This post was provided by News Now Warsaw
By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
PIERCETON — Third District Congressional candidate Kelly Thompson has campaigned across Northeast Indiana for 18 months and, on Sunday, she took time to knock on doors in Piereton, just south of her home in North Webster.
Thompson, a Democrat who is a mother of six and a grandmother of 13, previously ran for the state legislature in 2020, and said Sunday that people she meets are no longer focusing on just her party affiliation.
She said she’s hearing concerns about President Donald Trump’s policies.
“Everybody, including common-sense Republicans, is against corruption. They want to defend the Constitution. They want to be proud of their country. And right now they’re having to defend an administration that is the most corrupt in the history of our country,” Thompson said.
“And they’re willing to entertain the idea of voting for something different,” she said.
Thompson faces incumbent Republican Marlin Stutzman, who is on his second stint in Congress.
Thompson and a group of supporters canvassed parts of Pierceton on Sunday, and she had extended conversations with several people over the topics of affordability, health care and the economy.
Thompson has been running literaly non-stop and posts videos on social media highlighting her policy and concerns. Her Facebook page has 63,000 followers.
She said she’d like to debate Stutzman, but says he has declined multiple invitations and contends he’s “hiding.”
Thompson has a long list of policy positions on her website, but when talking with constituents, many of her conversations often shift to Donald Trump’s administration and the country’s future.
“This is a battle between good and evil. Every day we wake up, and we hear something else that this administration is doing that can be labeled as nothing other than the opposite of what would Jesus do,” she said. “That’s just the truth.”
She said farmers have been slow to embrace her campaign, but that she continues to explain that she would fight for them if elected. She has three meetings with ag groups in the next week or so, she said.
“Everybody says we love farmers. We value our farmers. We need to protect them. But then when we get elected and we go to Washington, D.C., we forget all about them,” Thompson said.
“And our legislators instead legislate in the best interest of big ag instead of the farmers,” she said.
She said the role of Congress is to listen to constituents and then support their priorities.
Stutzman, she said, is not following the wishes of his constituents.
“He goes to Washington, D.C., and he fights for what the president needs. It’s out of order. It’s a breach of contract. And in my opinion, disqualifies him from the role of representing the people of Indiana’s third,” she said.
Thompson’s campaign theme, “Running Like a Mother,” is admittedly a double entendre that some find humorous.
She explained her outlook.
“Mothers nurture. We circle the wagons around people when we see danger on the horizon. We give of ourselves to the point of emptying ourselves in order to help other people. It’s what I’ve done my entire life, whether it was the River Coffeehouse and Whitewater Community Services, or even running like a mother now for 18 months.”
The Third District includes all or part of 13 counties, including all or parts of four townships in Kosciusko County. Those include Tippecanoe Township, Turkey Creek Township, Washington Township, and part of Wayne Township.
