Hey, Hey, Indiana!
Listen Up!
I’m ANDY RUFF and I’m bringing Hoosier representation back to Indiana’s 9th District!
Let’s send TREY HOLLINGSWORTH back to TENNESSEE on November 3.
This is Andy.
My 9th District neighbors…
“I’m a lifetime Southern Indiana Hoosier. I got involved in local politics back in the 90s, around when federal politicians began ignoring working people in favor of corporate interests and ultra-wealthy donors.
Southern Indiana, like much of the Midwest, was devastated by NAFTA, a trade deal put together by Democrats. NAFTA shipped good-paying union jobs, the backbone of a strong middle class, out of Indiana by the tens-of-thousands. Ninth District communities like mine were crippled by the thoughtless Wall-Street greed of our elected leaders. That’s when I decided to step up — and run for office.
I’m a Hoosier Progressive who for the last 20 years has represented the good people who call my part of Southern Indiana home. Folks here know me, and I know them. When I have conversations with people in this district, it’s not as a politician but as a friend and neighbor.
Hoosiers are sick and tired of our divisive and broken political system. They disdain moneyed interests lining the pockets of every politician with a re-election campaign. And they can’t stand the way those in corporate-backed media disregard ‘flyover country.’
These are incredibly tough times for those of us without an inflated stock portfolio or generational wealth to fall back on. We have never needed true Hoosier leadership as much as we do right now. Unfortunately, here in Indiana’s 9th District, we’ve never had less leadership than our current ‘representative,’ a man with no Hoosier roots and even less connection to the working-class folks who call Southern Indiana home.
Help me bring Hoosier representation back to Indiana’s 9th by sending Tennessee Trey home on November 3.”
- ANDY
You should vote for me because…
The Economy Doesn’t Work for You
Hoosiers deserve a decent wage and good benefits — period — but our economy is nowhere close to working fairly for the bottom 90% of people. Wall Street ‘recovered’ from the last big crash and may breeze through the COVID-19 pandemic, but what about the folks on Main Street? With scores of ordinary Hoosiers still hurting from NAFTA, the dot-com bubble, the Great Recession and the pandemic, who in their right mind cares how high the Dow-Jones is when their wallets have been shrinking for decades? Now my ultra-rich opponent wants to give Wall Street yet another windfall by cashing out Hoosier lives. We must do better.
We Take Care of Our Sick People
We pay more for healthcare than ever but get worse outcomes. Why? Because the U.S. medical industry cares more about saving money than lives, and congressmen like Trey Hollingsworth know they’ll get a cut of the profits in the form of big checks to their re-election campaigns. Job losses are at Great Depression levels, yet health insurance is still tied to employment. Millions lose coverage in the middle of a global pandemic and Congress won’t lifting a finger to help. We need to ditch the profit-driven system for a far cheaper public one that guarantees healthcare fit for the greatest nation on Earth.
Now is Our Chance to Save Earth for Our Children
We don’t need scientists to tell us man is destroying nature anymore. It’s right outside our windows. Summers are hotter and dryer, winters more unpredictable. Wildfires burn all over the globe and bigger hurricanes batter our coasts. Species from mussels to mammals die out by the thousands, even right here in Indiana. Bloomington, Martinsville, Franklin — the Pence family gas stations — these are just some of the places in the 9th District where deregulation run amok has poisoned the very land we live on. By making the right choices now, we can still save our planet and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, building a strong foundation for our children’s safety and prosperity.
We Don’t Cheat the Ballot Box
Our republic was founded on the principle of political equality, but our government continues to struggle honoring that. Politicians draw the maps and shut out our voices with gerrymandering. The government lets ultra-wealthy donors and corporations decide our 9th District election more than voters like us. But money isn’t speech. The fact of the matter is that we should enjoy an unfettered right to vote in our elections. Our Founders knew this better than anyone, but today’s government seems to have forgotten that We the People should choose our leaders, and no one else.
Education Is Not a Business
Thomas Jefferson said knowledge is like a candle: Even as it lights a new candle, the flame of the first is not darkened. Learning is vital for a strong republic to compete in the global economy. Why, then, is it so difficult for hardworking Americans to get a decent, affordable education? Why are the trades undervalued, public schools crumbling and universities saddling entire generations with crippling debt? When did our schools turn into just another profit machine for the rich? Knowledge may be priceless, but it should lead to good work and no one should be in debt for it.
You Want a Hoosier to Represent You Again
When elections aren’t done fairly, money becomes more important than votes. Nowhere is this more apparent than right here in our 9th District, where wealthy, outside special interests obtained the political power that rightfully belongs to us, the ordinary Hoosiers of Southern Indiana. That power now resides with one obscenely rich family — the Hollingsworths of Tennessee. It’s time for us to remind Washington our district isn’t a prize that goes to the highest bidder. This was Hoosier country, and it will be once again.
The problem with ‘Tennessee’ Trey…
“Current IN-09 Rep. Joseph Albert (‘Trey’) Hollingsworth III has convinced some Hoosiers he’s a ‘self-made small business owner’ whose primary concern is Main Street. He does this by bombarding the airwaves prior to Election Day with big-budget, agency-produced commercials proclaiming exactly that. Here’s a shocker: It’s not true.
In reality, Trey is the 37-year-old son of a mega-wealthy Tennessee real estate developer who owns seven percent of all housing in the family’s hometown of Clinton. Thanks to his rich father, Trey went from undergrad to CEO the day he graduated college. Put simply, your current congressman has never had to work hard a day in his life.
And it shows...
Why protect the residents of Orleans from the Mid-State Corridor project when 98% of your re-election campaign is funded by PACs and rich donors? Why help people in Franklin face devastating environmental issues when allowing Indiana’s ecosystem to be destroyed is so much more profitable? Why even think of real solutions for working Hoosiers when you can just throw a couple million in ads at voters before the election?
But the core problem with Trey — and this may seem irrelevant but I promise you it’s not — is that he insists on referring to himself as a Hoosier.
Trey ‘moved’ to Indiana in 2016, the same year he and his family spent $4 million buying out the IN-09 Republican Primary. It’s entirely possible, of course, to become an ‘adopted’ Hoosier, to be as practiced and knowledgeable in our ways and traditions as someone who was born and raised in Southern Indiana. But you have to earn the right to that title. It takes time, and real effort, to immerse yourself in our community and culture. These are things Tennessee Trey has yet to do. To be honest, I don’t think he’s even trying.
For instance, recently asked to name his favorite John Mellencamp song, Hollingsworth couldn’t do it! That’s right. The congressman for Indiana’s 9th couldn’t think of a single song by the living rock legend born and raised in this very district. Show me a Hoosier who can’t name ‘Jack and Diane’ or ‘Small Town’ in less than three seconds, and I’ll show you a politician from Tennessee who spends all his time in Washington.
As inconsequential as that may sound, it’s just one example of the fact that Trey doesn’t even have a baseline grasp of simple Hoosier knowledge — and he’s ‘lived here’ for four years now (supposedly). This is essential to understanding his continued misrepresentation of this district. If you’re as appalled as me that Joseph Albert Hollingsworth III has been using our seat in the nation’s capitol to make himself even richer and has the gall to call himself a ‘Hoosier’ while doing it, I’m asking you to help me send him and his family money back to Tennessee on Election Day.”
- ANDY
People who support Andy…
ALF-CIO (State of Indiana)
AFSCME (Indiana-Kentucky)
Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA)
John Tilford, retired USMC and U.S. Army colonel, 2020 IN-09 indep. candidate
Our Revolution (Southern Indiana)
John Gregg, former Indiana speaker of the house and 2-time nominee for governor
Baron Hill, 5-time U.S. Rep. for IN-09
Dan Canon, civil rights lawyer and 2016 IN-09 candidate
Liz Watson, executive director, Congressional Progressive Caucus, and 2018 IN-09 candidate
Terry Goodin, Indiana state rep. and former leader of House Democratic Caucus
Mark Kruzan, former Indiana state rep. and former Mayor of Bloomington
Matt Pierce, Indiana state rep. and IU educator
Sierra Club (Hoosier Chapter)
You, on November 3rd, 2020!
What is a Hoosier?
