PRESS RELEASES
What Has André Carson Done On Indianapolis Roads?
Transportation Committee Member Has Watched Indianapolis Fall $600 Million Short Annually While Taking Credit for Automatic Funding
Tuesday, April 7
Indianapolis, IN — Indianapolis filled over 100,000 potholes in 2023. It didn't matter. The roads are still crumbling.
Engineering analyses estimate Indianapolis needs an additional $600 million per year just to maintain its roads in a state of good repair. The city maintains over 8,400 lane miles of roadway. Residents absorbed an estimated $1,100 per vehicle in pothole-related damage costs. Fewer than 1% of damage claims filed with the city are approved.
André Carson has served on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for years. He voted for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021. He regularly issues press releases touting federal dollars flowing to Indiana.
What he doesn't say is that approximately 90% of federal transportation funding to Indiana flows through formula—allocated automatically based on population regardless of who holds this seat. The funding would arrive whether André Carson, George Hornedo, or anyone else represented this district. André Carson can take credit for formula funding all he wants, but that’s not advocacy.
What genuine congressional transportation advocacy looks like is going after competitive grants, fighting to change the formulas that shortchange Indianapolis, building coalitions with members representing similar blue cities in red states, and forcing the conversation at every level of government. Carson sits on the committee with the jurisdiction to do exactly that. The results don't reflect it.
Meanwhile, the 16th Street Bridge—a critical connector for Indianapolis's near-northside—faces a minimum two-year full closure beginning this summer. Over 1,000 residents signed a petition asking the city to reconsider. The Transportation Committee member representing this district has said nothing publicly.
Indianapolis has more than just a roads problem. This is a representation problem. When the federal formula systematically shortchanges a blue city in a red state and the congressman with a seat on the Transportation Committee doesn't fight to change it, that's a failure of the office.
"Fix the damn roads isn't a slogan," Hornedo said. "It's a commitment to use every tool available—competitive grants, formula reform, federal advocacy—to make sure Indianapolis isn't left behind. That's what this committee seat should be used for. It hasn't been."
This is part of the Hornedo campaign's daily accountability series, What Has André Carson Done?, running through May 1st. Learn more at georgehornedo.com.
Indianapolis deserves more than a vote in Washington. It deserves a congressman who uses the full platform of the office to fight for federal resources, to force the conversation at every level of government, and to show up for this community before the cameras arrive. That's the standard. That's what's been missing.
RECORD CHECK: The Center for Effective Lawmaking ranks Congressman Carson 197th out of 220 House Democrats in legislative effectiveness. Of his claimed 22 bills signed into law, 2 are standalone enacted bills—the Ariel Rios Federal Building naming and the Kennedy-King National Commemorative Site Act.
73% of Congressman Carson's campaign funding comes from PACs, much of it from corporate PACs including AES Indiana, BlackRock, and defense contractors. Only 7% comes from small-dollar donors.
When Julia Carson held this seat, Indianapolis was a competitive Democratic stronghold that helped power statewide wins. Under André Carson, the 7th Congressional District has become the worst in Indiana for voter turnout and Democrats haven't won statewide since 2012.