Hurt Running For Indiana 8th: "Immigration A Boon For Our Communities."

Source: WISH-TV / other

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — The eight congressional district encompassing western and southern portions of Indiana will have a new representative in Congress next year.

With Rep. Larry Bucshon deciding to end his time on Capitol Hill, Mark Mesmer (R), Erik Hurt (D), and K. Richard Fitzlaff (L) are each hoping to succeed Bucshon in representing Hoosiers in the eighth district.

A Democrat has not represented the eighth in nearly two decades. Brad Ellsworth was the last Democrat elected from the eighth district in 2008. Erik Hurt is hoping to flip the district blue again by appealing to Hoosiers with policies regarding workers’ rights, taxing wealth corporations, and a unique approach to the issues at the southern border.

For starters, Hurt is in favor of implementing a wide variety of new taxes in the name of stamping out “corporate greed.”

“We need windfall profit taxes,” Hurt told All Indiana Politics. “Which would look at when companies raising prices while bringing in record profits, that we are taxing that money and putting it back in the pockets of working-class people.”

He said he would support similar legislation already being pushed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

Hurt also hopes to clamp down on those he said are making housing less affordable for people looking for a place to live, namely corporate property owners and renters he claims are upcharging tenants.

“These people are driving up the cost of housing,” he said. “We need to make sure we are implementing taxes on multiple rental properties and mega-corporations who are buying out these single homes.”

Finally, when it comes to the southern border, Hurt believes that in a way the surge of migrants coming across the border between the U.S. and Mexico can be a good thing.

“This is a boon to many of our communities, certainly in rural Indiana,” Hurt said. “We have a lot of people coming across the border and contributing so much to these communities where a lot of people have left.”

However, he acknowledges the blatant problems with the border, which he believes mainly has to do with the movement of drugs. Hurt believes in an approach of “empathy and understanding.”

“We can look at root causes,” he said. “So, say you look at drugs. Is it a border issue or is it an opioid issue? Is it a drug issue? How can you attack that and how can you get to the root cause of that problem in this country? People don’t do drugs just because they want to do drugs. There is an intrinsic link between negative mental health, poverty, and substance abuse.”

Hurt lived in Orlando, Florida up until 2020 before deciding to move back to his native Evansville.