Former Miss Indiana Running In 9th District

Photo: courtesy Shelli Yoder

Former Miss Indiana Shelli Yoder is running for the Democratic nomination in Indiana's 9th Congressional District.

9^th congressional district candidate Shelli Yoder spoke to members of Indiana University’s College Democrats Monday night about her platform of stimulating the economy, creating a balanced budget and community involvement across party lines.

“This campaign is about letting everybody have a sense that they can get involved in making a difference, in turning this economy around, that it’s not just top down. It’s bottom up,” she says.

Yoder says she would promote green jobs and small business growth. She also wants to see more debt forgiveness programs through community service and civic engagement.

But after Yoder opened the floor to questions some attendees felt she didn’t have many concrete answers. IU student Darsh Suresh says Yoder made good points about job creation and education, but was not clear about other issues like how she would create a balanced budget.

“I felt that her answer to the balanced budget question was somewhat vague she mentioned something about the defense department budget cuts,” Suresh says. “But I feel like, besides that, there wasn’t a whole lot of substance.”

Yoder faces four other Democrats in May’s Democratic primary.