One of the most competitive statehouse races in Indiana is District 62, which includes parts of Monroe, Jackson, and Brown counties.
House District 62 candidate Thomas Horrocks knows he is running in a competitive area. In 2022, incumbent Dave Hall (R-Seymour) won the seat by only 74 votes.
First-time candidate for the democratic party Thomas Horrocks knows he's running in a competitive dsitrict.
“It means that we are working really, really hard,” Horrocks said.
That entails knocking on doors and educating people about the significance of their vote in breaking the Republican supermajority in the house and senate.
Horrocks said people in district 62 are primarily concerned with quality-of-life issues such as raising wages, cost of living, healthcare, and housing availability.
He said the Republican supermajority in Indiana’s House and Senate has not put enough emphasis on issues important to Hoosiers. And as a result, the state has seen rising healthcare costs, high maternal mortality rates, and worsened air and water quality.
“These are not inevitable problems, right?" he said. "These are the problems that are the result of a supermajority that continually prioritizes the wrong things.”
Horrocks said breaking the supermajority is important for improving balance and accountability at the statehouse.
“We can help stop some of the more harmful things that are coming down, which I think is likely this year,” he said. “I think it's very possible that we will flip four or five seats and do that.”
Horrocks is a pastor for the Disciples of Christ Church in French Lick and a proponent of reproductive and LGBTQ rights. Religious beliefs, he said, should not influence governance and lawmaking.
“People are free to hold whatever religious belief they want to, but they should not use the government to impose that on others,” Horrocks said. “I think that's a violation of freedom. I think it's a violation of the First Amendment, and it's a violation of civil rights.”
Horrocks and eleven other democratic candidates running in Indiana are part of the Indiana Rural Summit, which is working to highlight rural issues.
WFIU plans to interview other political candidates in the coming weeks.
