D. Liam Dorris

D. Liam Dorris (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Indiana's 9th Congressional District. He lost in the Democratic primary on May 7, 2024.

Dorris completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Dorris grew up in Evansville, Indiana. His professional experience includes working in the field of metrology. He served in the United States Marine Corps from 1998 to 2002.

Elections

2020

See also: Indiana's 9th Congressional District election, 2020

Indiana's 9th Congressional District election, 2020 (June 2 Republican primary)

Indiana's 9th Congressional District election, 2020 (June 2 Democratic primary)

General election

General election for U.S. House Indiana District 9

Incumbent Trey Hollingsworth defeated Andy Ruff and Tonya Millis in the general election for U.S. House Indiana District 9 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Trey Hollingsworth (R)	60.9	218,606
		Andy Ruff (D)	34.8	124,826
		Tonya Millis (L)	4.3	15,601

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 359,033
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• John Tilford (Independent)

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Indiana District 9

Andy Ruff defeated Mark J. Powell, D. Liam Dorris, Brandon Hood, and James O'Gabhann III in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Indiana District 9 on June 2, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Andy Ruff	43.7	21,626
		Mark J. Powell	19.9	9,872
		D. Liam Dorris	15.8	7,813
		Brandon Hood	13.9	6,899
	Submit photo	James O'Gabhann III	6.7	3,306

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 49,516
= 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.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Indiana District 9

Incumbent Trey Hollingsworth advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. House Indiana District 9 on June 2, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Trey Hollingsworth	100.0	62,962

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 62,962
= 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.

Libertarian convention

Libertarian convention for U.S. House Indiana District 9

Tonya Millis advanced from the Libertarian convention for U.S. House Indiana District 9 on March 7, 2020.

		Candidate
✔		Tonya Millis (L)

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source
= 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.

Campaign themes

2020

D. Liam Dorris completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Dorris' responses.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Vocationally Educated in the STEM discipline of Metrology. Marine Veteran. Democratic Socialist.

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?

• Fighting for the Working Class
• Elections aren't auctions
• This election is greed vs humanity.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Anti-Corruption - Constitutional Amendment to no longer recognize artificial entities such as people, end big money in politics. Free and fair elections.

Green New Deal
Medicare for All
Fair Wages

College for All

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

I look up to Eugene V Debs, a fellow Hoosier and beloved socialist leader. The working class is and always will be my family, my friends, my colleagues, my sisters, my brothers; they mean the world to me.

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

Honor. Courage. Commitment.

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

The first historical event that I remember was the Challenger. We were sitting in class watching; I was in the first grade.

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

My first job was as a helper for a gentleman who repaired and installed heating and air conditioners.

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

I play D&D with my friends and colleagues. I play a character that is called a Half-Orc Bardarian, a mix of a Bard and a Barbarian. He's a traveling adventurer and professional wrestler that helps solve the problems of locals. He takes up the mantle of beloved heel so that when locals challenge him in a show, they can be the heroes. He promotes local taverns and supports local orphanages. His name is Ox.

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

Firework - Katy Perry

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

While certainly helpful, no. Running for office is one of the most difficult things to do, and it's not something everyone can do. It takes a certain level of audacity. There are amazing organizers, activists, and well educated voters who would be absolutely qualified, and who should run, but don't. That leaves too few people running for the right reasons and too many who are in it with less than honorable intentions.

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

Anti Corruption is the greatest immediate challenge because money in politics is a roadblock to the greatest threat in human history; climate change.

What are your thoughts on term limits?

I am in favor of term limits. The idea of term limits appeals to me because it keeps a better generational balance that better reflects the electorate.

Is there a particular representative, past or present, whom you want to model yourself after?

This one is easy. Bernie Sanders.

Both sitting representatives and candidates for office hear many personal stories from the residents of their district. Is there a story that you’ve heard that you found particularly touching, memorable, or impactful?

The story that motivated me to run. I have a colleague and a friend whom I found out was selling his blood to help pay the deductible on his child's speech therapy. The deductible was about 5% of his gross pay. I told him, "I have what it takes to try to help you. I am going to go fix this for you." I decided to run for US Congress, and in the process of talking to people, I discovered a program that was super affordable for my friend and his child. I thought, "if I can do this for him, I can do this for everyone."The joy of helping people makes it all worth it.

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.

See also

2020 Elections

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Government

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External links

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Footnotes

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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)