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In the news
House panel advances Indiana map drawn ‘purely for political performance’ of GOP
Capital city’s clerk says 4-district split will sow ‘chaos’ for her office and for voters.
’Hoosiers don’t cheat’: Hundreds protest Indiana redistricting effort
A newly proposed map would carve up Indianapolis into four congressional districts.
Indiana Black Legislative Caucus condemns Trump’s redistricting push
The group promised a legal challenge if Republicans redraw congressional maps.
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Candidate Q&A
How do you plan to work across party lines in the Statehouse to get legislation passed, especially given the Republican supermajority?
As your current legislator for District 94, I work across party lines and chambers on legislation. As an example, this year, I worked with my Republican colleagues to get HB1114 passed. This bill prohibits “step theory” for Stage 4 cancer patients. Getting legislation and amendments passed and working to change language in a bill requires building relationships and that is what I do on daily basis.
In your view, what was the most important issue to come out of this year’s legislative session, and how did you or would you have approached legislating the issue?
There are a lot of important issues that came out of this Session and it cannot be narrowed down to one. There were bills that were harmful to Hoosiers that came out, many of them I stood on the floor of the Chamber to speak against. One was the defeat of mid-decade redistricting another was criminalizing homelessness, just to name a few. And there were some victories this Session, like the passage of my bill to help cancer patients.
Companies proposing data centers in Indianapolis had touted jobs and local tax revenue as benefits. Residents, many of whom have fiercely opposed the proposals, are concerned about pollution, energy bills and property values. What is your stance on the future of data centers in Indianapolis?
I agree with the residents and have concerns about data centers as well as the LEAP Project. Data centers don’t add many long term jobs for Hoosiers and they use a lot of energy, even if they “pay their fair share” in the long run, we can’t be certain they will not impact the capacity on the energy grid for residential ratepayers.
Indianapolis residents are facing steep increases to the cost of living at the same time federal benefits are being pulled back. What is one policy you would pursue to ease the financial burden of your constituents?
It’s time for Indiana to raise the minimum wage and focus on giving tax breaks to working Hoosiers and lower income individuals.
More than 1 in 10 Marion County residents were born outside the country. President Donald Trump’s administration is pursuing an immigration agenda that has led to mass detentions and at times resulted in the deaths of citizens and noncitizens. What is your role in maintaining the safety and due process rights of immigrants and other residents in Marion County?
What I have done is informed residents about a training session on how to interact with ICE. The best way I can help is to direct people to those that can provide them with information.
How should public dollars be spent on education? Do you support property tax funding for charter schools? Should Indiana fund students’ tuition to attend private schools?
I am a strong advocate of traditional public education. They don’t have a choice about who they can take and they are required to follow restrictions that charters and private schools don’t. The state has devised a system that is making urban traditional schools harder to function with limited resources.