Democratic candidate George Hornedo is running for a seat in Indiana’s 7th Congressional district, which covers most of Indianapolis. Rep. Andre Carson currently holds this seat.
As a part of a Q&A series with District 7 candidates, Hornedo shared his background, priorities and perspective on Indianapolis ahead of the May 5 primary. Candidates were asked the same questions.
Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Share with our readers why you are running for Congress this year.
George Hornedo: I respect Congressman Carson. Sometimes we have to tell the truth, and the unfortunate truth is that he’s failing Indianapolis and has been doing so for too long.
We have to look at one, accountability. I’m proud to have 100% of my resources from individuals, 80% of which are small-dollar. You look at the congressman, and 73% of his money comes from PACs, much of the corporate PACs, like Black Rock, AES and defense contractors. And not only am I the only candidate in the race that has never taken a corporate backtrack, but I also have four times as many in-district donors as an 18-year incumbent as part of a 50-year family legacy of service.
You see those things pop up in fights like what we saw in Martindale Brightwood, and I was proud to stand with the community in opposition to the data center. I’m looking everywhere to see if the Congressman had a statement on it. He didn’t. Until the day of, he said it was an opportunity for the community to be heard. Then, after it passed, he feigned concern around it all while some of his top financial backers were there, sitting in the front row in support of the data center.
Number two, unfortunately, the Center for Effective Lawmaking, which is a nonpartisan institute, consistently ranks the congressman in the bottom 10% legislative effectiveness for all members of Congress. While he may tout 22 bills signed to law, what he doesn’t say is that only two of those were standalone bills where he was the lead sponsor, and both of those were ceremonial, renaming a federal building and naming a memorial.
The congressman touts a billion dollars brought to the district, but what he doesn’t tell us is most of that was federal formula fund money that was automatically coming here regardless;it didn’t matter who was sitting in that seat.
In my professional career, I’ve represented the African American mayor association in the cities of Birmingham, Jackson, Little Rock, Miami-Dade County, and, in just three short years, secured nearly $100 million for communities across the country. That’s not even as a member of Congress, right? So, I think we need to be more proactive, not just in terms of legislation, but in terms of bringing money home.
Then the third thing I think about is when Julia Carson was in the seat, this was the best district in the state in voter turnout. That’s also when we had a more balanced government. Democrats were competing and winning statewide.
Now, Congressman Carson is very hands-off as it comes to that, and we’re the worst district in voter turnout in a state that is already dead last. That is embarrassing, yes, but it also doesn’t have to be that way.
It bothers me when people talk about how barn red Indiana is because there are 15 states more conservative than Indiana, and four or five of them have more recently had statewide elected positions.
Republicans, the data shows, have an inherent nine-point advantage in the state, yet they’re winning statewide by 20-plus points. And they’re able to do that because, in large part, Indianapolis is not turning out and organizing the way it used to.
Which past experiences will help you in this role?
Hornedo: You may have heard of ‘you campaign poetry, and you govern in prose,’ right? Then there’s deep in the weeds on Notice of Funding Opportunities for the 385 infrastructure law programs, the 130 Fraud Inflation Reduction Act programs, right? So, I fully understand how to navigate that realm and be a quarterback to help entities, whether it be a city, nonprofits, universities (or) any given entity within the district, to help from soup to nuts as they seek competitive grant funding.
That’s something most members of Congress, including Congressman Carson, are very passive on, and it’s just signing the letter of support once it gets near again, defined. We need something much more robust, and I think that’s important.
I think the fact that so many of my jobs have been in the national political space means I also have relationships in Congress as well, not just at the staff side, but at the actual member of Congress side. Unlike most freshmen members of Congress, I wouldn’t be walking in blind and not naive, certainly to how things move and operate. That’s what the baseline of the job actually is. The way I see this is, anybody can be an up or down vote on any given issue. It is how you use the role and the platform here at home as well.
We asked ourselves, ‘How would we want to run this if we didn’t know the rules?’ We see this not just as a vehicle to hopefully elect me, but as a vehicle to rebuild the party from the bottom up. We see it as a vehicle for grassroots defense.
In the midst of redistricting, we built the largest operation in the state to combat it, and we saw it as a vehicle for mutual aid during the November shutdown when there was a food stamp lapse. Because, while voting is the actual power of the role, and you don’t even have to be in Congress to have that symbolic power, means the candidate still has that platform.
I’ve been able to connect with all sorts of folks, from faith leaders to neighborhood association presidents to community organizers of different strikes. I can’t necessarily make something happen, but if I know this neighborhood association over here sitting on the funds and wants to do something in that moment to be of service, and then this group of organizers over here doesn’t have resources, but has the passion and the time and volunteers, then let me plug them together, right?
What we also did is our own research on the resources already out there, not just here in Indy but across the state. I pushed that out to my email list, and I said, ‘Look, this is a living sheet, crowd-sourced. If you know of anything, then send it my way,’ and boom, just like that, about 130 entries. There are a lot of ways in which you can use the platform for good and help people, regardless of what power structure looks like in D.C.
If you are elected, what will be your biggest priorities?
Hornedo: I want to continue the year-round organizing on the ground here. I think presence is important. People want to feel like somebody is showing up. And I think hopefully could continue this sort of energy on the ground into future election cycles, because it’s not enough for me to win the seat. Congress is not the destination. That’s just where the work begins. Right? If I can help rebuild the ground here, we can elect a Democratic governor.
One of the things I think about is, you see most members of Congress fall into two buckets. One bucket are folks that push the domestic bills, remedy right for the base, even if there’s not a real chance in that period of time of passing such legislation, and I think that’s important, right? You’ll see other members of Congress that are more focused on, ‘how do I get defined results for my district, for my community? You don’t offer them ‘both and…’ is it’s debated as ‘either or none.’
I see it as the ‘both and…’ but beyond that, there is a third bucket in my mind, which I don’t really see people think about, and that’s looking at system gaps and system design.
I know roads here, big issue, and I feel like an IndyCar driver navigating them, but I would not have told you before getting into this race that it is the one issue I hear about on the phones and on doors, like way above everything else.
If my community has a concern, I can’t just say, ‘Hey, that’s not my problem,’ right? I have “‘Fix the damn road’ white paper (and a) ‘Fix the damn road’ signs out there. Sometimes people ask me, and understandably so ‘Well, what the hell does that have to do with members of Congress? That’s a state or local issue,’ and by and large it is. But I say anything that is a state local issue can also be a federal issue. …
Just like a congressman, I’m but one person, right? I can’t snap my fingers and say, you ‘this is happening,’ but you gotta try. People need to feel like their congress member is trying, like, ‘where’s the effort, where’s the fight?’ So that would be certainly one of the first things I want to try and address.
READ MORE: Q&A: Patrick McAuley outlines priorities in bid for Indiana’s 7th District
As you listen to members of this community talk about what matters to them, what are they asking for from their representative?
Hornedo: I hear a lot about affordable housing. I mean, affordability at large, obviously, for some people, given different stages of life. For some people, childcare costs more than a year of in-state college tuition. That’s absurd. For others, health care, for everybody, it seems to be utility costs right now. Affordable housing consistently comes up, and so I have a whole plan around that, and that plan doesn’t just talk about what I as a member of Congress can do in D.C., it talks about some of the interventions I think are needed at the state and local level as well.
The reason for that is it’s very clear when talking to community members that most people don’t know, and certainly nobody really cares, whether a solution is to come from federal, state or local. They just want to see their challenges solved.
In the absence of a governor and a mayor that have any sort of real vision for the community, I think whoever sits in this congressional seat needs to put forward that vision right. Vision building is difficult. Rallying people around has been harder. Executing upon a vision is the hardest. But unless you actually have a vision, then you’re just walking aimlessly. I just feel like we’ve been walking aimlessly for far too long. …
So, we just need to do a better job of breaking down these silos, because most issues they’re facing are very complex as well. And so, it means that there’s no one solution at one level of government. You really need a whole government approach.
What do you love most about Indianapolis?
Hornedo: The people. This is the largest Democratic field operation the state has seen in years. I think (we knocked on) over 42,000 doors as of yesterday, we’ve made over a million calls, in general. We’ve had over 1.6 [sic] direct voter outreach attempts, and we have had over 16,000 one-on-one conversations — whether through doors or phones — and that is set apart from community events that we go to, meet people, and speak at; separate and apart from events that we host as a campaign or supporter, hosting house parties and coffee chats; separate from social media.
This is just the one-on-one, and it is really sobering, quite frankly, because I’m hearing every day all these different challenges, right? … I mean, this is heavy, and it shows the gravity and responsibility that comes with a role like this, but what I also see every single day is resilience. Despite so much of what’s difficult, levels of hope.
The thing I tell people is, I can’t blame anybody for being disillusioned at this moment. Anytime I open Twitter or turn on the TV, it’s just ‘what terrible new thing is happening right now?’ It’s difficult, but I see something different on the doors, right? That fuels me, that gives me energy, that gives me hope.
If the choice is always going to be ‘you can step away or step up,’ then I’m always going to choose ‘step up.’ Obviously, running for Congress is an extreme of stepping up. It looks different for different people. Voting is stepping up, being a part of your community in any different way or going to your neighborhood association meeting is stepping up. Going to a protest is stepping up.
Voting is stepping up, talking with families and neighbors about what’s happening … We just have to remember that nobody’s coming to save us. … And this country on the other side of Trump, is going to need a whole new reconstruction, and we need a new type of elected leader, folks that are builders, inherently, folks that aren’t necessarily going to see it as the party line and do what Democratic leadership wants, but do what’s necessary for your community.
Learn more at https://www.georgehornedo.com/.
Contact Arts & Culture Reporter Chloe McGowan at 317-762-7848. Follow her on X @chloe_mcgowanxx.
Chloe McGowan is the Arts & Culture Reporter for the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper. Originally from Columbus, OH, Chloe has a bachelor's in journalism from The Ohio State University. She is a former IndyStar Pulliam Fellow, and has previously worked for Indy Maven, The Lantern, and CityScene Media Group. In her free time, Chloe enjoys live theatre, reading, baking and keeping her plants alive.
