A police officer and member of the National Guard, Democratic candidate for Indiana General Assembly District 53 Nate Anderson has sought to serve his country and community throughout his life. Now, he looks to do so as a politician.
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.
Anderson said he was inspired to enter politics when he recognized a “lack of options” on the ballot, first running for office last year in Greenfield’s mayoral election. When he saw legislation that he says targets groups such as women and the LGBTQ+ community coming down from the state level, though, he turned his attention toward Indianapolis.
“For the last 20 years, the GOP has had full control over the governor’s office and both chambers of the statehouse,” Anderson said. “They’ve been able to pass any bill into law that they wanted to, and 20 years later we see the effect of it.”
Anderson said his top priorities include restoring women’s health care rights, protecting LGBTQ+ Hoosiers, rolling back school voucher programs and ensuring that the state is affordable for working-class people, with restoring women’s reproductive rights being his No. 1 issue.
“The government needs to stay the hell out of our bedrooms, no ‘ifs,’ ‘ands’ or ‘buts’ about it,” he said.
He went on to highlight the growing gap between the quality of life between businesses and residents within the state, as Indiana has grown to be the second-best state in which to start a business, according to Forbes, but second worst in terms of quality of life, according to CNBC.
Anderson said raising corporate tax rates while lowering property and income taxes; implementing programs such as paid family leave when having a new child; increasing to the minimum wage; and removing policies he feels are anti-labor, such as Indiana’s right-to-work law would help balance those scales. He went on to highlight union endorsements such as the United Auto Workers to demonstrate his support for labor.
Anderson also said the price of housing was a major factor in decreasing quality of life for Hoosiers, forcing them to pay more and more of their paychecks to keep a roof over their heads.
“Folks are paying $1,300, $1,400 or more in rent and they can’t save up any money because that’s taking up two thirds of their income,” he said. He went on to criticize private equity firms coming in and buying large swaths of housing in neighborhoods. “It just jacks up rent prices in the local area and it starts pushing people that call Greenfield and Hancock County home farther and farther away from their neighbors.”
He suggested caps could be placed on the amount that rent could increase from year to year as a possible solution, but also said that housing was an issue the state needed to give more power to local towns, cities and counties to control.
On education, Anderson said public money going to private institutions — a reference to Indiana’s school voucher program — tips the scales against public schools. He said while private institutions can hand-pick students, public schools must provide for students of all kinds of needs, leading to the schools that need the most investment receiving the least.
He also said the level of oversight within private and charter schools is lower than that of public schools, as public school boards are subject to government regulation such as Indiana’s Open Door Law while the boards of private schools are not.
Anderson highlighted the need for more programs across the state, such as the planned Amplify campus in Hancock County, which gives high school students the option to pursue educational options they may not have at their individual school districts, such as technical education, before graduation.
He went on to say that schools must be focused on producing “productive members of society” rather than just the next generation of workers.
Anderson said in order to be effective if elected, he knew that he would need to reach across the aisle, but he said he would do so while cutting through what he referred to as the “smoke and mirrors” distracting people from the economic issues that impact their daily lives, giving examples such as attacks on trans people and heightened focus on the southern border, which he noted was more than 1,400 miles from the Indiana border at its closest point.
Anderson said he hopes his message resonates with voters and that local residents agree with him on what matters.
“I think we have a great shot,” he said. “We’re talking to people, and I think they’re realizing there’s a common sense candidate on the ballot that wants to fight on behalf of the people.”
