The state chairman for the Indiana Republican Party pushed back on Wednesday after Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Indiana, reportedly said he and President Trump shared the same voter base at a campaign stop Monday in Muncie.
“Democrat Donnelly is a lot closer to Bernie Sanders than Donald Trump,” the chairman, Kyle Hupfer, said in a statement released by the party.
Donnelly is up for re-election in the 2018 midterm elections. He has sent out numerous campaign fundraising emails in recent days, citing pundits’ classification of the upcoming election as a toss-up.
“Even more Republican dark money is going to flood into Indiana to defeat Joe,” read one email sent out Wednesday. “In fact, other observers are saying this race will cost upwards of $100 million.”
Despite the comparison Hupfer drew between Donnelly and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, the Indiana senator has voted with Republicans on legislation as both a senator and a member of the House of Representatives.
Donnelly was one of three Democratic senators who voted to confirm Neil Gorsuch as a Supreme Court justice. He was also one of two Democratic senators who voted to defund Planned Parenthood in 2015. The latter vote failed.
As a congressman, he aligned himself with the Blue Dog Coalition — a group of conservative-leaning house Democrats — and voted against legislation like the DREAM Act, a failed congressional precursor to the Obama Administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy.
Donnelly is scheduled to visit IU and bowl with the IU College Democrats on Thursday night at the Indiana Memorial Union. The event will be open to members of the club or those interested in joining.
Jesse Naranjo
