What Has André Carson Done For Indiana Democrats?

$8,750 To the Party. Four Times That On a Security Fence For His Home.

Thursday, April 30

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Indianapolis, IN — In 2025, André Carson came into the election cycle with approximately $450,000 in cash on hand.

 

Indiana Democrats needed him in 2024.

 

Four seats separated the party from breaking the Republican supermajority in the Indiana State House—the kind of supermajority that overrides vetoes, rewrites maps, and locks in one-party Republican rule for a generation. Races like Tiffany Stoner's were decided by dozens of votes. Candidates in competitive districts were fighting without the resources to run the closing stretch campaigns they needed. The difference between breaking that supermajority and falling short was money, organization, and the kind of support that a well-resourced incumbent in a safe seat could have provided.

 

André Carson had $450,000 sitting in his campaign account.

 

He spent $172,000 on transportation, luxury hotels, and steakhouses.

 

He spent approximately $35,000 on a security fence for his home.

 

He contributed $8,750 to party activities, a handful of checks to constituency caucuses and two checks to City-County Council candidates.

 

Eight thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars. To the entire Indiana Democratic Party operation. In a cycle where four seats stood between Democrats and breaking a supermajority that has governed Indiana unchecked for years.

 

He spent four times that amount on a fence.

 

This isn’t about the fence. Security is a legitimate expense for a public official and nobody begrudges him that. This is about priorities. This is about what a campaign account—built on 18 years of PAC donations from corporations and special interests—gets used for when the moment comes to invest it back into the party and the people it is supposed to serve.

 

The most Democratic district in Indiana. The only safe Democratic congressional seat in the state. The platform, the relationships, the resources, and the obligation to use all of it to lift the entire party and not just to win a race that was never in doubt.

 

That obligation wasn’t met. The supermajority held. The fence got built.

 

"André Carson came into 2025 with $450,000 in his campaign account," Hornedo said. "Indiana Democrats needed four seats to break the Republican supermajority in 2024. Races were decided by dozens of votes. He contributed $8,750 to party activities, four times less than he spent on a security fence for his home. The most Democratic district in Indiana should be the engine that powers Democratic growth statewide. Instead its congressman hoarded resources while the party bled. Indianapolis—and Indiana—deserved better."

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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.