Democrat J.D. Ford made history Tuesday, becoming the first openly gay person elected to the Indiana General Assembly.

He did so by defeating Sen. Mike Delph, a conservative stalwart perhaps best known for his staunch opposition to gay marriage.

Ford claimed victory at the Indiana Democratic Party election night gathering. He had 54.4 percent of the vote to Delph's 45.6 percent with 94 percent of precincts reporting.

"I just want to pause for a second to appreciate the historical significance that has happened tonight," he said to cheers at the Hyatt in Downtown Indianapolis. "Tonight, I become Indiana’s first openly gay lawmaker. Ladies and gentlemen, we just made history, and no one can take that from us."

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Ford, who turned 36 on Tuesday, was one of the few bright spots in Tuesday's election for Indiana Democrats. He ran an unabashedly progressive campaign in the district that includes suburban Indianapolis and Carmel.

Ford's win comes after narrowly losing to Delph four years earlier. Ford campaigned on increasing funding for public schools, raising the minimum wage, protecting the environment, fighting opioid addiction and passing hate crimes legislation that includes protections for gender identity and sexual orientation.

Indiana is among five states without some type of hate crime law, which generally includes enhanced sentences.

"Every marginalized group — people of color, women, Muslims, Jewish Hoosiers, seniors, LGBTQ+ Hoosiers, just to name a few — you now have a voice in the Indiana General Assembly. And I only intend to amplify it," he said.

Delph, who has held the seat since 2005, was a polarizing figure at the Statehouse, drawing criticism and praise, depending on your point of view, for his socially conservative policies on religious freedom, marriage, immigration and abortion. He also opposed expanded mass transit, hate crimes legislation and a gas tax increase to pay for road work.

Those positions sometimes brought Delph, 48, into conflict with his own party's leaders in the Senate and with business interests in his district, including the Indy Chamber, which threw its support behind Ford.

His detractors accused him of political grandstanding when he cited potholes as a reason to stop momentum on a bill that would have lifted a state ban on taxpayer funding of light rail. His supporters said Delph had the backs of conservatives with traditional values.

Ford has a master's degree in education from Purdue University. He said he has been campaigning full time since mid 2017 while working as a substitute teacher. He formerly held a variety of positions at Theta Chi Fraternity.

Despite Ford's victory, Republicans appeared poised to maintain their supermajority in the state Senate. And Democrats lost the state's marquee U.S. Senate race. They no longer control a single statewide elected office.

Ford's race stood in stark contrast to that of the man at the top of the Democratic ticket, U.S. Sen Joe Donnelly, who promised to stand up to the "radical left" and sought to align himself with President Donald Trump's immigration policies.

But Ford declined to make any comparisons between the two campaigns, noting that his targeted a single state senate district while Donnelly had to appeal to a much broader statewide audience.

"I really do think this means the voters spoke loud and clear tonight that they are looking for new direction and new leadership for our senate district," Ford said. "I think tonight is a clear indication that Senate District 29 is moving to a more progressive district."

IndyStar Reporter Chris Sikich contributed to this story.

Contact IndyStar reporter Tony Cook at 317-444-6081 or tony.cook@indystar.com. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter: @IndyStarTony