Democratic challenger seeks 3rd District seat

Democrat Courtney Tritch kicked off her congressional campaign Thursday, attracting about 300 supporters to a rally at Fort Wayne's Foster Park.

The local marketing consultant called for job creation, clean energy sources, the defeat of Republican health care legislation, and federal policies that safeguard the rights of people regardless of their gender, race, religion and sexual orientation.

“You deserve a leader who will be an advocate for all of you, not just a select few,” she said to cheers from the crowd.

Tritch, 39, announced her candidacy on Facebook on June 25. She joins perennial candidates David Roach and Tommy Schrader in the field for the 2018 Democratic Party nomination in northeast Indiana's 3rd Congressional District.

Republican Jim Banks of Columbia City received 70 percent of the vote last year to defeat Schrader and win election in the 12-county district, which has not sent a Democrat to Washington since Rep. Jill Long was re-elected in 1992. Long lost her 1994 re-election bid.

Read more: http://www.journalgazette.net/news/local/local-politics/20170707/democratic-challenger-seeks-3rd-district-seat