Democrat holds 5-point lead in key Indiana House race: DCCC poll

Indiana Democrat Christina Hale holds a 5-point edge over Republican Victoria Spartz in the race for the open House seat in the Hoosier State’s 5th Congressional District.

According to a poll conducted for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and released exclusively to The Hill, Hale, a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives, leads with 50 percent support among likely voters. Spartz, a member of the Indiana state Senate who immigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine in 2000, trails with 45 percent. 

Democrats are hoping to flip the seat, which is held by Rep. Susan Brooks (R) and will be vacated after she retires at the end of her current term.

The district was one of the first to be added to the DCCC’s Red to Blue list in January, a signal to donors that the seat is one they should focus on, and Hale had a substantial cash-on-hand advantage over Spartz at the end of the second quarter, boasting $726,000 compared with about $170,000 for her opponent.

“Christina Hale’s message of working across the aisle to make health care more affordable and shore up the economy is clearly resonating with Hoosiers and these numbers reflect that. Hoosiers don’t want another self-interested politician like Victoria Spartz who’s backed by a dark money group that’s helping to buy her the election so she can pursue their extreme policies,” said DCCC spokesperson Courtney Rice.

The DCCC poll tracks with other polls that have shown a tight race, including an internal poll the Hale campaign released in June showing her with a 51 percent to 45 percent lead.

In another positive sign for Democrats, former Vice President Joe Biden, the party’s 2020 nominee, leads President Trump by 13 points in the Indianapolis-area district. 

Still, Republicans are optimistic about their chances in the race. Brooks won reelection for her fourth term in 2018 by nearly 14 points, and the GOP plans to marry Spartz’s story of fleeing socialist Ukraine with what they say is a takeover of the Democratic Party by the so-called far left.

The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election handicapper, rates the race as a “toss up.” 

The DCCC poll, which was conducted by Tulchin Research, surveyed 400 likely voters Aug. 5-10 and has a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points.