Focused on people

Democrats running for office in the November general election spent their Saturday visiting communities in east central Indiana.

The stops included a visit by Kiley Adolph, who is running for Congress in Indiana’s 3rd District, to the party’s headquarters in Jay County.

Adolph, who is running against former Congressman and current Republican nominee Marlin Stutzman and Libertarian Jarrad Lancaster, explained her reasons for running for office during a brief interview at the conclusion of her visit to Jay County.

“My why is simple, and that’s people,” said Adolph, who was joined in Portland by state representative candidate John Bartlett of Blackford County and Jay County Commissioner (south district) candidate Blake Watson. “And it’s really looking at how we can best serve people in our communities for the sake of progress and really moving our district forward.”

The Steuben County resident said her desire to serve comes from her grandfather (a farmer) and her father (a state police officer). She lists the economy, education, rights and care (child, health and elder) as her key campaign issues.

She spent her time in Jay County sharing her ideas with local Democrats and listening to their thoughts and concerns. Local residents brought up issues including poverty, food deserts, reproductive rights, the opioid epidemic and others.

Adolph focused in on economic issues, from the state of the economy overall to jobs and wages to housing to access and affordability of healthcare, saying her message on those issues crosses party lines.

“We’re talking about the economy and access to good jobs and a living wage and being able to afford housing,” she said. “That’s not an R or a D issue. Talking about health care and access and affordability of that, that’s not an R or a D issue. That’s an issue for all of us.”

Getting the word out to voters throughout the district was a topic of discussion as well, with Bartlett noting that Democrats would need to flip four seats in the Indiana House of Representatives in order to break the Republicans’ supermajority. (A super majority means a party has enough representatives to override a governor’s veto.)

Adolph is an Angola native who graduated from Trine University and earned her master’s and doctorate degrees at the University of Southern California. She taught at the elementary school level in Cincinnati, worked in the non-profit sector for Project Lead the Way and has been an adjunct professor at USC.

She earned 63% of the vote in defeating Phil Goss in the May primary as she is running for the House seat being vacated by Republican Jim Banks, who is seeking to represent Indiana in the Senate. (The district covers northeast Indiana, including Jay County.)

Adolph started her Saturday by attending a breakfast in Union City, then took part in the Gas Boom Days parade in Redkey and visited Winchester before making her stop in Jay County. She planned to conclude her day with a dinner in her home county.

Through those travels, it was more an attitude than a specific issue that she said stood out to her from area voters.

“There’s this incredible sense of a feeling of hope,” Adolph said. “There’s this revitalized energy. There’s this renewed hope. And I think that’s been echoed on every stop we’ve made today.

“And I think just also this gratitude for a willingness to come out and have the conversation about the issues that are affecting people the most.”