Republican Jefferson Shreve defeated Democrat Cynthia “Cinde” Wirth in Indiana’s 6th Congressional District on Tuesday, keeping the seat under GOP control after a three-term incumbent decided against seeking reelection.
Shreve, 58, founder of Storage Express, received 65.8% of the vote, while Wirth, 55, a former teacher, received 29.8% of the vote, and Libertarian James Sceniak, 35, received 4.3%, according to The Associated Press, which called race at around 8:40 p.m. with 49% of the votes in.
The 6th District covers Johnson County, as well as all or part of Bartholomew, Fayette, Hancock, Henry, Randolph, Rush, Shelby, Union and Wayne counties, and the southern townships in Marion County.
In Bartholomew County, Shreve received 59.44% of the vote, while Wirth received 36.79% of the vote and Sceniak received 3.73%, according to the Bartholomew County Clerk’s Office.
Shreve will succeed Columbus native and three-term incumbent Rep. Greg Pence, R-Ind., who decided not to seek reelection this year.
Shreve told The Franklin Daily Journal that he is “honored” to have the opportunity to represent the nearly 800,000 people who live in the 6th District.
“It’s extraordinary, but the challenges before the next Congress are extraordinary,” Shreve said. “So we need … new people coming in that are fired up and ready to take on those challenges.”
“It’s a team effort. I aim to be part of a governing majority, and with that, we can turn this around. We can fix the problems that we have to address; that we can’t kick the can down the field anymore. I’m eager to be part of that,” he added.
Shreve, who largely ran a self-funded campaign, anchored his congressional bid in fiscal and border security, saying he plans to focus on securing the U.S.-Mexico border and fixing what he described as “our broken immigration system” and stopping “reckless federal spending.”
The Republican businessman won a crowded GOP primary in May, prevailing over six opponents less than a year after an unsuccessful bid for Indianapolis mayor.
After loaning his campaign $5.6 million of his own money during the primary, Shreve loaned his general election campaign $300,000 as of Oct. 16, according to records with the Federal Election Commission. He also received around $150,000 from other donors after the primary.
Wirth, for her part, and praised her opponent but said she is looking forward to holding all of our elected officials accountable.”
“I think it was a great race. I am thrilled with my opponent, his professionalism, his Hoosier spirit,” Wirth said following her defeat. “We connected many times on the campaign trail over the last couple of weeks, and we really enjoyed getting to know each other.”
“I’m looking forward to holding all of our elected officials accountable for making people’s lives better in Indiana and across the nation, and I think a lot of voters are right there with me, whether they’re Republicans, Democrats, independents, Libertarians,” Wirth added.
The Democrat’s campaign largely focused on restoring reproductive rights following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2022 — which led to a near-total abortion ban in Indiana —preserving Social Security and Medicare and supporting public schools, which she has described as “critical to the health and stability of our communities.”
Wirth also attended the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this year.
Tuesday was Wirth’s second unsuccessful congressional bid. In 2022, Pence defeated Wirth with 68% of the vote across the entire district, including 60.47% of the vote in Bartholomew County.
