South Bend, IN - On Wednesday, March 11th, the Ellen Marks for Congress campaign announced it would discontinue attendance at most large gatherings to support “social distancing” protocols intended to reduce the spread of the coronavirus through Indiana’s Second Congressional District, which includes all of St. Joseph, Elkhart, Marshall, Wabash, Starke, Miami, Fulton, and Pulaski Counties as well as parts of LaPorte and Kosciusko Counties. Marks will still participate in the Democratic Primary Debates scheduled for March 25th and April 20th, and the campaign will continue to assess as additional information becomes available.
The campaign noted that this is a difficult decision, because elections, particularly for first-time candidates like Marks, depend on building connections with voters which can best be made through in-person meetings. However, she and her campaign believe this is the right call to protect constituents in the 2nd District.
“We will arrange other ways to connect with voters,” said Marks, who will be appearing on Dana Black’s radio show, Turn Left, this Thursday at 6:00PM. Marks is also establishing a series of virtual town halls and will be available for one-on-one phone calls with interested constituents. She encourages voters to avoid election day crowds by participating in early voting starting April 7th. Indiana’s primary election will be held on May 5th.
Although Congresswoman Jackie Walorski has assured Hoosiers that the risk is low and has commended the selection of Mike Pence to lead the US response--even though Pence as governor failed to halt the spread of an HIV epidemic in Indiana when he overruled public health experts--Marks believes that Republican messaging that “it’s all under control” undermines the need to take more aggressive containment efforts. She notes reports that testing has been unavailable in South Bend and that the US remains weeks behind where it needs to be in terms of testing capacity.
“This is a hard call,” Marks noted, “because I can provide the leadership we need in the Second District, and I need to get that message to voters. But my leadership needs to start here and now. I won’t risk my constituents. That’s the bottom line.”
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