Abortion, national issues prominent in Indianapolis mayor race

It’s local election season in Indianapolis but national political issues from abortion to Trump have played an outsized role as voters head to the polls in the next three weeks to decide who will lead the city for the next four years.

At least four of incumbent Democratic Mayor Joe Hogsett’s campaign ads have focused on attacking his opponent, Jefferson Shreve, for what the campaign claims is the Republican candidate’s stance on former President Donald Trump, or on abortion access and gun control, two issues that Indianapolis’ city hall has no direct lawmaking control over.

Shreve has accused Hogsett of trying to nationalize the election to his advantage, arguing that voters are not electing a mayor to set abortion policy.

Still, Shreve has made stricter gun control a key part of his public safety platform. International geopolitics have also entered the mayoral conversation, as the Israel-Palestine conflict escalates in violence, with Shreve speaking out against a rally on Monument Circle last week that drew hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters and calling on Hogsett to condemn it.

Voters and the campaigns have focused on crime, infrastructure, pedestrian safety and economic issues, with public safety in the city emerging as a likely hinge upon which this election swings. Still, University of Indianapolis political expert Laura Wilson said she can’t think of an Indianapolis mayoral election where national political dynamics have played a bigger role, even though she said she is not sure how much it will matter ultimately with it being an off-year election.

The nationalization of local elections

Some voters have said that it matters to them to know the candidates’ stances on issues that they care about, like abortion and gun control, even if the mayor has no authority in legislating those matters.

“I believe people will die if Indiana’s near-total abortion ban remains in place,” Dawn Olsen, 35, a Fletcher Place resident, told IndyStar. “Because reproductive rights are important to me, I want to know where Mayor Hogsett and Jefferson Shreve stand.”

On the other side of the political aisle, pro-Second Amendment conservatives reacted with outrage to Shreve’s gun control reform agenda, even though any Indianapolis mayor is unlikely to be able to change Indiana’s relatively lax gun laws due to a 2011 state preemption law that prevents cities from doing so.

Political experts said this dynamic is part of a trend toward increasingly nationalized local elections in cities and states across the country, where candidates’ positions on local issues are no longer the only thing that matters. Party affiliation and whether they are vocal on hot-button social issues are relevant to voters casting their ballots in municipal races, experts said.

Just 15 years ago, a majority of Indianapolis voted for both Democrat Barack Obama for president and Republican Mitch Daniels for governor in the same election.

But political expert J. Miles Coleman, associate editor for the election projection site Sabato’s Crystal Ball, said the most important thing now in many elections, whether local, statewide or national, is whether someone has a D or an R behind their name.

A September poll conducted by Indy Politics, Crossroads Public Affairs and Illinois-based political consulting firm ARW Strategies showed Hogsett leading by 10 points and indicated that partisan loyalty remains strong, experts said.

Coleman said the nationalization of local politics is concerning.

"I don’t want either party to be a cult of personality based on Trump or Obama or whoever," he said. "I want two strong, competitive parties."

Hogsett and Shreve on abortion and gun control

In Indianapolis and other local elections across the country, political observers said, abortion access and gun control have been major issues in voters’ and campaigns’ discourse this year.

Indiana was the first state to pass a near-total abortion ban after Roe vs. Wade was overturned in 2022, a ban that took effect this year after unsuccessful legal challenges.

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When asked what his stance is on abortion, Shreve told IndyStar that the mayor has no authority over abortion policy and that his focus would be public safety, infrastructure and other issues the mayor can influence. He said he would dedicate no IMPD resources to the enforcement or prosecution of abortion.

"I respect how important this issue is to people on both sides of the issue," Shreve wrote in a statement. "For me, abortion has nothing to do with the job of mayor. This is not a legislative office. While I’m Catholic and that informs how I feel personally, I believe my views are mine and others' views are theirs."

Hogsett, meanwhile, has spoken about how he would advocate to overturn Indiana’s abortion ban. He told IndyStar previously that reproductive rights are a public health question, not a political question.

“Every ounce of evidence shows that the Indiana abortion ban will harm women’s health, especially when it comes to issues of maternal and infant mortality,” he said.

Hogsett’s campaign has continued to attack Shreve abortion issues, pointing to his unsuccessful 2016 campaign for Indiana Senate, where he said he was pro-life in a campaign ad that has since been deleted from the ShreveForMayor Facebook page. IndyStar reviewed the ad prior to deletion.

“Jefferson Shreve will fight for the right to life and our Second Amendment Rights,” the ad narrator said. “Jefferson Shreve, the conservative Republican we can count on in the state Senate.”

Olsen, the Fletcher Place resident, said she thinks abortion issues are part of the mayor’s job.

“Mayors need to care about the issues their constituents care about,” she said. “It is their job to represent and advocate for me — for us, really. If a candidate is disinterested in something I care about — abortion rights, public safety, you name it — then I have no interest in voting for them.”

Both Hogsett and Shreve have promised they would seek to change state law to allow Indianapolis to enforce stricter gun control measures. But pro-gun rights Republican state lawmakers previously told IndyStar this is unlikely to happen.

Hogsett plays Trump card

A major catalyst for what we see today was 2016, Coleman said, when former President Donald Trump was elected. His presidency made politics across the country more tribalistic and polarized, he said.

The reelection of Marion County prosecutor Ryan Mears last year, even in the face of heated criticism from his opponents over crime and gun violence, showed how Indianapolis has only become even more deeply blue.

Meanwhile, Wilson said, the Republican party is undergoing soul-searching as it battles divisions between pro-Trump and anti-Trump members.

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Nationalization of local politics poses a challenge for Republican candidates to win heavily Democratic cities, Coleman said, because they may need to disavow their affiliation with Trump to win over the many anti-Trump voters in liberal areas.

The Hogsett campaign has taken advantage of this, pointing out that Shreve voted for Trump as a delegate from Indiana in the 2016 Republican National Convention.

A new Hogsett campaign ad and the Indiana Democrats in a statement Tuesday pressured Shreve on his stance regarding the 2020 presidential election, Trump and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Shreve told IndyStar Wednesday: “Of course I condemn the January 6 attacks on our nation’s Capitol. It was reprehensible.”

Shreve also said in an Aug. 30 appearance on the Tina Cosby show Community Connection that if Trump becomes the Republican presidential nominee, he would not have Shreve’s vote.

Ultimately, Coleman said, it’s advantageous for Republicans running in blue-leaning cities to shift the attention away from national politics.

“The best route if you’re a minority party in an area is try to keep the issues as local as possible,” Coleman said.

Shreve has kept his focus on local issues this election, promising to resolve the police shortage and reduce crime by hiring a public safety director, spur downtown development, and reform the city’s animal welfare system.

Meanwhile, Hogsett has focused on his $150 million anti-violence plan, $1.2 billion five-year infrastructure plan, and economic development.

The election is on Nov. 7. Early voting has begun.

Contact IndyStar reporter Ko Lyn Cheang at kcheang@indystar.com or 317-903-7071. Follow her on Twitter: @kolyn_cheang.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis mayor race: Abortion, national issues are prominent