IN-05

Jennifer Christie is running for an open Indiana congressional seat north of Indianapolis. It's generally considered a "red" seat-- the PVI is R+9-- so, as usual, the DCCC insists on a Republican-lite politician as their candidate. That isn't Jessica, a full-throttle progressive.

IN-05 is an open seat. Rep. Susan Brooks-- a relatively mainstream conservative Republican-- is retiring. There are 15 Republicans running-- and 9 who have raised over the $5,000 that triggers an FEC report. The top-"raising" Republican, Victoria Spartz contributed $750,000 of her own money to her campaign, 98.7% of her funds.

IN-05 doesn’t fit the kind of profile of a competitive enough district for the DCCC to take an interest in. But 2020 isn’t shaping up to be a normal kind of year and seats that have previously been considered safely red, could well fall in another anti-red wave.

A few days ago I asked Indiana progressive candidate Jennifer Christie if she was up for commenting on a post I was working on about the Republican war against science. Was she ever! In fact she has so much to say about it-- and even sent us a homemade video!-- that I decided to run it as a stand alone post.

Last night, Team Blue was disappointed that their candidate in NC-09 was defeated by Team Red's candidate. In a gerrymandered R+8 suburban/rural district-- where Trump had beaten Hillary 54.4% to 42.8%-- Republican Dan beat Democratic Dan by less than 2 points. Democratic Dan outspent Republican Dan $5,810,131 to $1,471,452.

IN-05 is a red (R+9) central Indiana congressional district north of Indianapolis. If the Republicans can't win here, they'll have to pack their bags and move to Russia. Except for the slice of Marion County (Indianapolis) in the district, every county is deep red. Last year incumbent congresswoman Susan Brooks was reelected 180,035 (56.8%) to 137,142 (43.2%), safe... but her worst showing ever.