Former Bloomington city councilmember Andy Ruff is the projected winner of the Democratic primary for the state’s 9 th Congressional District.
Ruff will face incumbent Rep. Trey Hollingsworth (R) in the general election this November. Ruff received 33% of the vote, beating out D. Liam Morris, Brandon Hood, James O’Gabhann III and Mark J. Powell. Precincts counted 75 percent of the vote early Wednesday morning.
READ MORE: Andy Ruff Announces Run For Congress
“We need a Hoosier representing the Hoosiers, the ordinary folks of the ninth district,” Ruff says. “Our campaign is going to show the voters that they elected the right candidate in this primary to run against the incumbent Republican Trey Hollingsworth. And in the fall, we're going to send him packing back to Tennessee.”
Ruff spent five terms as a member of the Bloomington City Council and says his experience on the Metropolitan Planning Organization prepared him “to be able to land on my feet and run from the start.”
“We had federal government representatives on that body, we had state INDOT folks on that body, we had folks from the from the university, from county government, from city government and we had citizens represented,” he says.
Ruff ran for re-election last year and was defeated by current councilmember Matt Flaherty. Ruff says he’s now focused on proving his decades of experience on the community level make him the best bet to bring the ordinary Hoosiers of Indiana’s 9 th Congressional District together.
“My message is, he [Hollingsworth] represents what the fundamental problem with our political system is,” Ruff says. “And that is big money in politics, money from corporate interests and ultra-wealthy individuals influencing not just our elections, but policymaking.”
Indiana’s 9 th Congressional District is comprised of Brown, Clark, Floyd, Harrison, Jackson, Johnson, Lawrence, Monroe, Orange and Washington counties, with parts of Crawford, Morgan and Scott counties also included.
