Ellsworth was born in Jasper,Indiana,the son of Margaret (née Scherle) and Jim Ellsworth.[2] He spent his early years in Huntingburg,Indiana. When he was still in grade school,his family moved to Evansville,where his father took a job as a crane operator in Warrick County's Alcoa plant. He is the youngest of four siblings. His brother Eric is the president and CEO of the YMCA of greater Indianapolis.[citation needed] His brother Joe is a founding partner and president of Fire &Rain Marketing/Communications headquartered in Evansville.[citation needed]
In 1998,Ellsworth ran for sheriff and won by a large margin.[citation needed] He was unopposed running for a second term.[citation needed] In 2005,he announced that he would be running in the Democratic primary for Indiana's 8th congressional district,which was then held by six-term Republican incumbent John Hostettler.
In July 2007,Ellsworth designated $2 million to extend the John T. Myers lock chamber on the Ohio River and $750,000 for manufacturing and engineering equipment for the University of Southern Indiana.[citation needed] Two other projects Ellsworth brought to southwestern Indiana were the construction of a campus perimeter road system at USI for $350,000 and a portion of University Parkway construction also at $350,000.[citation needed]
In November 2009,Ellsworth wrote an amendment restricting federal funding for elective abortions. Americans United for Life asserted that this language does not eliminate the public funding of abortion in the House bill,but instead only requires said federal subsidies to be separately disbursed by an independent contractor.[8] Ellsworth later voted for the Stupak Amendment. He eventually voted for the Senate language of the healthcare bill lacking the Stupak Amendment's anti-abortion language.[9]
Smaller projects for which Ellsworth gained House approval include $200,000 to restore Evansville's Alhambra Theater,$135,000 for emergency warning sirens in Vanderburgh County and $75,000 to train utility workers at Ivy Tech Community College.[10]
As of June 30, 2006, Hostettler had raised $287,000 and had $195,000 on hand, compared to Ellsworth's $1,036,000 raised and $676,000 on hand. However, Hostettler had won several campaigns against opponents with more funding than him. In addition, the National Republican Congressional Committee had spent $163,000 in his district as of mid-July 2006. (The DCCC, its counterpart, had spent $166,000 for Ellsworth as of that date.)[11][12]
The Cook Political Report, an independent non-partisan newsletter, listed the race as a toss-up as of mid-August.[13] As of early September, the Rothenberg Political Report 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.[14]
In mid-October, an opinion poll commissioned by the Evansville Courier & Press showed Ellsworth leading Hostettler, 55% to 32%.[15]
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.
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.[17] 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.[18][19] 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.[20] 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.[21]
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