Chris Hartig watched in horror as Indiana Republicans introduced a flood of bills targeting LGBTQ+ people in early 2022.
He was concerned about what the future of Indiana would look like, especially for two of his children who are part of the LGBTQ+ community.
That concern then turned to grief. In August of that same year, Hartig and his family were grieving the loss of their child, Cameron Hartig, a fierce, red-haired, nonbinary 21-year-old who committed suicide. Cameron Hartig had struggled with depression since high school, Chris Hartig said, and had been deeply affected by the rise of anti-LGBTQ legislation and hateful rhetoric across the country.
Indianapolis business professor Chris Hartig wanted his home state’s so-called “Hoosier values” — typically understood as accepting differences and allowing freedom of expression — to apply to people like Cameron.
But in 2022, Indiana Republicans overrode a veto by GOP Gov. Eric Holcomb to ban transgender girls from school sports. The following year, Republicans passed a ban on gender-affirming services for trans youth and required schools to have policies on materials that could be deemed “obscene or harmful to minors.”
Now, Hartig is one of several Democrats hoping to provide a stopgap measure against the state’s Republican supermajority. He’s running for House District 29, the first Democrat to run for the seat since 2020.
“I can honor Cam’s memory,” Hartig told HuffPost of his decision to run. “I have LGBTQ kids, friends, and family. They’re just asking to exist and be seen for who they are. You don’t even have to understand them, just respect their existence.”
Republicans have controlled the House of Representatives since 2012 and the Senate since 2010. Democrats hold only 30 of the 100 seats in the House, but if they can increase that number to at least 34, they could break the Republicans’ two-thirds majority.
Hartig first got involved with the local Democratic Party in 2022 as a volunteer. He said people approached him about running for office back then, but he was still processing Cameron Hartig’s death and wasn’t ready.
But then, in May 2023, Republican Rep. Chuck Goodrich said announced he would not seek re-election and instead plans to run for Congress. Goodrich represents a Republican stronghold in Hamilton County, where Hartig lives.
Hartig saw “a once-in-a-decade opportunity” to overturn the nearly three-decade Republican rule in the county.
“They’ve had that supermajority, where they basically don’t have to be reasonable with us,” he said. “They can pretty much ignore Democrats and you’ve seen what happens.”
Indiana Republicans have long been hostile to LGBTQ+ rights. Former Gov. Mike Pence, who became vice president under Donald Trump, signed the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 2015, which allowed businesses and individuals to cite “religious beliefs” in a legal defense if sued by a private party. (He softens (The bill’s wording, which explicitly prohibits businesses from refusing service to people based on their gender identity and sexual orientation, came after national outcry from advocates who feared it would allow discrimination against LGBTQ+ people.)
Hartig said his youngest child, Collette Hartig, who is lesbian, often asks him if the family can move to a friendlier, bluer Midwestern state. But he doesn’t want to leave the place where he was born and raised, and he’s determined to show his children that Hoosier values mean fighting for the most vulnerable.
“I said, ‘No, we’re going to win. We’re going to do this,’” he said.
Hartig’s platform calls for delivering “meaningful, lasting improvements for all Hoosiers,” including commitments to protect access to safe, legal abortion and contraception, investing in public schools and protecting teacher tenure, pushing for policies that protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination, and investing in affordable health care. He also told a local outlet in aprilHe was particularly concerned about the lack of mental health services in Indiana schools, where volunteer chaplains are increasingly being used instead of trained counselors.
To Hartig and other Democrats, Hoosier values mean Indiana should be open to all types of opinions, even though the state is staunchly conservative.
Democrats across the state see an opportunity in the new vacancy in District 29. The Indianapolis suburb is in central Indiana, a region that, despite its long history of supporting Republican candidates, has a small but steady increase in support of Democratic candidates at all levels of government since 2018.
In 2020, the suburban area began to shift from its reliably Republican roots to a more purple-leaning electorate. That year, Democrats elected Fady Qaddoura as the first Muslim lawmaker to the Indiana statehouse, representing a district that includes Hamilton County. Nearby cities also elected their first Democratic city council members, and Carmel, a suburb in Hamilton County, voted overwhelmingly for President Joe Biden in the last presidential election.
Hartig said some members of the state’s Democratic Party have begun comparing Hamilton County’s demographics to those of Fulton County in Georgia, where Biden in 2020 became the first Democrat to win the state in a presidential election since 1992.
Ed DeLaney, a state representative and assistant chairman of the Indiana Democratic caucus, said he believes there are about eight Democratic candidates who have a “reasonable” chance of winning their bid for statewide office, and that the Democratic Party received a boost in support after Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz became the official Democratic presidential ticket.
DeLaney also noted that despite Indiana’s reputation as a Republican stronghold, he believes ordinary Indiana residents value different points of view and that lawmakers treat each other with respect across the divide.
“People expect to hear opposing views, and they will listen. They generally reject opposing views, but this is not a place where taking a stand causes a big ruckus,” he said. “I’ve been in the Legislature for 16 years, and almost nobody ever says anything mean or nasty to me, because that’s not our way.”
Indiana Democrats are getting a big dose of help this election cycle. The Democratic National Committee has invested $500,000 to help them win four seats in the state legislature and break the supermajority, a spokesperson told HuffPost.
“The DNC is making historic investments in Indiana because we know that Democrats in Indiana are fighting every day to improve the lives of Hoosiers and defend against Trump and the Republicans’ extreme agenda to take away Americans’ most fundamental rights,” Stephanie Justice, a regional spokesperson for the DNC, wrote in an emailed statement.
Hartig said he’s tired of watching other states with Republican supermajorities pass the same “boilerplate” bills to roll back protections for LGBTQ+ people and women — with no accountability.
This race, he said, is a rare opportunity for him and his party members to rein in that power.
“We’re kind of toothless to get anything on the offensive, even in committee, until we break this supermajority,” Hartig said. “We can’t even be civil with some people right now, and unfortunately [right-wing activists] get the megaphone. So we need a voice and an option — and that’s one of the big reasons I’m running.”
If you or someone you know needs help, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org for mental health support. Additionally, you can find local mental health and crisis resources at dontcallthepolice.comOutside the US, visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention.
