Dale Nowlin, who retired this spring from Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. as math department chair with 43 years of experience, won the Democratic nomination for Indiana House of Representatives District 59 on Tuesday, defeating Cynthia “Cinde” Wirth.
Nowlin, 66, received 2,594 votes, or 55.2% of the vote, against Wirth, 50, who received 2,105 votes, or 44.8%.
Nowlin’s nomination sets up a rematch with incumbent State Rep. Ryan Lauer, R-Columbus, in the November general election. Lauer ran unopposed in Tuesday’s GOP primary.
Nowlin won the Democratic nomination in 2018, but lost the general election to Lauer, who received 12,519 votes, or 56.8%. Nowlin received 8,930 votes, or 40.6%.
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“What’s going through my head is that was step one, and we start working on step two,” Nowlin said.
“Step two is November,” he said.
Before his retirement, Nowlin was chairman of math departments at Columbus North High School and Northside Middle School, and formerly worked as adjunct faculty member at Indiana University, Bloomington in the School of Education. He had been with the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. since 1985 and has taught for more than two decades at North.
Nowlin has earned several teaching awards during his career, including the presidential award for excellence in science and mathematics teaching in 1992. In addition to teaching at North, Nowlin has served as the 12th grade teacher representative on the National Assessment Governing Board.
This is Nowlin’s third bid to be elected to the District 59 seat.
“This was a very different experience campaigning and we’re learning how to campaign during a pandemic because my favorite part about campaigning is knocking on doors and talking with people and we couldn’t do that,” Nowlin said. “We learned some things and we’ll learn more, and if we’re in the same situation in the fall, which we very well could be, we will make the best of it and figure out how to connect with people without knocking on doors.”
Wirth did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.
She is former high school biology and environmental science teacher at Columbus Signature Academy — New Tech High School.
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Indiana House of Representatives District 59, Democratic primary
Dale Nowlin;2,594
Cynthia "Cinde" Wirth;2,105
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