucus Chair for the Indiana Senate Democrats between 2016-2020.

She was named a, “Champion of Labor” during her time in the State Senate, fighting for working Hoosiers against attacks on the right to collectively bargain. Karen consistently fought to raise the state’s minimum wage and improve working conditions for Hoosiers. She was also the first Indiana legislator to push for the decriminalization of cannabis.

Karen resides at her home in Ogden Dunes.

Dayna Colbert was the County Chair for the Hamilton County Democratic Party until February 2024, making her one of the youngest and one of a handful of Black women chairs in Indiana. In this volunteer role, she recruited and supported candidates for elected office; engaged and trained precinct chairs, committees, and volunteers; developed and executed increasingly robust Get Out The Vote activities; and more. She is also the 5th District Chair for the Indiana Young Democrats.

Dayna also has a decade of experience as a Project Manager, most recently as an Operations Manager at a local market research company. Her main role entailed working with strategic clients or complex accounts to gather and analyze data to gain insights about customer relationships. Dayna also established, implemented, enforced, and adjusted processes and best practices across the company, and managed the Program Managers and Interns.

Prior to becoming County Chair, Dayna was the President of the Hamilton County Young Democrats (HCYD). She was elected the second President of HCYD when the chapter was three months old. Through her leadership, she recruited a robust Executive Committee who have since held roles in the Indiana Democratic Party and on various campaigns, including as campaign managers, volunteer coordinators, and candidates themselves.

She is an alumna of the third class of Hoosier Women Forward, a political and civic leadership program designed to empower Democratic women to become more politically active leaders in their communities.

Dayna has a Master of Science in Information and Communication Sciences and a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, both from Ball State University.

Megan Huntzinger serves as Data and Organizing Director for the Indiana Democratic Party. After seeing the turmoil caused by the outcome of the 2016 election, she decided to make a career change and step away from working as a Project Manager for a corporate training company. She got her professional political start in 2018 as an Indiana Democratic Party Intern. Megan quickly fell in love with field organizing and worked as a Regional Field Director with the 2018 Indiana Coordinated Campaign, primarily focused on Senator Joe Donnelly’s reelection. Shortly after that, she started organizing with Planned Parenthood Illinois Action throughout the south suburbs of Chicago. In her time with PPIA, she also worked closely on the Illinois 3rd Congressional District 2020 Democratic Primary and several state-level legislative projects centered around expanding and protecting access to reproductive healthcare, including the passage of the Reproductive Health Act. Megan graduated from Indiana University Bloomington with a BA in Telecommunications.

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Sam Barloga serves as the Communications Director for the Indiana Democratic Party. A lifelong resident of The Region, he first was involved volunteering for local campaigns and working as a field organizer for John Gregg for Governor in 2016. Since then, Sam served as campaign manager for Chris Chyung for State Representative in 2018 and Michael Griffin for State Senate in 2022. Sam is a graduate of Ball State University.

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Daniela Contreras Cuervo serves as Fundraising Coordinator for the Indiana Democratic Party. She started her career in politics as Congressional Intern for Congressman André Carson in 2018. She has recently worked as Finance Assistant for the André Carson for Congress Campaign, as well as Finance Director for the Bechtold for Indiana Campaign. Before joining IDP, she was a Legislative Intern for Market Street Group, Inc.

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Neil Koglin serves as Voter File Administrator for the Indiana Democratic Party. He got his start in politics as a fellow with Christina Hale for Congress in 2020. Neil has served as an IDP Data intern and fellow before joining the staff at the state party. When not navigating the voter file for IDP, Neil serves in the leadership of the Hamilton County Young Democrats and the Westfield Democrats, his hometown’s Democratic club.

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