INDIANA, USA — Mark Messmer, the former Indiana state Senate majority leader, won a seat in Congress Tuesday, defeating Democrat Erik Hurt for the 8th District post left by retiring Rep. Larry Bucshon.
Messmer kept the seat in Republican hands after resigning his post in the state Senate in September to concentrate on his congressional bid. He beat Hurt, an Evansville movie theater manager who has written and directed several films.
Republicans in Indiana hope voters will help them retain three congressional seats without incumbents running, while they also aim to knock off an incumbent Democrat in the northwest part of the state.
Three incumbents are retiring or seeking another office, creating vacancies that generated some hotly contested Republican primaries last spring, including two eight-way races.
In the state’s northwest corner, the GOP is targeting Democratic incumbent Rep. Frank Mrvan, who is seeking his third term in the 1st District. According to Ballotpedia, Democrats have held the seat since 1930, but a Republican-drawn map that took effect in 2022 made the district more conservative. Mrvan won in 2022 with nearly 53% of the vote after taking just under 57% in 2020.
Mrvan faces Randell Niemeyer, a member of the Lake County Council and co-owner of a trucking business.
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If Republicans get that seat, they could control eight of the nine Congressional seats. In the state’s 7th District, incumbent Andre Carson easily won re-election, the only other Democrat in the delegation, easily won re-election.
Seven-term congressman Bucshon is retiring from his post representing the 8th Congressional District, in the southwest part of the state. Messmer bested seven primary election opponents to win the GOP nomination. The former state legislator resigned his job as Senate majority leader in September to concentrate on his run for Capitol Hill.
Messmer is strongly opposed to abortion rights. He supports deporting migrants who have entered the country illegally and takes credit for votes in the General Assembly to allow local police detention of migrants charged with felonies, a ban on sanctuary cities and universities and requiring proof of citizenship to vote.
He steadfastly supports Israel and wants to promote blockchain technology and avoid central bank-issued cryptocurrency.
Hurt campaigned on codifying abortion rights and ensuring access to other family planning procedures and on providing universal pre-K education. He wants to require more background checks on gun purchases, ban assault rifles and reallocate funds from traditional policing to social services to prevent crime. He proposes ending all arms sales to Israel and on the subject of elections, suggests compulsory voter registration and abolishing the Electoral College.
Across the state on the eastern border, the 3rd District seat will be vacated by Rep. Jim Banks, who is ending a four-term tenure to seek election as U.S. senator. The man who preceded him, Marlin A. Stutzman, wants to succeed him.
Stutzman, a large-scale farmer and truck-company operator who held the seat from 2010 to 2017, gave it up to run for U.S. Senate in 2016, losing the GOP primary to current Sen. Todd Young. In his congressional comeback attempt, he faces educator and nonprofit executive Kiley Adolph, a Democrat.
In the 6th district, which runs from Indianapolis to the Ohio border in the central part of the state, Greg Pence, former Vice President Mike Pence's older brother, is retiring after three terms. The Republican hopeful for the seat is Jefferson Shreve, a storage-business entrepreneur who was defeated handily for Indianapolis mayor last year. He had been a member of the Indianapolis City Council from 2013 to 2016 and 2018 to 2020.
The Democratic candidate for the post is Cynthia Wirth, who has been a high school biology and environmental science teacher and is a small business owner. She challenged Pence for the seat in 2022.
