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Healthcare
4.00
Economics
4.00
Candidate Name
Katie Robins
District
State House District 31
Values
Grade
Values
Party
Democrat
Experience
Challenger
Grade
Democracy
4.00
Accessibility
4
Governance
4
Cost
Choice
4
4
Freedom
Voting
4
4
Community
4.00
A+
Overall Grade
Education
4.00
Affordability
Equity
Opportunity
4
4
4
Environment
Public Safety
Inclusion
4
4
4
Stability
Funding
Belonging
4
4
4
Notable Information
Candidate Name
Candidate for:
State House District 31
Democrat
Challenger
Notable Information
MADVoters Survey Responses
Healthcare: The Big Beautiful Bill is projected to cut $31 billion from Indiana’s Medicaid funding, including almost $13 billion in hospital funding, over the next decade. What will you do if elected to ensure healthcare affordability and access given these changes? (Source: Indiana Hospital Association)
As a nurse, I see Indiana’s healthcare crisis up close every single day — and the Big Beautiful Bill will make it catastrophically worse. Indiana is already projected to be the 7th hardest hit state in the country, with an estimated 180,000 Hoosiers losing Medicaid coverage and nearly $13 billion cut from Indiana hospitals over the next decade. Cutting Medicaid doesn’t reduce healthcare costs — it increases them. When people lose coverage, they delay care until they end up in the emergency room, which is the most expensive and least profitable care to provide. If elected, I will fight against any further cuts to Medicaid and push to restore funding that has been stripped from our most vulnerable communities. I will advocate for expanding access to care in rural areas, holding insurance companies and hospital systems accountable for price gouging and billing fraud, and pushing for systemic reform that puts patients before profits. Healthcare is not a privilege — it is a right, and I will show up every single day to fight for it.
Economics: AI and data centers are having a huge impact on jobs and communities across the nation, particularly in Indiana. What is Congress’s role in addressing this developing technology? What action will you take to hear and represent the concerns of Hoosiers on this topic?
Economics: Dozens of AI data centers are planning to come to Indiana, drawn by the state’s “business-friendly” reputation. How should Indiana manage these large industrial site proposals and their potential impact on communities? (Source: Citizens Action Coalition)
Indiana’s “business-friendly” reputation has come at a steep cost to working families. Data centers and large industrial sites are being lured here with massive tax incentives and abatements — meaning they pay far less than their fair share while their profits flow out of our communities. And unlike traditional manufacturing, data centers don’t bring large numbers of good paying, permanent jobs once construction is done. Meanwhile, they drive up utility costs for everyone else. Hoosiers are already being squeezed by skyrocketing energy bills, and with Blackrock now owning AES — one of Indiana’s largest electric suppliers — and the IURC rubber stamping rate hike after rate hike, adding massive energy-hungry data centers to our grid without accountability is a recipe for disaster for working families. Indiana should require any large industrial site proposal to demonstrate real community benefit — good paying union jobs, fair taxation, environmental accountability, and a concrete plan for how they will offset their impact on utility costs for residents. Economic development should mean everyone in the community benefits — not just the corporations at the top. If it doesn’t lift working families up, it’s not development. It’s extraction.
Education: Describe your stance on the Department of Education and its role in education administration, funding, and protections for students with disabilities.
Education: Since 2012, Indiana has spent over $5.5 billion in taxpayer dollars on charter schools and the private school voucher program. If elected, would you support or oppose the use of taxpayer dollars to funding private schools and charter schools? Why or why not? (Source: ICPE)
I strongly oppose the use of taxpayer dollars to fund private schools and charter schools at the expense of our public schools. Since 2012, Indiana has funneled over $5.5 billion in public tax dollars into private and charter schools — and starting in 2026, there will be no income cap to qualify for vouchers, meaning any family regardless of wealth can receive a taxpayer funded coupon for private school. That is fiscally irresponsible and fundamentally inequitable. Most voucher receiving schools are religiously affiliated, can turn students away based on religion, sexuality, or special education needs, and have no fiduciary oversight or locally elected school board. Public dollars should go to public schools — period. Right here in District 31, the voucher program alone has drained over $26 million from our local schools since 2017. Our schools are not failing — they are being deliberately defunded. I will fight to end the voucher program, restore funding to our public schools, and ensure that every child in District 31 has access to a fully funded, high quality public education.
Democracy: In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge or threat facing our democracy right now? If elected, what will you do to help overcome this challenge or threat?
The biggest threat to our democracy right now is the deliberate and systematic effort to consolidate power and silence voters. In Indiana alone we have seen this play out in devastating ways. When President Trump demanded it, our Republican supermajority dropped everything and called a special session to redraw congressional maps — not to address the healthcare crisis, not to help families afford housing, but to do the bidding of the federal government at the expense of Hoosier voters. They banned ranked choice voting, which would have given independent voters a stronger voice. And now they are pushing for closed primaries, which would force Indiana voters to register with a party just to participate in primary elections — disenfranchising the independents and unaffiliated voters who make up a significant portion of our electorate. Governor Braun has been handed unprecedented executive power — over university boards, judicial appointments, and now a military police unit of the National Guard. This is an erosion of checks and balances that should alarm every Hoosier regardless of party. If elected I will fight to protect voting rights, oppose closed primaries, push back against executive overreach, and support legislation that bans gerrymandering and establishes an independent commission to draw congressional maps every ten years — because the people should choose their representatives, not the other way around. I will be a transparent and accountable representative who shows up for every constituent — not just the ones who voted for me.
Community: Describe your stance on ICE and its role in immigration enforcement and detention.
Community: What role or responsibility do local and state governments have with regards to immigration enforcement?
Local and state governments have a responsibility to serve and protect all members of their community — not to act as arms of federal immigration enforcement. Indiana’s SEA 76, which mandates that schools and local governments cooperate with ICE, is a dangerous and harmful overreach that undermines trust between communities and the institutions meant to serve them. When a child is afraid to go to school, or a family is afraid to call 911, or a worker is afraid to report unsafe conditions — everyone is less safe. This issue is personal to me. I am a third generation Hoosier — Indiana is where my great grandfather, a Mexican immigrant, chose to plant his roots and build his life. His fortitude, strength, and love for America is the reason I am here today. Immigrants are our neighbors, our coworkers, our patients, and our friends. They work in our hospitals, build our homes, harvest our food, and contribute to our communities every single day. Our immigration system is deeply broken — people spend decades trying to navigate it legally — and the answer is not to terrorize communities while Washington refuses to fix the underlying problem. I oppose any effort to use local and state resources for immigration enforcement, and I will fight to repeal SEA 76 and restore trust between our communities and the institutions that serve them.