2020 Indiana Governor Candidate Guide
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AFFORDABLE CARE ACT – Support Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare?
Eric Holcomb – Mixed. Continue state Medicaid expansion, but backed House bill that would have cut Medicaid spending. Favors “repealing and replacing Obamacare.”
Woody Myers – Yes. Supports ACA. Wants to expand access to Medicaid and “make it easier for Hoosiers to enroll in Indiana Medicaid and Indiana Obamacare.”
Donald Rainwater – No. Supports ACA repeal. “Too much government involvement.” “Hoosiers should not be forced by government mandate to purchase health insurance.”
CLIMATE CHANGE – Consider human-caused climate change a serious threat?
Eric Holcomb – No recent position found. Role of fossil fuel burning is “debatable.” Human activity “contributes to changes over time.”
Woody Myers – Yes. Can’t ignore “climate emergency. [We’re] suffering from a climate pandemic [we] can’t yet fully see, but whose effects we already feel.”
Donald Rainwater – No position found.
CLIMATE CHANGE – Address as a top priority by taxing or limiting greenhouse gas output?
Eric Holcomb – No. Signed a bill delaying coal plant closures and a bill ending financial credits to solar and wind owners who send excess power back to the grid.
Woody Myers – Yes. Will speed retirement of coal plants with new jobs for coal workers, set up greenhouse gas reduction targets and support new renewables.
Donald Rainwater – No position found, but limit government environmental role to protection of individual property rights.
COVID-19 – Support Trump administration and Governor Holcomb’s response to coronavirus pandemic?
Eric Holcomb – Yes. “The president has Hoosiers’ best interest in mind. I don’t think he wants to … act prematurely in getting back to work.” Enacted Indiana mask mandate, though without legal penalties.
Woody Myers – No. Says he was first to call for school closure, help for working families and more testing. Would also have been more aggressive in securing personal protective equipment, instituted more stringent mask requirement and slowed lifting COVID restrictions.
Donald Rainwater – No on Governor Holcomb’s response. “I am absolutely against mandatory masks,” and “would never use an executive order to shut down … businesses.”
EDUCATION – Use public funding for private and/or for-profit schools?
Eric Holcomb – Yes. 124 non-public schools were among those that received state funding in August to help improve remote learning.
Woody Myers – No. Not against private charter schools, but supports a proposal to roll back or overturn current levels of public funding for them.
Donald Rainwater – Yes. Ensure funding available “for every child whose parents want it, regardless of their school choice.”
ENVIRONMENT – Tighten or loosen environmental regulations?
Eric Holcomb – Loosen. Supports freeing Indiana from “Washington’s one-size-fits-all overregulation,” and streamlining permitting process.
Woody Myers – Tighten. Set standards and incentives for more clean energy and reforestation, while reducing greenhouse gases and erosion.
Donald Rainwater – Loosen. Limit government role “to protection of individual property rights.” Hold polluters accountable through civil action by affected property owners.
GUN LAWS – Enact more restrictive legislation on guns?
Eric Holcomb – No. Signed law letting person with gun permit carry a firearm in a school building being used by a church.
Woody Myers – Yes. Seeks more extensive background checks, ban on civilian use of semi-automatics and closing gun-show loophole.
Donald Rainwater – No. Seeks a Constitutional Carry law. “Requiring honest Hoosiers to apply for a permit to carry violates the 2nd Amendment.”
IMMIGRATION – Create path to citizenship for DACA residents brought to U.S. as children?
Eric Holcomb – Unclear. Signed law allowing immigrants brought to U.S. illegally as children (DACA recipients) to get state professional licenses.
Woody Myers – No position found.
Donald Rainwater – Unclear. Suggests “enforcing the laws we have on the books” for the undocumented. If we can’t, “the legislature needs to do its job” and create new laws.
IMMIGRATION – Support tighter immigration restrictions?
Eric Holcomb – Unclear. Will keep accepting refugees, but “NOT illegal or unlawful immigrants.” Supported Trump’s 2017 order restricting refugees and immigration.
Woody Myers – No. Supports immigration in general. “We’ve got to make sure that people feel welcome.” Against substandard medical care for immigrants.
Donald Rainwater – No recent position found. Has indicated that he is “neutral” as to whether border laws should be enforced and illegal entry prevented.
LABOR – Support “right to work” laws, eliminating the ability of unions to mandate dues for workers they represent?
Eric Holcomb – Yes. Touted faster union job growth in Indiana than in Illinois, which is a non-right-to-work state. (Claim supported and opposed.) Signed into law bill mandating that teachers be informed of non-union options.
Woody Myers – No. As governor, would repeal the state’s right-to-work legislation and use executive orders to support worker unions.
Donald Rainwater – Unclear. Seeks a “free market economy.” “Job creation occurs as a result of lower taxes and fewer regulations.”
LEGAL ABORTION – Keep legal or ban?
Eric Holcomb – Ban. Signed bill prohibiting abortion procedure used after 13 weeks except when a woman’s health would otherwise be at risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment.
Woody Myers – Legal. “Will fully support a woman’s right to make choices about their reproductive lives.”
Donald Rainwater – Ban. Ban except “where the mother’s life is in jeopardy or when the mother has been sexually assaulted.”
MARIJUANA – Keep illegal or decriminalize?
Eric Holcomb – Illegal, for now. Doesn’t support legalization until federal law is changed. Is “not convinced other states have made a wise decision.”
Woody Myers – Decriminalize. Supports legal medical usage, and decriminalization for recreational, but not “full-on legalization.”
Donald Rainwater – Decriminalize. “Will work with members of the Indiana General Assembly to decriminalize both medical and recreational cannabis.”
MINIMUM WAGE – Raise federal hourly minimum wage above current $7.25?
Eric Holcomb – No. Would rather create livable-wage opportunities. “When people start to raise the minimum wage … that cost is just passed on to the consumer.”
Woody Myers – Yes. “A fair minimum wage is fundamental to a fair social/economic system. … Will support legislation that increases the state’s minimum wage.”
Donald Rainwater – No. Opposes increasing minimum wage.
PLANNED PARENTHOOD – Support the group receiving public funds for non-abortion care?
Eric Holcomb – No position found.
Woody Myers – Yes. Will “protect Planned Parenthood’s health services.”
Donald Rainwater – No. Doesn’t believe government should fund any private organization, including Planned Parenthood.
POLICE/COMMUNITY ISSUES – Restrict police use of force and increase public oversight?
Eric Holcomb – Unclear on use of force. Yes on oversight, requiring body cameras for state police and third-party review of Law Enforcement Academy curriculum.
Woody Myers – Yes. Seeks “new training procedures to eliminate excessive force,” choke holds banned, “community-based training,” new “accountability policies and procedures.”
Donald Rainwater – Unclear on use of force. Yes on oversight. “I’m a proponent for body cams — I think it protects both the officer and the citizen. I believe that we need to do better training.”
VOTING RULES – Support efforts to make it easier to vote including promoting voting by mail?
Eric Holcomb – No. Sees in-person voting as safe. Encourages people to vote early.
Woody Myers – Yes. “Make it as easy as possible to vote in a variety of circumstances, as long as there is a paper trail.” Wants statewide vote-by-mail.
Donald Rainwater – No recent position found. In 2016 strongly agreed that people should have photo identification in order to vote.
Campus Election Engagement Project is a nonpartisan effort to help colleges engage students in elections. Sources include Votesmart.org, FactCheck.org, Politifact.com and candidate statements. Vote411.org and Ballotready.org offer guides to local races.
