This Democrat Is Running To Upend His State’s GOP Supermajority
Chris Hartig watched with horror as Indiana Republicans introduced a flurry of bills targeting LGBTQ+ people at the beginning of 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 worry then morphed into grief. In August that same year, Hartig and his family mourned the loss of their child, Cameron Hartig, a bright, red-haired nonbinary 21-year-old who died by suicide. Cameron Hartig had been battling depression since high school, Chris Hartig said, and was deeply impacted by the rise of anti-LGBTQ legislation and hateful rhetoric around the country.
Chris Hartig, a professor of business management from Indianapolis, wanted the so-called “Hoosier values” of his home state — typically understood to mean accepting difference and allowing for freedom of speech — to extend to people like Cameron.
But in 2022, Indiana Republicans overrode a veto from GOP Gov. Eric Holcomb to enact a ban on transgender girls participating in school sports. The next year, Republicans passed bans on gender-affirming care for trans youth and required schools to have a policy on materials that could be seen as “obscene or harmful to minors.”
Now, Hartig is one of several Democrats hoping to be a stopgap against the state’s Republican supermajority. He’s running to represent House District 29 and is the first Democrat to throw his hat in the ring for the seat since 2020.
“I can honor Cam’s memory,” Hartig told HuffPost about his decision to run. “I have LGBTQ kids, friends and family. They’re just asking to exist and be seen as they are. You don’t even have to understand them, but just respect their existence.”
Republicans have controlled the state House since 2012 and the state Senate since 2010. Democrats only hold 30 of the 100 seats in the state House, but if they can bring that number up to at least 34, they will be able to break through Republicans’ two-third majority.
Hartig first became involved with the local Democratic Party in 2022 as a volunteer. He said people approached him at the time about running for office, but he was still processing Cameron Hartig’s death and wasn’t ready.
But then, in May 2023, Republican state Rep. Chuck Goodrich announced he wouldn’t be seeking reelection and instead planned to run for Congress. Goodrich represents a Republican stronghold in Hamilton County, where Hartig lives.
Hartig saw “a once-in-a-decade opportunity” to upend the nearly three decades of Republican rule in the county.
“They’ve had that supermajority where basically they 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 went on to become vice president under Donald Trump, signed the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law in 2015, which allowed businesses and individuals to cite “religious beliefs” in a legal defense if sued by a private party. (He quickly softened the bill’s language, explicitly barring businesses from denying services to people based on their gender identity and sexual orientation after nationwide backlash from advocates who feared it would permit discrimination against LGBTQ+ people.)
Hartig said his youngest child, Collette Hartig, who is a lesbian, often asks him if the family could relocate to a friendlier, bluer Midwestern state. But he doesn’t want to leave the place where he was born and raised, and he is determined to show his children that Hoosier values mean fighting for those who are most vulnerable.
“I said, ‘No, we’re going to win. We’re going to do this,’” he said.
Hartig’s platform calls for bringing “meaningful, lasting improvements for all Hoosiers,” including commitments to protecting access to safe, legal abortion and contraception, investing in public schools and protecting teacher tenure, pushing policies that protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination and investing in affordable health care. He also told a local outlet in Aprilhe was particularly concerned with the lack of mental health resources in Indiana schools, which have increasingly utilized volunteer chaplains in lieu of trained counselors.
To Hartig and other Democrats, Hoosier values mean ensuring that Indiana is open to all kinds of voices, even though the state is distinctly conservative.
Democrats across the state see an opportunity in the new vacancy in District 29. The Indianapolis suburb lies within central Indiana, a region that, despite its long history of backing Republican candidates, has seen a small but steady increase in support for Democratic candidates at all levels of government since 2018.
In 2020, the suburban area started to depart from its reliably Republican roots for a more purple-performing electorate. That year, Democrats elected Fady Qaddoura as the first Muslim legislator in Indiana’s statehouse, representing a district that includes Hamilton County. Additionally, nearby cities elected their first Democratic city council members, and Carmel, a suburb in Hamilton County, overwhelmingly voted for President Joe Biden in the last presidential election.
Hartig said that some members of the state’s Democratic Party have started comparing Hamilton County’s demographics to those of Fulton County in Georgia, where, in 2020, Biden became the first Democrat to carry the state in a presidential election since 1992.
Ed DeLaney, a state representative and the assistant chair to the Indiana Democratic caucus, said he believes there are around eight Democratic candidates who have a “reasonable” chance of winning their bid for statewide office, as well as that the Democratic Party has received a boost in support after Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz became the official Democratic presidential ticket.
DeLaney also shared that despite Indiana’s reputation as a Republican stronghold, he thinks that everyday Hoosiers value differing viewpoints, and there’s a level of respect lawmakers extend to one another across the aisle.
“People expect to hear opposing views, and they will listen. They typically reject opposing views, but this is not a place where taking a position causes a big uproar,” he said. “I’ve been in the legislature for 16 years, and almost nobody ever says anything nasty or unpleasant to me because that’s not our way.”
For this election cycle, Indiana Democrats will be getting some major assistance. The Democratic National Committee has invested $500,000 to help them flip four seats in the state legislature and break the supermajority, a spokesperson told HuffPost.
“The DNC is making historic investments into Indiana because we know that Indiana Democrats are fighting every day to better the lives of Hoosiers and defend against Trump and Republicans’ extreme agenda to rip away Americans’ most fundamental rights,” Stephanie Justice, a regional press secretary for the DNC, wrote in an emailed statement.
Hartig said he’s fed up with watching how other states with Republican supermajorities push out the same “cookie-cutter” bills to try to roll back protections for LGBTQ+ people and women — without any accountability.
This race, he said, represents a rare chance for him and fellow Democrats to try to put that power in check.
“We’re kind of toothless to get anything on the offense, even to a committee, until we break this supermajority,” Hartig said. “We can’t even have decency right now with some people, and unfortunately [right-wing activists] are given the megaphone. So we need a voice and option — and that’s one of the important reasons why 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.com. Outside of the U.S., please visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention.