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Indiana Voters Heading to Polls With Inflation and Border Security Foremost in Their Minds
SEYMOUR, Ind.—On May 3 voters in a Republican stronghold in southern Indiana said they are more or less fine with local affairs, but when it comes to national matters they are deeply worried.
The top two concerns they have are inflation and border security, according to The Epoch Times’ interviews with a dozen voters in the city of Seymour.
Seymour sits in Indiana’s 9th Congressional District, which is an open seat that nine Republican candidates are vying for this year. Whoever wins the primary is almost guaranteed to carry the fall general election.
Here, most Republican candidates ran on a similar platform, that of border security, energy independence, pro-life, pro-second amendment, and pro-business.
Where they differ often lies in personal stories, such as whether a candidate has any political or business experience, or whether they align with former president Donald Trump.
Clint Walker, a pipefitter, voted for Erin Houchin a candidate who openly aligns with Trump. Walker said he likes Houchin does that because Trump had led the country on the right path.
Walker would vote for Trump if he runs for president again in 2024, he said.
Jackson County, where the city of Seymour sits, voted overwhelmingly for Trump in the last election.
“Ever since Biden got elected, the country has gone on a downhill,” Walker said. He particularly cited the border crisis, which he thinks has gone out of control.
Walker used to be a union Democrat and voted strictly on the party line. In 2014, when Barack Obama ran for his second term, Walker stopped voting for a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time.
Karen and Charlie, a senior couple who declined to disclose their last names, said a proven political record matters most to them in picking the congressional candidates.
“So you know who they are and can be a little more certain what they are going to do because today so many people are running on one thing and doing another thing in the office,” Karen said.
The couple said the top two issues on their minds are inflation and border security. They declined to disclose which congressional candidate they voted for.
Among the three candidates that raised the most money based on recent Federal Election Commission filings, Mike Sodrel, a truck company owner, represented the 9th District for one term between 2005 and 2007; Houchin had served in the state senate since 2014 before she resigned to run for the congressional seat; Stu Barnes-Israel, a Citadel consultant and former Army captain, runs as a political outsider.
For life-long Democrats Beth and Jerry White, inflation is also their top concern in this election.
However, they lamented the lack of qualified Democratic candidates in red southern Indiana. “There really isn’t much of choice for us here,” Beth said.
The Whites have lived in the area all their lives and saw the region turn from blue to red in past decades. Now, all their friends are Trump supporters, and the only way to maintain friendships is to avoid politics, Jerry said.
For decades before the turn of the century, Indiana’s 9th Congressional District was represented by Lee Hamilton, a Democrat. Since 2010, the year Todd Young (R) beat Baron Hill (D) in the race, the seat has been carried by Republican candidates, with ever wider winning margins.
Indiana has nine congressional seats. For years, five of the seats would go to Republicans, including the 9th Congressional District; the other two seats would go to Democrats: the 1st Congressional District just south of Chicago and the 7th Congressional District that encompasses the state’s largest city Indianapolis.
However, in this election, National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) moved to play offense in the 1st Congressional District, which has been in the Democrats’ hands since the 1930s. Seven Republican candidates are competing in the primary, with Blair Milo and Jennifer-Ruth Green having raised the most funds.
Voting data shows that the district slowly trends red in the past few election cycles.
For example, President Joe Biden carried the district by 8.8 percent in 2020; whereas four years ago, Hillary Clinton carried the district by a much higher margin, 12.6 percent.
Karen, too, used to be a Democrat. The last Democratic presidential candidate she voted for is Bill Clinton. Since then, she has been an independent, basing her vote more on the candidates and less on the party line, she said.
She supports Trump’s policies. They align with her conservative values, forged in rural Seymour, where she had lived since the day she was born, she said.
