Republicans retain 3 open Indiana House seats and target another long held by Democrats

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Republicans retain 3 open Indiana House seats and target another long held by Democrats

2024-11-06 10:14 Last Updated At：10:21

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Republicans in Indiana retained three congressional seats without incumbents running in Tuesday’s election. They were awaiting results in a fourth race where they aimed to knock off an incumbent Democrat in the northwest part of the state.

Three incumbents are retiring or seeking another office, creating vacancies that were filled with victories by the GOP.

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.

If Republicans get that seat, they could control eight of the nine Congressional seats.

In the state’s 7th District, incumbent Andre Carson, the only other Democrat in the delegation, easily won reelection.

Republican Jefferson Shreve, who ran unsuccessfully last year for Indianapolis mayor, won a seat in Congress on Tuesday.

Shreve defeated Democrat Cynthia Wirth for the post vacated by three-term U.S. Rep. Greg Pence, the older brother of the former vice president. Wirth challenged Pence for the seat in 2022.

Shreve, who built a self-storage business, calls immigration the nation’s most pressing issue. He believes the wall along the Mexican border should be finished, the policy of “catch-and-release” ended, and more should be done to end cross-border drug trafficking. He says excessive federal spending by President Joe Biden’s administration is driving inflation but backs more resources for police and the military. He’s opposed to abortion and is a strong supporter of gun rights.

Wirth, who has been a high school biology and environmental science teacher, argued for more job training to upgrade Indiana’s workforce to lure industry to the state and for incrementally raising the minimum wage. She campaigned on putting more resources into teacher training and promised to develop programs to improve Indiana’s air and water quality.

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 and on Tuesday won a seat in the U.S. Senate.

Marlin A. Stutzman, the man who preceded Banks, will return to Congress after an eight-year hiatus with a win in Tuesday’s election.

Republican Stutzman, a large-scale farmer and truck-company operator, defeated Democrat Kiley Adolph to reclaim the seat he vacated for an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in 2016. His successor, Rep. Jim Banks, did the same this year and won his race for Senate.

Stutzman, who previously served in Congress from 2010-2017, campaigned on reining in federal spending, arguing that it would stimulate the economy. On immigration, he wants to complete the wall along the border with Mexico that former President Donald Trump proposed a decade ago. He supports abolishing the U.S. Department of Education, saying public schools should be run locally by parents. He points to a long record of expanding the rights of gun owners.

Adolph, a former professor, nonprofit vice president, teacher and consultant, focused on tax breaks and access to affordable housing to help families struggling in an uncertain economy. She emphasized education, from publicly funded universal pre-K to additional workforce training for high school graduates not bound for college. She wants to expand access to abortion and wants women to receive equal pay for equal work done by men.

Seven-term congressman Larry Bucshon is retiring from his post representing the 8th Congressional District, in the southwest part of the state.

Mark Messmer, the former Indiana state Senate majority leader, won a seat in Congress Tuesday, defeating Democrat Erik Hurt for the 8th District post Bucshon left.

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.

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.

Trump and Harris rack up early wins as America awaits battleground results

2024-11-06 10:17 Last Updated At：10:20

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris notched early wins in reliably Republican and Democratic states, respectively, as a divided America made its decision in a stark choice for the nation’s future Tuesday.

Polls closed in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and North Carolina, six of the seven closely fought battlegrounds expected to decide the election, but the results there were too early to call. Balloting continued in Nevada and other parts of the West on Election Day, as tens of millions of Americans added their ballots to the 84 million cast early as they chose between two candidates with drastically different temperaments and visions for the country.

Trump won Florida, a one-time battleground that has shifted heavily to Republicans in recent elections. He also notched early wins in reliably Republican states such as Texas, South Carolina and Indiana, while Harris took Democratic strongholds like New York, Massachusetts and Illinois.

The fate of democracy appeared to be a primary driver for Harris’ supporters, a sign that the Democratic nominee’s persistent messaging in her campaign’s closing days accusing Trump of being a fascist may have broken through, according to AP VoteCast. The expansive survey of more than 110,000 voters nationwide also found a country mired in negativity and desperate for change. Trump’s supporters were largely focused on immigration and inflation — two issues that the former Republican president has been hammering since the start of his campaign.

Those casting Election Day ballots mostly encountered a smooth process, with isolated reports of hiccups that regularly happen, including long lines, technical issues and ballot printing errors.

Harris has promised to work across the aisle to tackle economic worries and other issues without radically departing from the course set by President Joe Biden. Trump has vowed to replace thousands of federal workers with loyalists, impose sweeping tariffs on allies and foes alike, and stage the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.

Harris and Trump entered Election Day focused on seven swing states, five of them carried by Trump in 2016 before they flipped to Biden in 2020: the “blue wall” of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin as well as Arizona and Georgia. Nevada and North Carolina, which Democrats and Republicans respectively carried in the last two elections, also were closely contested.

Trump voted in Palm Beach, Florida, near his Mar-a-Lago club. He called into a Wisconsin radio station Tuesday night to say: “I’m watching these results. So far so good."

Harris, the Democratic vice president, did phone interviews with radio stations in the battleground states, then visited Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington carrying a box of Doritos — her go-to snack.

“This truly represents the best of who we are,” Harris told a room of cheering staffers. She was handed a cellphone by supporters doing phone banking, and when asked by reporters how she was feeling, the vice president held up a phone and responded, “Gotta talk to voters.”

The closeness of the race and the number of states in play raised the likelihood that, once again, a victor might not be known on election night.

Trump said Tuesday that he had no plans to tell his supporters to refrain from violence if Harris wins, because they “are not violent people.” His angry supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after Trump tried to overturn his loss in 2020. Asked Tuesday about accepting the 2024 race’s results, he said, “If it’s a fair election, I’d be the first one to acknowledge it.” He visited a nearby campaign office to thank staffers before a party at a nearby convention center.

After her DNC stop, Harris planned to attend a party at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington.

Federal, state and local officials have expressed confidence in the integrity of the nation’s election systems. They nonetheless were braced to contend with what they say is an unprecedented level of foreign disinformation — particularly from Russia and Iran — as well as the possibility of physical violence or cyberattacks.

In Georgia’s Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold that includes most of the city of Atlanta, 32 of the 177 polling places received bomb threats Tuesday, prompting brief evacuations at five locations, county Police Chief W. Wade Yates said. The threats were determined to be non-credible but voting hours were extended at those five locations.

Bomb threats also forced an extension of voting hours in at least two Pennsylvania counties — Clearfield, in central Pennsylvania, and Chester, near Philadelphia.

Both sides have armies of lawyers in anticipation of legal challenges on and after Election Day. And law enforcement agencies nationwide are on high alert for potential violence.

Harris, 60, would be the first woman, Black woman and person of South Asian descent to serve as president. She also would be the first sitting vice president to win the White House in 36 years.

Trump, 78, would be the oldest president ever elected. He would also be the first defeated president in 132 years to win another term in the White House, and the first person convicted of a felony to take over the Oval Office.

He survived one assassination attempt by millimeters at a July rally. Secret Service agents foiled a second attempt in September.

Harris, pointing to the warnings of Trump's former aides, has labeled him a “fascist” and blamed Trump for putting women's lives in danger by nominating three of the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. In the closing hours of the campaign, she tried to strike a more positive tone and went all of Monday without saying her Republican opponent's name.

Voters nationwide also were deciding thousands of other races that will decide everything from control of Congress to state ballot measures on abortion access in response to the Supreme Court’s vote in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade.

In Florida, a ballot measure that would have protected abortion rights in the state constitution failed after not meeting the 60% threshold to pass, marking the first time a measure protecting abortion rights failed since Roe was overturned. Earlier Tuesday, Trump refused to say how he voted on the measure and snapped at a reporter, saying, “You should stop talking about that."

JD Jorgensen, an independent voter in Black Mountain, North Carolina, which was hit hard by Hurricane Helene, said voters should have made up their minds before Tuesday.

“I think that the candidates, both being in the public eye as long as they both have been, if you’re on the fence, you hadn’t really been paying attention,” said Jorgensen, 35.

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in Palm Beach, Florida, Darlene Superville and Eric Tucker in Washington, Manuel Valdes in Las Vegas and Marc Levy in Allentown, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.