Fall matchups: Pence, Wirth to face off for Sixth District seat

Republican Rep. Greg Pence and Democrat Cynthia “Cinde” Wirth won their parties’ nominations in the May 3 primary and will face each other in the general election this November for the U.S. House District 6 seat.

On Tuesday, Pence, an incumbent who is seeking a third term in Congress, defeated challenger James Dean Alspach, a self-employed contractor from Morgantown, in the GOP primary. Pence is the brother of former Vice President Mike Pence.

In Bartholomew County, Pence received 4,351 votes, or 72%, against Alspach, who received 1,669 votes, or 28%. His victory was declared early in the evening when AP named him the winner even before all the Bartholomew County vote centers had reported in.

Pence said he wants to carry on the progress he’s helped make at this crucial point in the country’s history, while Alspach said his perspective and values more closely align with the modern Republican part and that his main focus is preserving the integrity of elections.

Pence said his work on the House energy and consumer protection committee motivated him to seek reelection. In particular, his time on the Subcommittee on Energy has illustrated the work that needs to be done to improve the country’s energy infrastructure.

On the Democratic side, Wirth defeated challenger George T. Holland.

In Bartholomew County, Wirth, a former educator and business owner, received 1,140 votes, or 78% of the vote, against Holland, a U.S. Air Force veteran, who received 319 votes, or 22%.

Holland ran on an anti-war platform, and said he would work to refocus money and resources to internal issues as opposed to policing the world, calling NATO a “scam.”

Wirth’s campaign was focused primarily on health care and ensuring Indiana residents have access to the care they need. She pointed to the difficulty many people have in getting to a doctor in the first place.

She takes issue with the proliferation of people using crowdsourcing to pay for bills that should be covered by insurance, at one point saying “GoFundMe is not a solution for health care.”

Indiana’s 6th Congressional District was recently redrawn following the 2020 Census. Most of Bartholomew County is in the 6th District, as well as much of eastern central Indiana, including Franklin, Rushville, New Castle and parts of Indianapolis.