The 2022 Session: Culture Wars, Not Saving Lives, Are Priority for INGOP

The Indiana Democratic Party, the organization that advocates for the future of Indiana and its families, today criticized the Indiana Republican Party for disregarding Hoosier lives in favor of unnecessary culture wars in the upcoming 2022 legislative session. This week begins the Indiana General Assembly’s 2022 session, and Republicans are expected to make discrediting the COVID-19 vaccine their top priority from the state’s governing body. They plan to do this by forcing through House Bill 1001 and Senate Bill 114 at the start of session. 

Indiana Republicans’ 2021 effort to taint the life-saving vaccine comes as hospitals are on the brink of collapse due to the worst surge of the entire pandemic. Vaccination rates in the Hoosier State are one of the worst in the nation and hospitalizations are at levels not seen in over a year. Because of the GOP’s extreme partisanship, Indiana is the most dangerous state to call home during COVID-19. 

“Indiana Republicans have one objective for the session this year: endorse misinformation and conspiracy theories just to try to win elections. The worst part: the INGOP will ignore the truth and wishes of hard-working Hoosiers to get it done, including key stakeholders like the Indiana Chamber of Commerce and the Indiana State Police,” said Mike Schmuhl, Chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party. “Democrats have been the party of common sense by getting real opportunities across the finish line, like the American Rescue Plan’s READI program and the boost to last year’s biennial budget. We look forward to campaigning on this record as well as the INGOP’s irrational behavior throughout the critical 2022 elections.”  

The Republicans’ partisan agenda does not stop with COVID-19 as the rest of the 2022 legislative session will be about fulfilling a partisan wish list rooted in misinformation and cooked up by the national Republican Party. This agenda includes criminalizing women’s access to reproductive health care (in all cases), installing so-called “constitutional carry” (opposed by the Indiana State Police), and making school board elections partisan — right when people want less politics in schools.