Continuing the upward attendance trend, a standing-room-only crowd of Hamilton County Democrats convened at Grand Junction Brewery in Westfield for the monthly meeting on March 26. Energy was high, and HamCo chair Jocelyn Vare introduced the candidates in attendance, who each spoke briefly:
Dr. Valerie McCray (US Senate): Dr. McCray is a psychologist who has worked with people in the military dealing with issues such as PTSD. Her priorities include affordable housing, women’s rights, and Medicare for all.
Ryan Pfenninger (US House, District 5): Ryan’s priorities include reproductive rights, strong schools, rebuilding small towns and the middle class, and uniting and lifting us up.
Deborah Pickett (US House, District 5): Deborah is concerned about the state of democracy, regaining personal rights, making government more effective and efficient, and supporting Ukraine and the world against Russian aggression.
Joel Levi (Indiana Senate, District 20): Among Joel’s priorities are building a safer, more inclusive Indiana, for example by enacting common-sense gun legislation.
Josh Lowry (Indiana House, District 24): Josh supports reproductive choice, the right to love who you love, and the right to read any book you want to read.
Dr. Chris Hartig (Indiana House, District 29): Chris’s priorities include protecting Hoosiers from unreasonable laws pushed by the supermajority, protecting personal freedoms, and supporting public schools.
Dr. Victoria Garcia Wilburn (Indiana House, District 32): This incumbent is not taking her office for granted, and hopes to be able to continue providing the leadership to build a “positive, pragmatic coalition to solve everyday problems for everyday Hoosiers.”
Also on hand was former Hamilton County Democratic Party Chair Dayna Colbert, who is now Executive Director of the Indiana Democratic Party. Dayna reiterated that Democrats need to flip only four seats to break the Republican supermajority in the Indiana House and enable Democratic bills to be considered—and wouldn’t it be great if they were all from Hamilton County?
Dayna also reminded volunteers that canvassing is still the best way to connect with voters. “I’m an introvert, and I love to canvass,” she said. During canvassing, we can spread the message about our candidates and make sure voters know they are not the only Democrats in the county.
Jocelyn ended the meeting by emphasizing that step 1 for everyone should be voting in the primary on May 7, and voting as Democrats.
The next HamCo Connect meeting will be April 23, location to be announced.