Produced by:
Progressive Indiana Network: https:/www.progressiveindiana.net
Moderator:
Scott Aaron Rogers: https://www.hoosleft.us
Candidates:
William Kory Amyx: https://amyxforcongress.com/
Nick Baker: https://electnickbaker.com/
Cinde Wirth: https://wirth4congress.com/
David Boyd was invited and and confirmed but pulled out of this debate citing to a scheduling conflict.
SUMMARY:
Progressive Indiana Network hosted a Democratic primary debate for Indiana’s 6th Congressional District, featuring moderator Scott Aaron Rogers and candidates William Kory Amyx, Nick Baker, and Dr. Cinde Wirth. A fourth candidate, David Boyd, was invited and confirmed but withdrew citing a scheduling conflict. The debate covered ten questions on foreign policy, technology accountability, immigration, affordability, healthcare, education, human rights, taxation, social security, and labor, followed by a fifteen-question speed round and closing statements. The candidates showed clear ideological distinctions throughout, particularly on healthcare — with Amyx and Wirth supporting universal single-payer and Baker advocating a public option — and on immigration, where Amyx and Wirth called for abolishing ICE and Baker opposed that position. The speed round revealed unanimous agreement on several issues including data center moratoriums, DC and Puerto Rico statehood, abolishing the Electoral College, cannabis legalization, FISA reauthorization, impeaching Trump, and opposing Hakeem Jeffries for Speaker, while the candidates split on an assault weapons ban, student debt cancellation, free higher education, and abolishing the federal death penalty.
BREAKDOWN:
00:00:22 Opening and introductions
- Scott Aaron Rogers opens the debate on behalf of Progressive Indiana Network, introducing the 6th Congressional District race.
- Candidates introduced: William Kory Amyx, Nick Baker, and Dr. Cinde Wirth; David Boyd was invited and confirmed but withdrew at the last minute citing a scheduling conflict.
- Format outlined: two-minute opening statements, ten questions with 90-second responses, a fifteen-question speed round, and closing statements.
00:02:49 Opening statements
- Amyx leads, citing 23,000 doors knocked across 11 counties and a focus on affordability, healthcare, education, public safety, and economic dignity.
- Baker follows (order swapped due to technical difficulties with Wirth), highlighting his Camp Lejeune Supreme Court case, a push for a balanced budget through healthcare reform, and an argument that he is the most electable candidate in a conservative district.
- Wirth closes, introducing herself as a seventh-generation 6th District resident, public school teacher, small business owner, and PhD scientist, and citing her 2022 run against Greg Pence as proof of her commitment to the district.
00:08:10 Q1: Separation of powers and the war with Iran
- Rogers frames the question around the Iran war, sweeping tariff authority, and the revival of impoundment powers, asking what each candidate would do to reassert congressional authority and what their position is on the war.
- Baker calls the war illegal and unconstitutional, argues for winning back the House majority to challenge executive overreach through legislation.
- Amyx proposes replacing the War Powers Resolution with a modern version requiring affirmative congressional authorization within 30 days, automatic funding cutoffs for unauthorized hostilities, congressional approval windows for tariffs, and reform of the National Emergencies Act.
- Wirth argues Congress members who took an oath to defend the Constitution have a duty to hold domestic enemies accountable, and calls for restoring the State Department’s professional diplomatic corps to end the Iran conflict.
00:15:12 Q2: Tech accountability and Section 230
- Rogers uses the discovery of a network of online chat groups called “Rape Academy” with an estimated 62 million members as the entry point for a question on platform liability and Section 230 reform.
- Amyx calls for full repeal of Section 230 and introduces two pieces of draft legislation: the Real Identity Integrity Act (tokenized logins to verify identity while preserving anonymity) and the Digital Integrity and Algorithmic Accountability Act (algorithmic transparency requirements).
- Wirth draws on her classroom experience with cyberbullying, calls for guardrails on big tech, and argues the root problem is money blocking legislation that has been proposed repeatedly over 15 years.
- Baker calls Silicon Valley the “Wild West,” applauds a New Mexico verdict against Meta for hosting child predators, references Indiana’s Haley’s Law, and cautions against regulation that tips into censorship.
00:21:32 Q3: Immigration and ICE
- Rogers frames the question around the removal of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, ICE shootings of U.S. citizens, and a Democratic base that increasingly supports abolishing ICE.
- Wirth states she called for abolishing ICE last summer and co-organized an anti-ICE rally at Johnson County Park in Atterbury; she supports retaining professional Customs and Border Protection at ports of entry while eliminating ICE entirely.
- Baker opposes full abolishment, arguing ICE can be returned to how it functioned under Clinton and Obama — deporting people lawfully without the abuses of the current administration; warns that “abolish ICE” messaging will cost votes in a conservative district.
- Amyx introduces his Unity Pathway Act: provisional legal status for undocumented individuals, a pathway to a green card after five years, and replacement of ICE with a new Immigration Enforcement Service refocused on trafficking networks, cartel operations, and violent criminals rather than families and workers.
00:28:20 Q4: Affordability
- Rogers presses all three on the affordability crisis, noting that “we’ll lower costs” is a talking point, not a policy, and asking for root causes and specific solutions.
- Amyx cites real wage data (3.3% price increases vs. 0.3% real hourly earnings growth in March), and outlines a structural approach: raise wages with small business offsets, universal healthcare to cut costs, expand housing supply, and treat child care as an economic investment.
- Baker points to insurance as the largest inflationary metric — with profits up fourfold while premiums rose 10-21% — and argues for reforming healthcare overhead, returning tax revenue to communities, and raising the minimum wage.
- Wirth argues Medicare for All would give every family an effective lift of approximately $24,000 through 2-3% administrative overhead, calls for CEO pay accountability, enforcement of antitrust laws, and investment in 50 million affordable housing units.
00:34:30 Q5: Healthcare
- Rogers uses a direct Baker quote from a Hancock County forum — “I would love the dream of universal healthcare to come true, but I don’t think right now it’s a workable solution” — to open a deeper discussion on how each candidate would get to their preferred healthcare system.
- Baker clarifies he does not support propping up the ACA, which he calls broken, and instead supports a public option he describes as “Medicare for More” — leaving a capitalistic private market open while eliminating administrative waste; he says universal healthcare would require a two-thirds congressional majority.
- Wirth cites polling showing over 70% of Americans support single-payer in some form, advocates a phased-in approach funded through payroll taxes and a wealth tax on investment gains, and proposes job transition programs for insurance industry workers displaced by the change.
- Amyx agrees with Wirth that preventative care is critical, supports universal healthcare but opposes a sudden transition that could “crush” rural hospitals, and calls for phased implementation with Medicare negotiating drug prices, capped out-of-pocket costs, and strengthened rural care.
00:41:19 Q6: Education
- Rogers frames the question around Trump’s dismantling of the Department of Education, Title I cuts, student debt, and the teacher exodus from the profession.
- Amyx, who has worked in higher education for 22 years as a financial aid officer and veterans advisor, calls for increased Title I and IDEA funding, ending the voucher program, paying teachers at the same level as ICE agents (over $100,000), expanding career and technical education, and making all students independent at 18 for FAFSA purposes.
- Baker predicts the Department of Education may need to be “resurrected” by January, supports increased federal funding, and proposes using litigation to challenge religious institutions that accept vouchers while discriminating — arguing that’s a case winnable even in the current Supreme Court.
- Wirth, whose PhD is in cultural and educational policy, calls vouchers a tool for segregation dating to the post-Brown v. Board era, calls for overturning Espinoza v. Montana, restoring teacher loan eligibility, protecting IDEA, and ending the use of public tax dollars in private schools that can expel students at will.
00:47:54 Q7: LGBTQ rights and the Newsom debate
- Rogers frames the question around Gavin Newsom’s call for Democrats to be more “culturally normal,” the backlash from LGBTQ advocates, and where candidates draw the line between political pragmatism and abandoning vulnerable constituents.
- Wirth, an anthropologist, flatly rejects Newsom’s framing — “there is no cultural normalcy” — calls trans rights human rights, and recounts changing attendance rosters by hand to protect trans students before it was widely discussed, as far back as 2010.
- Baker says he supports liberty and government staying out of people’s personal lives, but expresses personal reservations about gender-affirming care for minors and trans athletes in certain sports settings, framing it as a political liability in the district.
- Amyx, who is gay and the only LGBTQ candidate in the race, calls human rights non-negotiable, says he knows firsthand what it means to hide who you are, and states he will never back down on trans rights or compromise on anyone’s humanity.
00:54:06 Q8: Taxation and the wealth tax
- Rogers uses Newsom’s opposition to a wealth tax — framing it as making room for billionaires in the Democratic tent — against the Warren/Sanders barnstorming tour arguing the opposite, and asks where each candidate stands on taxing the wealthy and reorienting the tax code.
- Baker calls for a complete overhaul of the tax code, more progressive brackets at $1M, $10M, $100M, and $1B income thresholds, and closing loopholes — while also proposing cutting corporate taxes to incentivize reinvestment over executive pay extraction.
- Amyx proposes eliminating the federal income tax entirely for individuals earning under $75,000 (and couples under $150,000), offset by a targeted 1% wealth tax on the ultra-wealthy with tens of millions in accumulated assets.
- Wirth supports a 2-3% tax on billionaire investment gains to fund childcare infrastructure and other programs, and calls for corporations and the wealthy to pay their fair share rather than spending on tax avoidance.
01:00:23 Q9: Social Security solvency
- Rogers frames the Social Security shortfall — projected insolvency by 2032 with an automatic 28% benefit cut — and contrasts Republican privatization proposals with the progressive solution of lifting the payroll tax cap above $184,500.
- Wirth supports raising the cap to approximately $425,000, opposes privatization entirely, and calls for laws protecting the Social Security fund from being used as a “piggy bank.”
- Amyx acknowledges lifting the cap helps but notes economists say even a full cap elimination only closes 70-80% of the 75-year shortfall; says he favors eliminating the cap entirely but admits the full solution requires additional mechanisms he hasn’t fully resolved.
- Baker supports raising the Social Security tax threshold to $400,000-$500,000, argues the deeper problem is the national debt (grown from $13T to $39T since 2010), and references the Simpson-Bowles framework — two-thirds cuts, one-third revenue — as a model for long-term solvency.
01:06:39 Q10: Labor and the union drift to Republicans
- Rogers asks candidates to diagnose why blue-collar private-sector union members have been drifting Republican for decades, and what they would do in Congress to win back not just union leadership endorsements but rank-and-file votes.
- Baker attributes part of the drift to right-to-work laws and pivots to data centers — arguing no candidate can win this district supporting them, citing Decatur Township specifically, and noting that construction jobs last a year or two while the centers then employ fewer people than a Cracker Barrel.
- Wirth, who identifies as the only active labor union member (AFT/AFL-CIO) running for Congress in Indiana, supports the PRO Act and repeal of right-to-work, argues labor unions are being used as pawns in data center promotion, and attributes the trade union drift to sexism — noting trade unions are male-dominated while the professions drifting Democratic are female-dominated.
- Amyx says the cost of living is overriding party loyalty, Democrats haven’t been listening (citing his 23,000 doors across both parties), and that Republicans have mastered “respect for workers” messaging even when their policies don’t match; identifies cultural disconnect, institutional distrust, immigration anxiety, and “identity-first” Democratic messaging as contributing factors.
01:13:38 Speed round
- Federal moratorium on new data center construction: Amyx yes, Baker yes, Wirth yes
- Expand the Supreme Court beyond nine justices: Wirth yes, Baker no, Amyx yes
- Statehood for DC and Puerto Rico: Baker yes, Amyx yes, Wirth yes
- Constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College: Amyx yes, Wirth yes, Baker yes
- Federal legalization of recreational cannabis: Amyx yes, Baker yes, Wirth yes
- FISA reauthorization: Wirth no, Amyx no, Baker no
- Withhold military aid to Israel: Baker no, Wirth yes, Amyx yes
- Impeach President Trump: Amyx yes, Wirth yes, Baker yes
- Free public higher education: Wirth yes, Baker no, Amyx yes
- Cancel all outstanding student debt: Baker no, Amyx yes, Wirth yes
- Universal federally funded child care: Amyx yes, Wirth yes, Baker yes
- Hakeem Jeffries for Speaker: Baker no, Wirth no, Amyx no
- Federal assault weapons ban: Amyx yes, Baker no, Wirth yes
- Abolish the federal death penalty: Amyx no, Wirth yes, Baker no
- Federal minimum wage by 2030: Wirth declined to give a number (living wage tied to local cost of living), Baker $15, Amyx $23 (toward a $25/hr target by 2031)
01:19:18 Closing statements
- Amyx closes on listening before leading — 24,000 doors, real solutions built with constituents, a contrast with “standard politicians.”
- Baker closes on electability — asking voters whether they want the most progressive candidate or the most electable progressive, and arguing his campaign gives Democrats the best shot at flipping the seat, which last went Democratic in 1939 under Finly Gray.
- Wirth closes by invoking her 2022 run against Greg Pence when no one else would, her work across all 11 counties, and a vision of single-payer healthcare, living wages, affordable childcare, fully funded public schools, and being “the first Democratic woman to represent” the 6th District.
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Rogers closes the event, thanks the candidates and PIN notes early voting is underway with primary day May 5th, and calls the winner’s general election race one of the most consequential midterm elections in modern American history
