4 GOP candidates vying for 3rd District seat to debate at Purdue Fort Wayne April 17

The Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics in the College of Liberal Arts at Purdue University Fort Wayne will host a debate for some of the candidates seeking the Republican nomination for Indiana’s 3rd Congressional District of the U.S. House of Representatives. The debate will be recorded on April 17 in the IDEASpace of PFW’s Helmke Library. There will be no public audience.

Kayla Blakeslee, morning news host at WOWO, Fred McKissack, editorial page editor of The Journal Gazette, and Dirk Rowley, evening news anchor at WANE 15, will serve as moderators.

The participants will be Wendy Davis, Tim Smith, Marlin Stutzman, and Andy Zay. Each was chosen based on campaign finance criteria determined by the moderators, who have also established the debate’s format, rules, and questions.

A recording of the debate will be hosted by WOWO, The Journal Gazette, WANE 15, and the Center for Collaborative Media in the College of Liberal Arts / College TV Fort Wayne. Local news outlets that would like to cover the debate from the audience will need to request that access using this link.

The Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics is a nonpartisan academic center of excellence at Purdue University Fort Wayne. It is devoted to helping the people of Indiana understand the wide-ranging impact of politics in their daily lives. Serving as a host of the debate is consistent with the center’s mission and is not an endorsement of any political party or political candidate by the center, Purdue University Fort Wayne, or Purdue University.

The debate format, criteria for participation, and questions or statements by the moderators, are entirely the responsibility of the moderators, and are not reflective of the views of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics, Purdue University Fort Wayne, or Purdue University.

Contact Mike Wolf, acting director of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics, at [email protected] or 260-481-6898 for more information.