Evansville Democrat says he can shock the world in the 8th District

EVANSVILLE — His own party chairman says he's a dead man walking. He has so little campaign cash that the FEC doesn't even have a page for him. He's a movie theater manager going up against a veteran state legislator who had raised nearly $800,000 as of April 17.

There's lots of reasons to think Democrat Erik Hurt, an Evansville resident, has no chance against Republican Sen. Mark Messmer (R-Jasper) in this year's race to succeed retiring 8th District Rep. Larry Bucshon in Congress.

Oh, and there's the fact that the 21-county 8th is one of the nation's most Republican congressional districts.

But a day after his surprise win in a four-candidate Democratic primary election, Hurt, 32, sounded game for the fight.

"I believe I can do as much with the resources that I have as anybody running across the country," he said. "I’m not going to try and pretend like I’m going to raise as much money as the Republican in this area, but I know that I can do more with the money that I will raise than what somebody else could do with more."

Now that he's officially the Democratic nominee for Congress, Hurt hopes to build out a small volunteer group, get some money together and coalesce party leaders behind him.

'Erik's name was first'

That last task might prove tricky.

8th District Democratic Chairman Dave Crooks, a former state legislator from Brazil County and the Democrats' 2012 nominee, was backing another candidate in the primary. Crooks looks at Hurt and, well, doesn't like what he sees.

"He’s never called me once. Never," Crooks said.

Crooks had been campaign manager for Boonville resident Ed Sein, a musician and guitar salesman in whom he saw potential. But Hurt won the four-way primary with 45% of the vote — double what second-place finisher Sein got. Hurt even defeated Sein in his home county, winning 40% of the vote in Warrick County to Sein's 31%.

On Wednesday, Crooks still couldn't quite believe what had happened.

"The ballot placement," he said. "Erik's name was first. I think people just walked into the polling place and didn’t know much about any of the candidates and, ‘Oh, Erik Hurt. First name, OK, looks good. Move on down the ballot.’ I think that’s what happened."

Crooks recalled Joel Deckard, a Republican who represented the 8th District in Congress from 1979-83 but who saw his political career derailed by a car crash.

In fall 1983, while running for his third term, Deckard crashed his car into a tree in Posey County. He refused a breath exam and was charged with drunken driving. Democrat Frank McCloskey won the election, and Deckard's political career was history.

"The way I look at it, Mark Messmer is in such good position, he could hit two trees between now and Election Day, and he’s still going to win the congressional race," Crooks said.

Hurt is unafraid to say he's on the left

Hurt spent a lot of his time during the primary on college campuses speaking to students. He hopes to continue that in the fall, when colleges get back into session.

Democrats should be talking to "people who have constantly felt themselves sidelined" about things they feel passionately about, Hurt said.

Hurt can be blunt too. He said there's a reason Democrats have lost seven consecutive elections to Republican Bucshon, most by large margins.

"I think the tack that we’ve taken in this race has been very centrist, very safe, just kind of a moderate sort of approach, where I consider myself further on the left," he said.

"I speak very directly to some specific issues. It’s not just sort of vague liberal ideas; these are specific policies. That was my approach, was to speak directly to specific policies in a way that I just don’t think candidates have done well enough in this race."

Hurt's website bears out his description of his views.

"We have let corporate greed and the interests of the wealthy few put a stranglehold on the rest of us," it states.

"I want to fight for an America that guarantees all of its citizens paid time off, paid parental leave, healthcare, child care, debt free education, and a living wage. I believe in an America that will tackle problems like crime and substance abuse with evidence-based solutions and not just cops and prisons."

Where's the real campaign trail?

Hurt drives his wife's Honda Fit on the campaign trail. It's a long trail. The 8th District stretches all the way from southern Posey County up the Illinois-Indiana border to the top of Fountain County.

The U.S. Census Bureau puts the 8th District's population at slightly more than 752,000.

Crooks said there's no way Hurt can drive enough miles and shake enough hands to win the election without money to compete in the television advertising wars in the Evansville and Terre Haute media markets — even with the 8th District's affordable advertising rates.

Nielsen's 2023 rankings list the Evansville media market as the 107th-largest in the country and the Terre Haute media market as 158th-largest.

"I don’t think people understand how much money you have to have to get noticed in a congressional district," Crooks said.

But Hurt says he has the power of ideas.

"If we’re to make real progress in this race and have a real chance, we need to do something different — and I think that my win yesterday proved that," he said.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Evansville Democrat says he can shock the world in the 8th District