called Hostettler one of the three most endangered House incumbents in the country; Chris Cillizza, political analyst for The Washington Post, ranked Hostettler as the most vulnerable House incumbent in the nation; and Robert D. Novak, a syndicated columnist and editor of the Evans-Novak Political Report, also rated Hostettler's seat a likely win for Ellsworth. In mid-October, an opinion poll commissioned by the Evansville Courier & Press showed Ellsworth leading Hostettler, 55% to 32%. Hostettler debated Ellsworth on October 23, 2006. The debate was at public television station WVUT at Vincennes University, and involved the League of Women Voters. Ellsworth won a landslide victory on November 7, 2006. He took 61% of the vote to Hostettler's 39%, which was by far the largest defeat for a House incumbent in the 2006 election. The seat was the first of 30 to flip from Republican to Democratic in the 2006 cycle. 2008 Two years later, on November 4, 2008, Ellsworth won reelection, easily defeating Republican candidate Greg Goode 65% to 35%. 2010 U.S. Senate campaign On February 19, 2010, Ellsworth announced his candidacy in the 2010 U.S. Senate election for the seat in the United States Senate held by Democrat Evan Bayh, who was retiring. Since Bayh made his announcement the day before the deadline for filing for the primary, no Democrat was able to gather a sufficient number of signatures to qualify for the primary ballot, forcing the Democratic state committee to choose the Senate nominee. Ultimately, the committee chose Ellsworth. He was defeated in the November election by Dan Coats, who had previously held the seat from 1989 to 1999, taking 40 percent of the vote. Ellsworth even lost his own congressional district; he carried Vigo County (home to Terre Haute) but failed to carry his home county of Vanderburgh. State representative Trent Van Haaften replaced Ellsworth on the ballot for the 8th, but lost to Republican Larry Bucshon with only 37 percent of the vote. The Democrats have crossed the 40 percent mark in the district only once since Ellsworth left office. Following his defeat, Ellsworth joined Evansville-based Vectren Corporation as president of its southern Indiana gas and electric utility division. Electoral history References External links Brad Ellsworth for Senate official campaign site |- |- 1958 births Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Indiana Indiana sheriffs Living people People from Jasper, Indiana University of