Thirteen organizations across Indiana's 6th Congressional District spent the summer trying to put on one event: a forum where voters could hear from the two people running to represent them.

They booked nothing fancy. They asked both campaigns for two available dates by July 31, so volunteers could find a venue, set up a livestream, organize watch parties in outlying counties, and give the public enough notice to show up.

Cinde Wirth's campaign sent the dates.

Jefferson Shreve's campaign never replied — "despite receiving the invitation by certified mail and hand delivery to both his Greenfield and Richmond offices," the coalition wrote in a joint letter this week.

Under the nonpartisan bylaws of both the League of Women Voters and the NAACP, a forum needs at least two candidates. So the forum was cancelled.

Who was asking

This is worth spelling out, because of what Shreve's campaign said next.

The coalition was: League of Women Voters chapters in Brown/Bartholomew, Wayne, Henry, Hancock, Johnson and Marion counties; NAACP units in Richmond, Bartholomew-Columbus and Greater Indianapolis; Indivisible Wayne County and Central Indiana; South INDY-visible; and the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbus.

The League of Women Voters has been running candidate forums since 1920. It has bylaws requiring nonpartisanship — that is the whole reason the event had to be cancelled rather than held with one chair empty.

Their stated goal:

"Our goal was simple: make the forum accessible to as many voters as possible through a central location, live-streaming and county watch parties for those who could not attend in person."

What his campaign called them

When The Republic asked Shreve's campaign why it never responded to invitations delivered by certified mail, spokesman Kory Wood didn't say the schedule didn't work. He didn't say they'd offer another date. He said this:

"The event was nothing more than a far-left rally masquerading as a 'non-partisan' forum, all evidenced by a cursory review of the participating organizations' websites and affiliations."

That is a congressman's office describing the League of Women Voters and the NAACP as a far-left rally.

It is also an answer to a question nobody asked. The coalition's complaint wasn't that Shreve declined. It's that he never responded at all — not to say yes, not to say no, not to propose different terms. If the objection was that the sponsors were biased, that objection could have been raised in July, in writing, and the groups could have adjusted or the public could have judged the exchange for itself.

Instead, three certified letters went unanswered until a reporter called.

This is not the first time

Shreve has a record here.

In May 2025, Democrats in the 6th District held what they called a "People's Town Hall" after Shreve declined to attend. It was part of a broader run of "empty chair" town halls that drew crowds across Indiana — events where constituents showed up, the congressman didn't, and organizers left a seat out for him.

Since then, constituents have gone to him instead. They've gathered outside his Greenwood office to protest the use of Camp Atterbury for ICE detention and the state's redistricting push. They've demonstrated against immigration policy in the same city.

When you won't hold the meeting, people hold it on the sidewalk.

Why it matters right now

The 6th District covers Johnson County plus all or parts of Bartholomew, Fayette, Hancock, Henry, Randolph, Rush, Shelby, Union and Wayne counties, and southern Marion County. That's a lot of ground, and a lot of people who now have no scheduled opportunity to question either candidate side by side before the November 3 election.

They have plenty to ask about. Shreve is one of the cosponsors of a bill that would void surrogacy contracts outright based on the nationality of the intended parents. He reversed himself on guns after once being rated F by the NRA. He has been trading stocks after tariff announcements. And ICE detention at Camp Atterbury is happening inside his district.

Every one of those is a fair question. A forum is where a voter gets to ask it and hear the answer in the candidate's own voice, next to the other candidate's answer.

Shreve won 64% of the district in 2024. But he took just 53% in his May 2026 primary against challenger Sarah Janisse Brown — and only 51% in Bartholomew County.

Incumbents who feel safe show up. Incumbents who don't, don't.

The simple version

Thirteen nonpartisan groups, six League of Women Voters chapters, three NAACP units. Certified mail. Hand delivery to two district offices. A July 31 deadline that came and went.

No reply. Forum cancelled. And then, only when a reporter asked, an insult.

The coalition's closing line to voters was to go look the candidates up themselves at VOTE411.org, since they couldn't get one of them into a room.

Source

Andy East, The Republic: "Coalition cancels 6th District candidate forum after Shreve doesn't respond." Photo: The Republic.