Indiana’s 70th District carries history in its bones.
Corydon, once the state capital.
Fredericksburg and Borden, where family names go back generations.
Harrison County, where politics isn’t performance—it’s personal.
But even here, the pressures are modern.
Rising costs.
Healthcare gaps.
Schools stretched thin.
Young people wondering whether they stay… or leave.
In this episode, I sat down with Sarah Blessing, a Democratic candidate for Indiana State House District 70, to talk about what happens when someone decides they’re done waiting for someone else to fix it.
Sarah brings a background rooted in education and community work.
She taught elementary school for nearly two decades. She’s a mother, a local advocate, and the co-founder of Project NEXT—one of the spaces helping push real conversations across Indiana.
And from the start, one thing was clear:
She doesn’t see herself as “Democrat Sarah Blessing.”
She sees herself as someone fighting for her neighbors.
That matters in a district where straight-ticket voting is still common and where trust is earned face-to-face, not through party labels.
We covered a lot of ground in this conversation.
🏥 Rural healthcare—and the reality that Harrison County has already lost OB-GYN access, with real concerns about long-term hospital survival.
Sarah made the case that if we don’t fix Medicaid access and make healthcare easier to reach, rural hospitals won’t survive.
🌾 Family farms and land ownership—where big corporate interests, development pressure, and bad environmental policy are making it harder for small farmers to stay afloat.
She also took a strong stand on right to repair, especially for farmers dealing with giant equipment companies like John Deere controlling whether they can fix the equipment they already paid for.
📚 Public education—this is where her passion burns hottest.
She called Indiana’s voucher system exactly what many parents feel it is:
a direct attack on public schools.
As a former teacher, she made it clear that diverting taxpayer dollars away from public schools isn’t just hurting education—it’s hurting communities, culture, and opportunity.
🏛️ Libraries and broadband—something a lot of politicians overlook, but something rural families live every day.
She talked about kids needing library internet just to complete e-learning days, and why protecting libraries means protecting public access, safety, and opportunity.
🧠 Mental health—where she made one of the strongest cases of the night:
mental healthcare shouldn’t be treated like a luxury.
It should be treated like infrastructure.
And maybe the biggest theme of the conversation:
Government has stopped listening to regular people.
Too much influence from lobbyists.
Too many corporate loopholes.
Too many decisions being made for donors instead of districts.
Sarah didn’t sugarcoat that.
She talked openly about the way lobbyists shape legislation, how corporations use Indiana as a testing ground for bad policy, and why elected officials need to stop taking steak dinners and start taking care of constituents.
Then, as always, we put it to the test with Hold ’em or Fold ’em—where the talking points disappear and the positions get clear.
Universal healthcare? Hold.
Raising the minimum wage? Hold.
Union protections? Hold.
Public schools before vouchers? Absolutely hold.
What stood out most wasn’t just the policy.
It was the urgency.
Sarah isn’t running because politics sounds exciting.
She’s running because she sees people being kicked when they’re already down—and she’s tired of it.
And in a district like 70, where people care less about party and more about whether you actually show up…
that might matter more than anything.
