Republican Marlin Stutzman is one step closer to returning to Congress in his old seat, but first he has to get past political newcomer Kiley Adolph, who won the Democratic primary Tuesday night.
Out of a field of eight candidates, Stutzman won what became a tight race between him, Fort Wayne businessman Tim Smith and former Allen County Circuit Court Judge Wendy Davis and State Sen. Andy Zay, from Huntington.
Stutzman pulled away late in the night to take the next step to replace his replacement in Congress. Stutzman was the third district congressman from 2010 until he ran for Senate in 2017 where he lost to former Sen. Dan Coats in the primary.
Adolph, an educator, easily secured the Democratic nomination for the 3rd District, beating out Phil Goss by a significant margin, according to unofficial results.
Adolph is an Angola native with a masters of arts degree in teaching and a Global Executive Doctor of Education from the University of Southern California. She has also studied at the University of Oxford.
Her campaign website includes a call for “prioritizing an education-first agenda,” as well as restoring reproductive rights and access to affordable childcare, health care and elder care.
Goss also has a background in education, according to his campaign website, having taught abroad in Poland. He is also an iris farmer.
Adolph will go up against Republican Marlin Stutzman in the general election in November for the seat vacated by current Rep. Jim Banks, who is now running for the senate seat vacated by Sen. Mike Braun who is running for governor.
Banks replaced Stutzman and has held the office until vacating it for his own Senate run this year.
Stutzman says “we have a federal government we have to fix.” He says he plans to reduce federal spending in Congress and is “honored” to be the Republican nominee for the third district.
