HamCo Dems Call On Hunter Smith to Stop False Ads

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, Oct 8, 2026

HAMILTON COUNTY, IN – Hamilton County Democratic Chair Josh Lowry has called on Representative Hunter Smith to stop running false ads. 

Smith is running an attack ad against his Democratic opponent, Racheal Bleicher, based on a fake “endorsement” by an Instagram account called “The Progressive Voters Network.” The “endorsement” by this Instagram account contained multiple false statements about Bleicher. The Instagram account rescinded its “endorsement” of Bleicher after being confronted about the falsity of the statements. 

Despite Smith being aware that the Instagram statements about Bleicher were false, Smith ran the attack ad based on the false statements AFTER the endorsement had been rescinded.

“Smith must have known his ad contained false statements,” said Lowry. “That is defamation. Some people are even saying he acted with actual malice.” 

Further, Smith’s ad includes a statement that is both false and ironic. Smith’s ad stated that Bleicher will “defund police budgets” despite Bleicher having never stated that. However, Smith voted for S.E.A. 1 - which caused budget cuts to police across Indiana. Hunter Smith has literally defunded the police.  

Additionally, we have learned that other candidates have received unsolicited and untrue “endorsements” from this Instagram account. 

“It is suspicious that Bleicher had never heard of the Instagram account when she was ‘endorsed’, but Smith found the Instagram account even though it had less than 2,400 followers,” said Lowry. “A lot of people are speculating that it looks like the ‘Progressive Voters Network’ is a fake account set up to support Republican attack ads.” 

Unfortunately, this follows a pattern in which Hamilton County Republicans dishonestly campaign on issues they created or exaggerated:

• Representative Danny Lopez advertised that he delivered “record funding” to schools even though Lopez voted to cut $120 million from Carmel Schools.

  
  

• Sheriff candidate Dustin Dixon advertised that he wants to enforce the law, but a Federal Judge wrote that Dixon used force “so plainly excessive” that “it would be clear to a reasonable officer that his conduct was unlawful in the situation he confronted.”

  
  

• Beth Sheller, the Republican candidate for Clerk, has campaigned on integrity or honesty in elections, but Sheller refuses to admit that Joe Biden won the 2020 Election and won’t deny Trump’s lies that the 2020 Election was fraudulent.

  
  

“A lot of people are saying that Republicans are lying in their ads to distract from rising inflation, the war in Iran, high gas prices, tax cuts for data centers, cuts to school funding, cuts to Medicaid, governmental corruption, tariffs, and rising utility costs, ” said Lowry. 

The Hamilton County Democrats are calling on Republican candidates to stop using dishonest statements in their campaigns. If they do not have a truthful record to run on, then they should not be running for office.