Indiana’s 9th Congressional district GOP primary focuses on conservatism

(The Center Square) – The 9th district congressional race is expected to be one of the most competitive in Indiana, with nine candidates vying for the Republican nomination to represent the largely rural, conservative district in the southeast part of the state.

Indiana’s primary is May 3. D. Liam Dorris, Matthew Fyfe and Isak Nti Asare are running for the Democratic nomination, while Libertarian Tonya Mills will be on the ballot in November for the general election.

The 9th district that was represented by former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton for 34 years. But over the last decade, it’s become solidly Republican.

Of the 18 counties in the district, all but one – Monroe County, home to Bloomington and Indiana University – went for President Donald Trump in 2020.

“It’s a circus,” Brown County GOP Chairman Mark Bowman said. “But only one’s gonna win.”

Among the candidates is Mike Sodrel, a trucking company owner who represented the district in Congress for one term, from 2005-07. On his website he says he’ll “secure our borders” if elected.

Sodrel lost in 2006 to Baron Hill and ran again in 2008 and in 2010. This is his sixth time running for the 9th district.

Former state senator Erin Houchin, who left the Indiana Senate to run for Congress, ran for the 9th district seat in 2016, coming in second to Trey Hollingsworth, who won the GOP nomination and the general election. Hollingsworth announced in January he is stepping down after three terms.

Houchin is also emphasizing securing the southern border, sending out a campaign flier last week calling herself a “proven conservative fighter” who is “committed to finishing construction of Trump’s wall.”

Houchin recently won the straw poll following a Young Republican-sponsored candidate debate in Bloomington on April 2, with Stu Barnes-Israel, an Army veteran, coming in second, and Sodrel and Eric Schansberg, an economics professor at IU-Southeast, tying for third.

During the debate, Houchin said an America-first contracting policy is needed.

“In Indiana, we have an Indiana-first government contracting rule where we started with our Hoosiers businesses,” she said. “If we’re going to be utilizing government contracts, we need an America-first contracting policy, so the companies that are right here in the United States are supported by our tax dollars, if we are doing any type of government contracting.”

She also said she opposes the inheritance tax.

“We have to allow small businesses to pass on what they have built to the next generation,” she said. “Right now, with the inheritance tax you’re basically building everything only to give it over to the government and that is basically a government taking that is absolutely unfair and not right.”

Other candidates in the race include Jim Baker, a former composer and commercial real estate agent; J. Michael Davisson, a recently-appointed state legislator; Dan Heiwig, an Army officer, Bill J. Thomas and Brian Tibbs.

At the Bloomington debate featuring six of the candidates (not Sodrel or Davisson or Thomas), Schansberg told the audience only he and Houchin have an actual record of those on state, with Houchin having a record of votes in the Indiana General Assembly, and Schansberg a written record of his thinking and work on economics.

“Of the issues in the race I think the debt is the biggest issue,” he said. “The debt is really dangerous. We don’t know, it could sack the economy 2-3 weeks from now or seven months. No one knows where the cliff’s at. We know we’re driving in the fog. We know the knuckleheads in D.C. have their foot on the accelerator and they’re driving towards the cliff, wherever it is. And we know that it’s not sustainable. We can’t keep doing that anymore.”

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