Despite being a board member of the Hancock County GOP, Republican candidate for Indiana General Assembly District 53 Ethan Lawson is running his first race as a candidate, and he says that national dysfunction needs to stay out of Indiana.
District 53 — held for decades by Republican Bob Cherry, who announced late last year that he’d be retiring at the end of his current term in December — includes Pendleton.
Lawson, a member of the Indiana National Guard and vice chair of the Hancock County Republican Party, places the blame for rising costs in Indiana squarely on Democrats in Washington, D.C. He said that in conversations with voters, one of the main issues he hears is the rising costs because of inflation.
“A lot of that’s due to policies at the national level with our current president and vice president, but it has impacts here locally and at the state level,” Lawson said. “What I hope to do about that is take a look at our spending, our fiscal policies and our taxes and try to help offset some of that here in Indiana.”
Despite refusing an invitation to participate in Hancock County’s fall League of Women Voters forum alongside Democratic candidate Nate Anderson, Lawson said speaking to voters and responding to their concerns has been a crucial part of his campaign.
“Priority No. 1 is getting out and talking to people and hearing from them directly,” Lawson said. “That’s the approach we’ve taken since we started. We literally got out and started hitting doors Jan. 3 in the snow and kept that up all the way through. Hearing directly from people about the obstacles that they’re facing, the challenges they’re facing, problems they’re encountering, what they want from their elected officials, has really driven my approach.”
In terms of what he would do on a state level to help alleviate those costs for Hoosier families, Lawson’s main priorities were moving power from Indianapolis to local governments and lowering or stabilizing taxes to offset rising costs.
From education to housing costs, Lawson said local governments and individual families need to be empowered to make choices that benefit themselves and their families, which includes supporting Indiana’s school voucher program. He went on to praise Hancock County’s school districts of positive examples of how local control benefits students.
Lawson said he was particularly concerned for Hoosiers on a fixed income, saying that property taxes need to be more predictable in order to allow people to stay in their homes.
On housing affordability, he said there were regulations, some of which he felt were unnecessary, that were driving up housing costs as much as 25%, although he did note that some regulations are necessary to ensure housing is safe. When asked how the state could incentivize affordable housing projects, he said that was a local question the state shouldn’t be dictating.
Lawson said he is also concerned with public safety, stating that the state, especially in Indianapolis, needs to be tougher on crime. He criticized what he referred to as a revolving door in Indiana’s criminal justice system, saying violence was “spilling across” the county line from Indianapolis into Hancock County.
He also said law enforcement needs to be given additional resources in order to stop “the fentanyl that’s making its way from China and across our border” as part of a program to help address addiction and mental health within the state, as Indiana ranks within the bottom 10 states in terms of mental health.
Lawson said “mental health care is health care” and said that, in addition to cracking down on fentanyl, he hoped to join forces with state Sen. Mike Crider, who has been an advocate for mental health.
