Phil Goss

Phil Goss (Democratic Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent Indiana's 3rd Congressional District. He declared candidacy for the 2026 election.^[source]

Biography

Phil Goss was born in Oklahoma. Goss earned a bachelor's degree from the Wabash College and a graduate degree from the University of Strathclyde. His career experience includes working as a president and CEO. As of 2024, Goss was affiliated with the Farm Bureau of Indiana.^[1]

Elections

2026

Note: At this time, Ballotpedia is combining all declared candidates for this election into one list under a general election heading. As primary election dates are published, this information will be updated to separate general election candidates from primary candidates as appropriate.

General election

The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.

General election for U.S. House Indiana District 3

Incumbent Marlin A. Stutzman, Phil Goss, and Kelly Thompson are running in the general election for U.S. House Indiana District 3 on November 3, 2026.

		Candidate
		Marlin A. Stutzman (R)
		Phil Goss (D)
		Kelly Thompson (D)

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Endorsements

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2024

State House

General election

General election for Indiana House of Representatives District 85

Incumbent David Heine defeated Phil Goss in the general election for Indiana House of Representatives District 85 on November 5, 2024.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	David Heine (R)	74.4	23,160
	Phil Goss (D)	25.6	7,970

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 31,130
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for Indiana House of Representatives District 85

Incumbent David Heine advanced from the Republican primary for Indiana House of Representatives District 85 on May 7, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		David Heine	100.0	7,042

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 7,042
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Goss in this election.

Pledges

Goss signed the following pledges.

U.S. Term Limits

U.S. House

Indiana's 3rd Congressional District election, 2024 (May 7 Republican primary)

Indiana's 3rd Congressional District election, 2024 (May 7 Democratic primary)

General election

General election for U.S. House Indiana District 3

Marlin A. Stutzman defeated Kiley Adolph and Jarrad Lancaster in the general election for U.S. House Indiana District 3 on November 5, 2024.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Marlin A. Stutzman (R)	65.0	202,653
	Kiley Adolph (D)	31.4	97,871
	Jarrad Lancaster (L)	3.5	11,015

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 311,539
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Indiana District 3

Kiley Adolph defeated Phil Goss in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Indiana District 3 on May 7, 2024.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Kiley Adolph	62.8	10,286
	Phil Goss	37.2	6,095

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 16,381
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Jo Anderson (D)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Indiana District 3

The following candidates ran in the Republican primary for U.S. House Indiana District 3 on May 7, 2024.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Marlin A. Stutzman	24.2	19,507
	Tim Smith	22.6	18,204
	Wendy W. Davis	19.5	15,660
	Andy Zay	16.4	13,157
	Grant Bucher	10.3	8,259
	Jon Kenworthy	3.8	3,064
	Michael Felker	1.8	1,417
	Eric Whalen	1.5	1,189

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 80,457
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Chandler Likes (R)
Scott Wise (R)

Libertarian convention

Libertarian convention for U.S. House Indiana District 3

Jarrad Lancaster advanced from the Libertarian convention for U.S. House Indiana District 3 on March 2, 2024.

		Candidate
✔		Jarrad Lancaster (L)

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source 1 Source 2
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Goss in this election.

Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

Phil Goss has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey. Send a message to Phil Goss asking him to fill out the survey. If you are Phil Goss, click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.

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You can ask Phil Goss to fill out this survey by using the buttons below or emailing info@philgossforcongress.com.

2024

State House

Phil Goss did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

U.S. House

Phil Goss completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Goss' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

My name is Phil Goss. I was raised in Evansville, where I graduated from Central High School before receiving a bacherlor's degree from Wabash College. I then received a MBA from University of Strathclyde and did further studies at the Kelley School of Business at IU Bloomington.

My career has included work as a teacher, a radio show host, and a Fascell Fellowship with the State Department, where I worked on immigrant visas and worked to facilitate adoptions of Eastern European children into loving American families.

Following the Fellowship I returned to education, culminating in work at TVN Linguaa, where I did televised language instruction. I continue to be employed remotely by a Polish company, as well as managing my family farm in Fort Wayne, which has been in my family for four generations. I am the proud steward of 46 acres we grow food for local families, and where we annually raise more than 400 varieties of Irises.

I've been a teacher, a farmer, and a fixer. I've attended colleges in the United States and Poland, and worked with businesses on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Everything I've done has led to this moment, and I'm honored to have your support as we work to flip this District blue. I promise to represent the real needs of our people when I take my seat in the United States House of Representatives.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

We must protect the health care rights of Americans, and remember that healthcare is a human right, not a privilege reserved for the few. I support a universal public option for healthcare, allowing all Americans to enjoy healthcare not tied to employment. I support the rights of every American to choose their healthcare; to make the choices that are right for them in family planning, including protecting abortion access at the national level.
We want to protect family farms. Right now, too many families pay too much in taxes when they inherit their generational farm. Our plan, gives them a tax break to keep families farming, and foreign governments from owning our most precious resource. Check out our Farms First Policy.
We must protect and rebuild the middle class, starting by making it easier to buy your first home. Today, throughout America, home builders have stopped building starter homes because their is too much profit in building 2,000 square foot McMansions. We've introduced a policy that would provide tax breaks to small builders who want to build smaller homes, homes that we can use to help Americans realize the dream of homeownership again.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am passionate about housing policy, about healthcare policy, and about agriculture policy. We need more middle class housing. We need unverisal healthcare. We need to protect the family farm.

I am also passionate about drug policy reform, we must federally legalize cannabis and I will fight to stop labeling people who use this vital medication with the word "criminal."

I also believe we need comprehensive immigration reform. I've worked in immigration, I know the system is broken, but I also know it was never designed to work. We must protect DACA receipients, who are Americans. We must make it easier to immgrate to this country, permanently or temporarily, with massive overhauls of our immigration system.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

My father taught me to take responsibility for my own actions and the importance of living up to our own expectations before the expectations of others.

My mother taught me never to quit, and to remain optimistic despite challenges I may face.

Woodward and Bernstein taught me the value of the truth, and the value of journalists. We need more people devoted to keeping our public officials accountable.

Is there a book, essay, film, or something else you would recommend to someone who wants to understand your political philosophy?

Aristotle: The Rhetoric

Plato: The Republic
The Federalist Papers
Upton Sinclair: The Jungle

John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

I believe a representative must be accountable to the voters; seeking guidance from people to understand what matters to them, and spending as much time as possible in their district, not just in Washington, DC.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

The analytical ability to find the problems, and the understanding that compromise is a neccessary part of the path to progress.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

We must first be good stewards, good stewards of our land, good stewards of our people, and good stewards of our economy.

What legacy would you like to leave?

I would like to leave the world a better place, and I would like people to look back at my time in Congress as something they can be proud of, that I worked for constituents at all times, and left the House when it was time for me to do so.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

The first thing I remember was the bicentennial of the United States in 1976.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

My very first job was mowing grass at church when I was 12 years old. I did that four years.

What is your favorite book? Why?

The most recent thing I read that really affected me was 'Gulag: A History', by Anne Applebaum. It's hard to think of individual books as favorites because I read so many in a month, but this one was eye-opening and deeply touching.

If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be?

Attiticus Finch from 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. Attiticus demonstrates an unwavering commitment to justice that we should all admire, and is always determined to admire the good in people while working to understand the bad.

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

There is a different song stuck in my head every day, but today it was 'Red Sector A' by Rush.

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

My career path has not followed a traditional path, or what we think of as a traditional path in America. Despite the adversity of a non-traditional career path, I've been able to find success because of the people who have helped me along the way. Those people put their trust in me, repeatedly, and helped me along the way.

Do you believe that it's beneficial for representatives to have previous experience in government or politics?

I do believe that my experience in the State Department helps me to understand some of the issues facing immigration in this country, but I don't believe that experience is a neccessity for effective work as a representative.

What do you perceive to be the United States’ greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

Our infrastructure allows our economy to function smoothly, yet our transportation and energy infrastructure is aging, and if we fail to maintain that infrastructure it threatens to throw the entire economy into jeopardy.

We must also work to maintain food security and economic stability, these things are vital parts of our national security.

Over the next ten years, many more members of the Baby Boomer generation will retire, creating worker shortages that could number as many as a million workers per year. We must expand vocational training to replace the experienced retirees with talented young people who are ready to work in the trades as their career.

Do you believe that two years is the right term length for representatives?

I have concerns about the amount of time people spend in power, but I also have concerns about the two year cycle forcing people to always be in "campaign" mode. A longer term could give people more time to govern, and encourage them to spend less time fundraising. I would support a change to the length of the term that also came with term limits.

What are your thoughts on term limits?

I support limiting the US House to three terms, and the US Senate to two terms. I also believe that it may be time to investigate upper age limits for those standing for election.

Do you believe that compromise is necessary or desirable for policymaking?

Compromise is an absolute neccessity for effective government. You know you have a good compromise when no one leaves the table completely happy. We must work to

The Constitution says that all bills for raising revenue must originate in the House. What role would this power play in your priorities if elected?

Being a good steward to our economy means introducing bills that spend American tax-payer dollars in a way that benefits Americans. The House owes

How should the U.S. House use its investigative powers?

Only to investigate actual real wrong-doing. The House currently uses its investigative powers solely to advance political agendas, and it must get back to the business of governing.

What committees interest you?

I would be most interested in Agriculture and Housing, so that I could work to make Farms First a reality, and work to make homeownership a real dream for Americans once more.

I would also be interested in serving on the Rules Committee, and the House Oversight Committee, in an effort to make the house more accountable to voters, and to help it function better.

What are your views on financial transparency and government accountability?

The government must be fully accountable to the governed, in all things. Good stewardship of our economy means being transparent and accountable to the people of the United States.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign website

Goss' campaign website stated the following:

“

I believe that the American Dream has been stolen from us by a single political party that claims to believe in freedom, but then spends all of their time telling us the things we shall, and shall not, be allowed to do. That isn't freedom. True freedom is believing in the American Dream of every American.

Join us in reclaiming that American Dream.

Donate. Volunteer. Share our website with your friends.

Together, we're going to give you the representation you deserve in Congress.

Infrastructure

A rising tide does not lift those who don’t have a boat. We must build it for them.

A small business does not succeed without the internet. We must build it for them.

Rebuilding the Middle Class

The middle class does not exist with unfair tax policy. We must fix the policy.

The middle class does not exist without unions. We must support them.

Government Overreach

The exam room is too small for the government and the people. People should only be with their doctor.

You shouldn’t have to ask John Deere to fix your tractor. We should have Right to Repair laws.^[2]

”

—Phil Goss’s campaign website (2024)^[3]

Campaign finance summary

Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

Phil Goss campaign contribution history
Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2026*	U.S. House Indiana District 3	Candidacy Declared general	$40,000	$40,242
2024*	Indiana House of Representatives District 85	Lost general	$0	$0
2024*	U.S. House Indiana District 3	Lost primary	$260,099	$256,768
Grand total			$300,099	$297,009
Sources: OpenSecrets, Federal Elections Commission *This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete

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Candidate

U.S. House Indiana District 3

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Footnotes

↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on April 8, 2024
↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
↑ Phil Goss' campaign website, “Issues,” accessed April 17, 2024

[show]

Indiana's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Jim Banks (R)

Todd Young (R)

Representatives

District 1

Frank Mrvan (D)

District 2

Rudy Yakym (R)

District 3

Marlin Stutzman (R)

District 4

Jim Baird (R)

District 5

Victoria Spartz (R)

District 6

Jefferson Shreve (R)

District 7

André Carson (D)

District 8

Mark Messmer (R)

District 9

Erin Houchin (R)

Republican Party (9)

Democratic Party (2)

[1] Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on April 8, 2024

[quotedisclaimer-2] Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.

[3] Phil Goss' campaign website, “Issues,” accessed April 17, 2024

[1]

[2]

[3]

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Phil Goss

Biography

Elections

2026

General election

General election for U.S. House Indiana District 3

Endorsements

2024

State House

General election

General election for Indiana House of Representatives District 85

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Indiana House of Representatives District 85

Endorsements

Pledges

U.S. House

General election

General election for U.S. House Indiana District 3

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Indiana District 3

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Indiana District 3

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Libertarian convention

Libertarian convention for U.S. House Indiana District 3

Endorsements

Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

2024

State House

U.S. House

Campaign website

Campaign finance summary

See also

External links

Footnotes

Information about voting

2025 Elections

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