Progressive Indiana Network: https://www.progressiveindiana.net/
HoosLeft: https://hoosleft.us
Kirsten Root: https://www.rootforindiana.org/
SUMMARY:
Scott sits down one-on-one with Kirsten Root, Democratic primary candidate for Indiana State Senate District 21 — a district spanning all of Tipton County and parts of Hamilton and Howard counties, including Westfield, Sheridan, Tipton, and Kokomo. Kirsten is a social worker and former DCS family case manager challenging Republican incumbent Jim Buck. They talk about her background in child welfare and what it taught her about how the state punishes poverty, the real-world fallout from Mike Braun’s Senate Enrolled Act 1-2025 property tax overhaul and SEA 1-2026’s Medicaid and SNAP eligibility restrictions, the healthcare desert facing Indiana communities (including a HIP expansion proposal as a state-level public option), reproductive rights, the Iron Nation initiative and Indiana’s connection to Israeli military technology through the Applied Research Institute, utility monopoly corruption and Jim Buck’s donor ties to NiSource and Duke Energy, the Democratic Party’s neoliberal drift, corporate money in Democratic primaries, and what it’s going to take to actually fight back in the statehouse.
WHAT’S INSIDE:
00:00:23 Welcome and Introduction
- Scott introduces the HoosLeft podcast and its mission as Indiana’s unapologetically progressive independent media outlet.
- Subscription pitch: progressiveindiana.net, $5/month or $50/year.
- Social handles: @hoosleft.us (Blue Sky, Instagram, Threads); @hoosleft (Facebook, TikTok, YouTube); @progressiveindiananetwork (most platforms); @pinindiana (Blue Sky, TikTok).
00:03:15 Guest Introduction: Kirsten Root
- Democratic candidate for SD-21, challenging Republican incumbent Jim Buck.
- Second appearance on the HoosLeft family of programs; first one-on-one with Scott.
- Campaign website: rootforindiana.org.
00:04:13 Easy W’s: Who and Where
- Originally from LaPorte; now five years in Sheridan in the southern part of the 21st District.
- District covers all of Tipton County and parts of Hamilton and Howard counties.
00:05:11 Life on the Campaign Trail: The NIPSCO Picket Line
- Most memorable campaign moment: joining NIPSCO workers on the Kokomo picket line at 4:30 a.m.
- Only 17 workers directly affected by the lockout, but hundreds came from across the state in solidarity.
- NIPSCO tried to spin the lockout as community goodwill; Kirsten notes they simply didn’t have the workers to turn off the power.
- Workers expected to ratify a new contract and return by end of the week.
- Scott: Kokomo has deep UAW and labor history going back to Chrysler; NIPSCO has been a thorn in northwest Indiana’s side for generations.
00:08:15 The More Interesting W: Why
- Kirsten’s years at DCS investigating child abuse and neglect showed her how the state systematically punishes poverty rather than addressing it.
- Families working two and three jobs, leaving kids home alone, were being investigated for neglect rather than supported.
- DCS no longer requires a college degree for family case managers; her last director came from finance with no child welfare background.
- Everything flows from the state level — funding, policy authority, hiring standards.
00:12:00 SEA 1-2025 and SEA 1-2026: Real-World Consequences
- SEA 1-2025 (Braun’s property tax overhaul): sheriff’s departments can’t hire, mental health funding cut, health department budgets slashed across the district.
- Scott: the shell game — property tax “savings” are being paid for by gutted local services; rising home values have eaten most of the actual dollar savings anyway.
- Communities told they’re saving money while mayors and county councils take the blame for raising local taxes to cover the gap.
- SEA 1-2026’s Medicaid and SNAP eligibility restrictions compound the damage, targeting the same families DCS was supposed to serve.
- State also preempting local governments from enacting rent restrictions.
00:22:42 Kirsten’s Platform: Local Government and Care Before Crisis
- Restore funding and autonomy to local governments; get care in place before situations become emergencies.
- Many Indiana counties have no labor and delivery ward.
- Hamilton County — wealthiest in the state — has no SANE nurse; sexual assault survivors including children must travel out of county for a forensic exam.
- Howard County Sheriff (a Republican who endorsed her opponent) told Kirsten: no public EMS in Kokomo, no mental health capacity, no money for new training.
00:28:29 Corporate Greed as the Through-Line
- NiSource (NIPSCO’s parent) billing up 17% while profits rise a similar amount; IURC performing a show investigation.
- Blackstone continuing to buy up Indiana utilities.
- State gave Walmart $17 million in subsidies — money that could have gone to small businesses or public services.
- Kirsten: Republicans focus on demonizing SNAP recipients rather than the corporate greed driving poverty in the first place.
00:30:33 Healthcare for All Hoosiers
- Medicare for All isn’t achievable at the state level; expanding Indiana’s HIP program to create a public option available to all Hoosiers is.
- We’re already paying for everyone’s insurance — a HIP expansion makes it visible and accessible.
- Obstacle: Elevance Health (formerly Anthem), headquartered in Indianapolis, has a direct financial interest in killing any public option.
- Jim Buck’s top corporate donors: NiSource, Duke Energy, and a third utility — connected directly to his legislative record of removing utility restrictions.
00:33:14 Abortion Rights and Reproductive Healthcare
- Repealing Indiana’s near-total abortion ban is a core priority.
- OB-GYN residency programs closing because students can’t get clinical training in Indiana.
- If Republicans were actually pro-life, they would fund prenatal care in rural counties — they don’t.
- No one wants to live and work in Gilead; the ban accelerates the brain drain.
00:36:02 The Iron Nation Initiative and Indiana’s Role in Military Technology
- Scott raises the Iron Nation initiative, announced the prior week.
- Tom Pigott piece in The Big Money connects a strike on an Iranian school to technology developed in Indiana.
- Indiana’s Applied Research Institute — a public-private partnership involving IU, Purdue, and the IEDC — had a role in developing the Maven smart system.
- State investing $15 million with Israel in telecommunications technology while refusing to fund basic healthcare and education.
00:37:25 Calling Fascism What It Is
- Fascism is a spectrum — Pinochet’s Chile was free-market fascism without tanks in the streets.
- ICE detention camps where people are dying; black SUVs kidnapping people off streets — that’s fascism.
- Kirsten was asked at a dog park in Ireland what it’s like to live in a fascist country. The rest of the world already sees it.
00:39:35 Democrats’ Own Role in Getting Here
- Too many Democrats too comfortable with corporate money, corporate consolidation, corporate power.
- Mussolini defined fascism as the merger of corporation and state.
- You can’t take the corporate money and flip it for good — it taints you.
- A CD-5 candidate told Kirsten he feels like Robin Hood redistributing corporate money to downballot races; she’s not buying it.
- Secretary of state race: Beau Bayh is taking corporate money; Blythe Potter is not. Kirsten endorses Blythe Potter.
00:43:15 The Democratic Party’s Aaron Burr Problem
- Hamilton endorsed Jefferson over his friend Burr — not because he liked Jefferson, but because Jefferson stood for something.
- Aaron Burr, perpetually unwilling to pick a side, is the Democratic Party.
- FDR, the New Deal, Social Security, LBJ, Medicare, Medicaid, labor rights — Democrats built that. Then the Clinton era threw it out.
- Indiana Democrats are stuck in the Clinton era. Those corporate Democrats helped pave the road to where we are now.
00:45:18 Earning Trust: The Kokomo Pastor Conversation
- A Black pastor in Kokomo challenged Kirsten: the Democratic Party takes Black voters for granted — why are you different?
- Kirsten’s answer: he’s right to be skeptical. She’s a white woman and doesn’t ask for trust she hasn’t earned. She’ll spend every day earning it.
00:46:26 Voting for Change for 20 Years
- Obama ran as a progressive and won in a landslide; didn’t govern that way.
- Biden tried to go bigger; kneecapped by corporate Democrats like Joe Manchin.
- The lesson Trump teaches: you can go big. Democrats have been too timid.
- Because we failed to do the big things, we got more Trump. The Democratic Party has become the conservative party.
00:50:46 Why Kirsten, Not Her Opponent?
- She genuinely likes her primary opponent — but one of them will go to the statehouse and say they’ll do their best in the minority.
- The other will go to Republican counties, educate constituents, cause scenes, and fight. She’s the second one.
- Scott pushes back on the Michelle Obama “go high” doctrine: when they go low, step on them.
- Kirsten agrees: the moment demands fighters, not nice guys.
- She’s a woman who worked DCS — there is nothing anyone can say to her that she hasn’t already weathered.
00:53:30 The Negotiation Principle: Anchor to Your Values
- Centrist Democrats start from the compromise position. That’s not negotiating — it’s capitulating before the conversation starts.
- Kirsten’s social work parallel: the deal is simple — either you do these things and your life gets better, or it stays the same. That’s the only deal on the table.
00:54:44 How to Reach Kirsten Root
- Website: rootforindiana.org.
- Active on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and most other platforms.
- Town hall the following night; child safety panel Thursday.
00:55:35 Outro and Upcoming PIN Programming
- Thursday, 8 p.m.: Democratic primary debate, Indiana’s 6th Congressional District — William Kory Amyx, Nick Baker, Cinde Wirth. Moderated by Scott.
- Saturday, 2 p.m.: Online-only IN-9 congressional debate — Brad Meyer, Tim Peck, Keil Roark. Moderated by Kacey Blundell.
- Sunday, 10:30 a.m.: HoosLeft This Week — guests Destiny Wells (IN-7) and Hancock County Democratic Party Vice Chair Chuck Gill.
