Indiana — 1st District

Republican candidate for Indiana’s First Congressional District Jennifer-Ruth Green (right) raised more money in the second quarter of 2022 than incumbent U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan (left), D-Highland, according to Federal Election Commission data.CQ - Original Credit: Photos courtesy of Frank Mrvan a (Photos courtesy of Frank Mrvan a / HANDOUT)

Indiana’s First Congressional District is being called a toss-up by national pundits after almost 100 years in Democratic control as incumbent U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan Jr., D-Highland, squares off against Republican political newcomer Jennifer Ruth-Green.

Chicago-style campaign ads have been flooding local cable television as national political action committees (PACs) exert their influence on the race — an uncommon practice prior to redistricting after the 2020 U.S. Census, which made the district more Republican friendly by carving out parts of typically Democratic Lake County and replacing it with areas in Republican leaning LaPorte County.

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Mrvan said his record Northwest Indiana supporting public safety, steel, women’s rights and labor speaks for itself and he is confident that message and what has been done will rise above the noise of campaign ads that distort his accomplishments.

“Be leery of individuals who will say and do whatever is necessary to achieve power. My record stands for itself. I’m very district-centric,” Mrvan said.

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Green’s campaign has focused on Republican talking points of high crime, inflation and illegal immigration without substance on how she would address these points in both campaign ads and repeat guest appearances on Fox News programming.

Mrvan sat down with the Post Tribune to discuss the campaign for this article.

The Republican National Committee has been limiting access to Green to sanctioned events of which local party leaders are unaware. Questions submitted to her campaign team go unanswered or are responded to with a statement that does not answer the questions and focuses on the campaign’s talking points.

Requests for an interview with Green for this article Oct. 14 and Oct. 25 went unanswered. Kevin Hansberger, communications director for the campaign responded to an Oct. 28 request.

“Our scheduling team informed me this afternoon that we are not going to be able to accommodate an interview at this time,” Hansberger said via email.

As a Black, conservative Republican with a military background, Green’s candidacy checks the political boxes for a party looking to depict itself as more inclusive.

National Republican PACs and campaigns have been throwing money at the Green campaign in its attempt to flip the seat to Republicans. Green has outraised Mrvan, pulling in just under $3 million, according to the campaign finance reports filed with the FEC for the pre-election reporting period ending Oct. 14. The figure compares to $2.3 million raised by Mrvan so far this year.

Roughly 30 percent of Green’s donors are PACs compared to about 3 percent for Mrvan. Mrvan has a total of 4,693 donors compared to Green’s 1,015. Individual contributions have been strong for Mrvan, who received about 2,312 individual donations during the reporting period compared to 305 individual donations received by Green.

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Mrvan said he has a lot of which to be proud after his first two years in Congress. The first major accomplishment was passage of the American Rescue Plan Act. Mrvan said he always has to remind people where we were at as a nation with 3,000 Americans a week dying from COVID-19, schools, businesses and churches were closed. Hospitals were full and emergency rooms were overrun.

In ads and events, Green lays the blame for inflation on Mrvan and his support of Democratic endorsed spending provisions including the American Rescue Plan Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that she says are causing runaway prices.

Inflation is a global issue caused in part by supply chain issues and the global pandemic and not isolated to the U.S. According to Forbes magazine, U.S. inflation in July was 8.5% compared to 10.1% in the United Kingdom, 7.6% in Canada, 2.7% in China, 2.6% in Japan, 79.6% in Turkey, 6.1 percent in Australia, 7.8% in South African and 5.2% in Israel.

Mrvan said ARPA funds allowed communities to invest in public safety and infrastructure. Funds were available for schools to improve their HVAC systems so kids could return to classrooms.

“I was able to get resources for local communities to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars,” Mrvan said. He cites the multi-agency COVID-19 vaccination site at Gary Roosevelt where 60,000 people received a vaccine as a model for the state.

“ARPA was a lifeline for our schools, our businesses and our local governments. Those resources were able to be utilized by local governments for public safety for our citizens. It’s something I’m very proud of,” Mrvan said.

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Thousands of businesses throughout the region applied for and received Payroll Protection Plan loans authorized in the ARPA that kept people working and businesses big and small afloat.

“Some people say that was wasteful spending,” Mrvan said.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act put $8 million toward infrastructure including roads and bridges, replacing lead water lines and broadband.

“We put together a strong ‘Buy American’ provision for that piece of legislation — using American steel made here in Northwest Indiana,” Mrvan said.

Mrvan said he has made sure the legislation he supports invests in the American worker and increases domestic manufacturing. The CHIPs and Science Act he supported provides roughly $280 billion in new funding to boost domestic research and manufacturing of semiconductors in the U.S.

Green came to Indiana from California in 2016. Since that time, she started a religious nonprofit called MissionAero Pipeline with offices in Hammond that focuses on training youth for science, technology, engineering and math careers as they learn to fly planes for church missions. She is a community liaison for Hammond Baptist Church and previously worked for Hyles-Anderson College.

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Green has taken a position against rising crime in Northwest Indiana and says that is what voters care about, citing the murder rate in Gary which has exceeded the homicide rate in 2021.

Mrvan said he has and continues to support public safety measures to help local police. So far he secured $1 million in community funding for laptops and license plate readers for the Gary Police Department and another $500,000 for the department to obtain body cameras. Mrvan said he is working with the Porter County Sheriff’s Department to secure $400,000 in funding for license plate readers to be placed throughout the county. Another $40,000 was directed to the Whiting Police Department for license plate readers.

“I’m funding the police departments literally through the American Rescue Plan and community funding projects,” Mrvan said.

Green leans into her military history on her website which touts “Battle proven leadership for Northwest Indiana”. Green graduated in 2005 from the U.S. Air Force Academy but did not pass flight training, according to her military records cited in a Politico article. She served as a special agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and was deployed to Baghdad in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. She currently serves in the Indiana Air National Guard, according to her website.

Mrvan said he supports the military and while on the veterans’ affairs subcommittee he passed two pieces of legislation on his own, one increasing dental benefits to more than 50,000 veterans and their family members by increasing the percentage of those who qualify. He also passed legislation that provides support for military victims of sexual trauma as they seek to overturn claim denials.

He said it was also an honor to support the PACT Act (The Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022) which provides medical coverage for veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and were exposed to toxic fumes caused by burn pits. The legislation goes even further to provide expanded assistance to veterans of the Vietnam War who were exposed to Agent Orange.

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Like many Democrats, Mrvan said this election has a lot to do with civil liberties after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade ending 50 years of precedence. He called it an attack on women’s rights.

“When you take rights away from individuals, that is a scary place. It’s important to me also on the healthcare side of things. When physicians in our state are going to delay making decisions because they are contemplating the legal ramifications on the health care of a woman… that is a scary place to be,” Mrvan said.

“Codifying Roe v. Wade is vitally important to me and I believe our nation,” Mrvan said, adding the decision should be made by a woman and her health care provider, and not a politician.

Green has spoken out about her anti-abortion views. Prior to the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v. Wade she said she was optimistic the conservative court would overturn the decision.

“I’m 100 percent pro-life all the way,” Green has said.