When it comes to guns, things seem a little upside down in the race for one of Indiana’s U.S. Senate seats.
Republican Todd Young was one of only nine GOP senators to sign on to President Joe Biden’s gun-control bill in June, ensuring that the most significant piece of gun legislation in 30 years became law.
The bill incentivizes states to pass so-called red flag laws, expands background checks on those aged 18-21 seeking guns and prevents people convicted of domestic abuse against a dating partner from owning a gun.
Democratic candidate and Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott, on the other hand, said he’s a proud gun owner who often carries a Glock for personal protection.
“You’re talking to a guy that believes in the Second Amendment and believes in people’s ability to carry safely under the Second Amendment,” he said in a June interview.
As many U.S. Senate candidates have gravitated toward the edges, the gun issue is just one example of both Hoosier candidates bucking party-line rhetoric and instead placing themselves nearer the middle of the political spectrum.
In Indiana, that only makes sense, even as extreme rhetoric seems to play well elsewhere in Senate races, said Marjorie Hershey, an Indiana University political science professor whose research focuses on campaigns and elections.
It’s logical for McDermott to position himself near the middle, Hershey said, since most Indiana Democrats consider themselves more moderate than liberal.
For Young, taking more middle-of-the-road stances is a good play on the national level, she argued, as the prospect of a Republican sweep in the midterms has become less likely with the expected backlash against the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“A Republican who wants to do well, nationally, as opposed to in a state election, is probably wanting to maintain a certain amount of flexibility, ideologically, because it’s just not clear the extent to which Trump and the far right are going to dominate in 2024,” Hershey said.
Cam Savage, who has worked as Young’s lead campaign consultant for six years, said there’s no doubt that the first-term senator is conservative, but he’s also willing to reach across the aisle when it requires getting votes to pass meaningful legislation.
That’s evidenced by Young’s voting record. According to the Lugar Center, he’s the 13th-most bipartisan legislator in the Senate and the sixth-most bipartisan Republican.
“He’s somebody that wants to move the needle,” Savage said. “He’s not a show horse. He’s a workhorse. … He’s a conservative who’s managed to do what is increasingly difficult in Washington these days, and that’s get things done.”
McDermott’s stances also lean toward the middle, but that doesn’t mean he’s a moderate, said Mike Schmuhl, chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party.
“I think he’s a populist,” Schmuhl said of McDermott. “… He’s pro-worker, he’s pro-union, he’s pro-cop, he’s pro-senior, he’s pro-vet. He’s also pro-marijuana legalization in the state of Indiana, which is probably a first for a Senate candidate of either party.”
The biggest difference between the two candidates may be in their campaign rhetoric and governing style.
Young is a legislative-driven senator, Savage explained, who’d rather focus on policy than talk show sound bites.
“You don’t often see him running to the TV cameras to talk about whatever the outrage of the day is,” Savage said. “That’s just not his style. Todd is more comfortable working behind the scenes to try to get things done.”
McDermott, on the other hand, is an in-your-face politician who swears, drives a Mustang and campaigns under the slogan “All Hoosier. No Bullsh–.”
“He tells people what he thinks, and it’s unvarnished and it’s truthful and it’s straight up, and I think that the vast majority of Hoosiers would rather have that style of person … as their senator,” Schmuhl said.
In the end, how both candidates fall on the political spectrum is a matter of context, Hershey argues.
Some of Young’s stances seem moderate, but that’s only because the GOP has shifted so far right, she said. McDermott’s views may seem liberal to some, but in reality, are very standard and long-held Democratic policy goals.
Hershey said polling has shown only 3% of Republicans identify as moderate and the rest say they are conservative or very conservative, whereas Democrats are split evenly between those who consider themselves moderate versus liberal.
“A lot of conservatives tell me … ‘Oh, the Democratic Party has become so extremely liberal,’ and that’s actually not accurate,” she said. “But I think they hear that so constantly from right wing news sources that they’ve begun to believe it’s true.”
