If Indiana-1 Is Toss-Up, Dems In Big Trouble Nationwide (Newsmax/"National Report")
By John Gizzi Friday, 21 October 2022 02:58 PM EDT Current | Bio | Archive
The recent reports of disparate figures in the punditocracy that Democrat Rep. Frank Mrvan now is in a toss-up race has clearly sent a warning message to Democrats everywhere.
Not since Republican Rep. Harry Rowbottom was unseated in 1930 has this Gary-based, blue-collar heavy district failed to resoundingly elect a Democrat U.S. representative.
But three weeks before the election, Mrvan finds himself locked in a tight battle with Republican opponent and former U.S. Air Force Major Jennifer-Ruth Green.
On Thursday, published reports revealed that the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) sent Mrvan, who is white, a $5,000 check in late September. This was a major story, because Green, if elected, would become the first Black Republican woman in Congress.
Green hit this hard, charging that, “America’s poorest communities are proof Frank Mrvan and the CBC care more about power and helping themselves than helping the people of northwest Indiana.”
This new development comes days after the much-respected Cook Political Report listed the Mrvan-Green contest as a “Democratic Toss-Up.”
The last time an incumbent U.S. Representative was unseated in the 1st District was in 1984, when former congressional staffer Pete Visclosky defeated incumbent Rep. Katie Hall in the Democrat primary. Hall was black and Visclosky white.
The current district is 19% black.
Trump Republican Green also made recent news by raising more than $1.4 million to about $940,000 for incumbent Mrvan.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.