Indiana House District 6 seat up for grabs for first time in 50 years
ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind.—As of 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday night, Maureen Bauer had the most votes for the Indiana House District 6 Democratic candidacy.
Bauer is running against Garrett Blad and Drew Duncan in the primary.
The three democrats running for Indiana House District 6 are Drew Duncan, Garrett Blad and Maureen Bauer, Patrick Bauer’s daughter who held the seat for the last 50 years.
All three have very similar platforms with education, health care, and sustainability at the forefront.
“More support for our public schools and school teachers and to increase the funding,” Maureen Bauer said. “Additionally we can increase our jobs of the 21st century and encourage the next generation to stay here in Indiana,”
“Education now was a huge portion of what we ran on. I think if we’re talking about a serious way to combat how republicans are talking about the funding of education. It’s simple. We have to create a new tax base,” Drew Duncan said. “The way we do that is by legalizing marijuana.”
“Indiana is at a crossroads. We have a choice to invest in our teachers, save our environment and create good jobs or we can keep going down the path that we are. A lot of Hoosiers are really suffering every day,” Garrett Blad said.
Although Bauer is a legacy for the seat, all three candidates tell me there is no unfair advantage.
With the pandemic, they had an extra month to campaign however it also forced them to reach out to voters in new ways like only using phone calls or even wearing face masks while knocking on doors.
And even though results are still coming in, all three candidates are hopeful.
“We have received some great feedback. I heard some great things from voters today just on their way into the polls,” Bauer said. “We’re very optimistic.”
“It’s nice to see so much support out here today. We’re getting people that are giving us thumbs-up that they appreciated all our hard work reaching out to them,” Blad said.
“I ran a good race,” Duncan said. “ I think we’ve competed in a way that people in south bend are energized about so moving forward I think a lot of people are going to pay attention to what we've done.”
Now the three candidates are all democrats. In fact, it is a rarity to have a republican run in this race.
But it does mean that there is a good chance that whoever wins this primary will likely win the race come November.
Of course, stay with ABC57 on-air and online for when the results do come out.