What Has André Carson Done For Veterans?

Indianapolis Has One of the Largest Veteran Populations in the Midwest. The Fight For Them Has Been Largely Invisible.

Tuesday, April 21

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Indianapolis, IN — Indianapolis is home to one of the largest veteran populations in the Midwest.

 

These are men and women who served—who gave years of their lives, in some cases their health, in some cases pieces of themselves that never fully came back—in service to a country that promised to take care of them when they came home. That promise has been kept imperfectly at best and broken at worst. The gap between what veterans were promised and what they have received runs through every level of government and the federal government is where the responsibility ultimately lives.

 

Indiana veterans face real, documented challenges. The Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis serves tens of thousands of veterans across the state. Wait times for mental health appointments have been a persistent problem. Veterans experiencing homelessness in Marion County represent a population that existing resources have not been adequate to fully serve. The transition from military service to civilian employment—already difficult under the best circumstances—is harder for veterans who lack the credentials, networks, and institutional support that the private sector rewards.

 

Veterans dealing with toxic exposure—burn pit injuries, Agent Orange exposure, contaminated water at bases like Camp Lejeune—have fought for years to have their conditions recognized and their claims processed. The PACT Act, signed into law in 2022, was a landmark expansion of VA benefits for toxic-exposed veterans. Carson voted for it. That vote was correct and important.

 

But a vote isn’t a constituency relationship. It’s not showing up at the Roudebush VA to hear directly from veterans about what is and isn't working. It’s not using the platform of a congressional office to force accountability when wait times are unacceptable or when claims are denied that should be approved. It’s not fighting for the veteran-owned small businesses in Indianapolis that need federal contracting set-asides actually enforced. It’s not advocating for the homeless veterans in Marion County with the same urgency that their service to this country demands.

 

Julia Carson kept photos of fallen Indiana service members outside her congressional office door. She treated the obligation to veterans as personal, not political. That standard hasn’t been visibly maintained.

 

A member of Congress representing a district with Indianapolis's veteran population has an obligation that goes beyond the right vote when the bill comes to the floor. It requires sustained, visible, personal advocacy—showing up at the VA, holding the system accountable when it fails, fighting for the resources that make the promise to veterans real rather than ceremonial.

 

That advocacy has not been visible at the scale Indianapolis veterans deserve.

 

The men and women who served this country and came home to Indianapolis—who live with the physical and psychological costs of their service every day—deserve a congressman who treats their wellbeing as a personal mission. Not a constituency to be acknowledged in a press release. Not a box to be checked on a campaign website. A community to be fought for, consistently and loudly, because they earned it.

 

"Indianapolis is home to thousands of veterans who served this country and came home expecting their government to keep its promises," Hornedo said. "The PACT Act was a victory and Carson's vote for it was the right vote. But voting yes when the bill arrives isn’t the same as fighting for veterans every day in between. Showing up at the VA. Holding the system accountable when wait times are unacceptable. Fighting for homeless veterans in Marion County. Using every tool available to make sure the promise this country made to its veterans is actually kept. That sustained fight has been missing. Indianapolis veterans deserved it. They still do."

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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.

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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.