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Senate minority leader criticizes new laws during legislative recap in Goshen

WVPE 88.1 Elkhart/South Bend | By Michael Gallenberger

Published April 24, 2026 at 6:20 AM EDT

Shelli Yoder speaking in an auditorium behind a podium. A large crowd is in the audience.

Indiana's Senate minority leader criticized several laws passed this year by the Republican-led General Assembly. Senator Shelli Yoder (D-Bloomington) reviewed the legislative session during an event hosted by the Goshen City Democratic Party on Thursday.

"This is the test: it's not whether a policy sounds clever or whether it produces a press release or talking points. It really is asking the question of, 'Does this help people's lives?'" Yoder said.

She took aim at a law requiring local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, and said efforts to make housing and utility rates more affordable didn't go far enough. Yoder felt a measure that Republicans said would combat fraud in the Medicaid and SNAP programs instead added new layers of confusion, delay and risk.

"When a policy asks the most from people who already have the least, that is not reform," Yoder said. "That is harm."

Yoder also said making school vouchers universal has been disruptive to public schools and teachers. "If we are going to be a universal school choice state, then every school must be held to the same accountability and transparency standards," Yoder said, drawing applause from the audience.

When asked whether she'd support a two-year moratorium on data center development, Yoder felt that could take attention away from the issue, rather than encouraging public discussion. "So a blanket 'no,' I think, gives us one more permission to step out of the importance of being engaged," Yoder added.

Still, there were some hopeful moments. Yoder, who was born in Goshen and raised in Shipshewana, encouraged local Democrats not to give up, even though they're currently represented by Republicans at the Statehouse. "We defeated redistricting, people!" Yoder said, drawing more applause. "You stopped [an immigration] detention center from coming to this community."

During Thursday's event, Indiana Democratic Party Chair Karen Tallian said she's encouraged to see the most people running for office since 1974, but the state still suffers from low voter turnout. "It is time to change 20 years of Republican rule in this state," Tallian told the audience. "It's time to take our state back."

Looking ahead to next year's budget session, Senator Yoder said she'd like to see the General Assembly focus on childcare and family leave. "If we're not going to have an infrastructure for childcare, how can we support families better if they are going to stay home and watch their kids? We don't want families going into poverty to do so," Yoder told WVPE.