The loud festivities at the Republican election night party were quickly silenced as Congressman Todd Young approached the lectern at Macri’s at the Depot on Tuesday evening.
“Fellow Americans, fellow Hoosiers,” Young said to a crowd of supporters. “We won.”
Rep. Todd Young, R-9th District, announced his re-election upon defeating challengers Democrat Bill Bailey and Libertarian Mike Frey to win his third term in Congress.
Young won in a landslide with 63.22 percent of the vote, according to the Associated Press.
A loud cheer that rocked the packed room followed the ?announcement. Young said he wanted to thank his supporters for their ?efforts in his campaign.
“Thank you so much,” Young said. “This is such an incredible honor to be elected to my third term as your United States Representative to Indiana’s 9th congressional district.”
Young went on to thank his opponents for running such respectable campaigns.
“It should go without saying if you have paid attention to this race, I was competing with some class acts for your vote and for others’ votes,” Young said. “Bill Bailey is a fine man, as is Mike Frey. They both care about this country. They care about the State of Indiana and the people of this area.”
In the previous two elections Young defeated Baron Hill in 2010 and Shelli Yoder in 2012.
Historically, Indiana’s 9th district has been represented by mostly Democrats in the past 50 years, with Congressman Lee Hamilton serving from 1965 to 1999. But now Young seems to have command of his district with a decisive victory Tuesday night.
“I think most Hoosiers are just commonsense kind of people,” Young said of his constituents. “When I go out campaigning, I typically don’t segment people into Republicans and Democrats but instead try to offer a brand of leadership that is reflective of Hoosier commonsense.”
Young thanked his supporters’ ?efforts.
“Politics is a team sport, as I said before,” Young added. “And so many valued members of our team are right here with us this evening, and I really, really appreciate it. We couldn’t have done it without your support, your encouragement, your very, very hard work in so many ?instances.”
Among his supporters were members from the Franklin College football team, whom Young acknowledged in his victory speech.
“I’m elated, I’m humbled, I’m privileged,” Young said. “And of course, this is the result we hoped for. I feel validated that you can still run, in this day and age, an issue-based campaign.”
Supporters of Young said they were elated to hear the news of the victory, especially those who spent hours working on his ?campaign.
“We volunteered countless hours helping him with the campaign,” said Dan Harris, member of the Franklin College football team. “I just know that he’s the right person to lead the 9th district in the future.”
Nate Bryan, also a member of the Franklin College football team, said him and Harris started campaigning through classes at Franklin College.
“We chose to work on Todd Young’s campaign. We could have worked on anyone’s campaign that was running in the 2014 election, but Todd Young really stood out to me,” Bryan said.
Young chose not to participate in a debate with challengers Bailey and Frey at IU as well as a candidate forum with the League of ?Women Voters.
“He ran a very good campaign, highlighted the important issues and connected with the voters,” said Riley Parr, chair of the IU College Republicans.
Young’s campaign instead focused on traditional techniques, such as phone calls and knocking on doors in addition to social media.
“It was really just a combination of all of those,” Parr said of Young’s campaign strategy. “We had people going out every day, every week knocking on doors talking to voters (and) using social media ... everybody that was involved did a great job understanding it was going to be a team effort, and that’s what ultimately lead to the large margin of victory.”
