Several of District 9’s Democratic primary candidates met with constituents Saturday afternoon at the Monroe County Democratic Party’s open house.
Indiana’s 9th Congressional District encompasses Monroe County and much of southeastern Indiana, stretching to the Kentucky border. Republican Erin Houchin currently represents the district and has since 2023.
Four Democrats are running in the primary election for the district. One independent, Floyd Taylor, is running in November’s general election, and Houchin filed for re-election.
Jim Graham, Brad Meyer and Keil Roark all made appearances at Saturday’s event, speaking with people who stopped by the Monroe County Democratic Party’s headquarters in Bloomington. The Indiana Daily Student spoke with all three about their goals and the issues they thought were most important to Hoosiers.
Jim Graham
Graham, an engineer who grew up in Southern Indiana and graduated from Edgewood High School in Ellettsville, decided to run because he thought Democrats could do better in District 9. He describes himself as a more conservative Democrat, closer to the center. He has not held public office before.
After traveling around the district and speaking to people, he also thinks the most pressing issue facing Hoosiers is an economic crunch.
“I think to some extent, we’ve done not done a good job in bringing more good jobs into this district,” Graham said.
To help with that issue, he suggested distributing more seed money to help individuals start up new companies. Drawing more attention to economic issues in the district, he said, would be his top goal.
He said he’s willing to work with Republicans to create solutions to issues like the budget deficit and improving healthcare.
“I think a lot of our problems could be solved if we’d sit down and talk about them,” Graham said. “And turn down the rhetoric a bit.”
Graham also wants, if elected, to pass a five-year farm bill to provide farmers with certainty regarding price support levels and crop insurance — something of particular importance to Indiana, given the role of agriculture in supporting the state’s economy.
Brad Meyer
Meyer described himself as a progressive Democratic candidate. He quit his job working for the Navy as a civilian engineer to run for office after seeing what he saw as “really significant threats to our democratic institutions.”
After President Donald Trump fired employees at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., Meyer had enough.
“When people in power start specifying what is acceptable and unacceptable expression, we are in real danger,” Meyer said.
Meyer has never held a public office before. He grew up in Brownsburg, Indiana, and attended Purdue, studying electronics engineering. Afterward, he spent over two decades in manufacturing.
The most pressing issue facing Hoosiers today, he said, is the economy. He believes housing, food and transportation costs now make up a larger percentage of people’s income, he said, than they used to. That needs to be addressed systemically, Meyer said.
The biggest danger Americans face, he said, is the erosion of democratic norms, specifically when it comes to voting. He said he believes the government is applying pressure to political enemies to try to prevent certain minorities and people they don’t like from voting. Specifically, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, he said, could disenfranchise women.
Meyer’s main goals include universal nonprofit healthcare and a $20 an hour national minimum wage. Federal minimum wage currently sits at $7.25 an hour and was last raised in 2009.
“If you are working 40 hours a week, you should be able to have — it may not be a great life, but you should be able to buy food,” he said. “And you should be able to buy, you know, get housing.”
Keil Roark
Roark has worn many hats in his career. He’s a former naval officer, engineer and adjunct instructor at Ivy Tech Community College. On the political spectrum, he said he’s a centrist Democrat. He hasn’t held a public office before but ran unsuccessfully in 2022 for state representative in District 72, which encompasses New Albany.
He lives in Floyd County and decided to run due to concerns about affordability, grocery prices, healthcare costs and wages not keeping up with inflation.
“I want to help folks in the 9th congressional to get good paying jobs so they can take care of their families, they can pay for mortgages, college, vacations and be able to have a good living,” Roark said.
He also expressed concerns about the rule of law, checks and balances and due process under the Trump administration. He said as a middle-of-the-road candidate, he can attract what he calls “disenfranchised Republicans” and independents.
Roark said he believed in fair wages, people’s ability to borrow money at a low interest rate to pay for school and not outsourcing jobs.
There’s a dearth of skilled trades, he said.
“So we have to provide healthcare subsidies, education, skilled trades, education in skilled trades in schools, Ivy Tech and the like that will make the path a little easier for folks to go to school,” Roark said.
Indiana’s primary election will take place May 5.
