Episode 78: Gen-Z Progressive Populist Shakes Up Indiana Congressional Race

Playback speed

Share post at current time

Share from 0:00

0:00

Transcript

Episode 78: Gen-Z Progressive Populist Shakes Up Indiana Congressional Race

Guest: Jackson Franklin - (D) Candidate for US House of Representatives (IN05)

Scott Aaron Rogers

Apr 26, 2025

Transcript

Jackson Franklin via Instagram @jacksonfranklinforcongress

Episode 78: Gen-Z Progressive Populist Shakes Up Indiana Congressional Race

Guest: Jackson Franklin - (D) Candidate for US House of Representatives (IN05)

Full show notes at https://hoosleft.us/

Official Jackson Franklin Campaign Site: https://jacksonfranklinforcongress.com/

Welcome to the HoosLeft Podcast, a show about Indiana politics, history, and culture from an unapologetically leftist perspective. My name is Scott Aaron Rogers, I’m recording from Bloomington, and as I record, we are nearing the 100th day of Donald Trump’s Second Administration.

That’s all? 100 days? It’s been so disorienting as to make one completely lose any sense of time. The other day I saw a tweet that said, so far 2025 feels like being awake during surgery, and I think that best captures the mood.

In 1933, Hitler’s Nazis dismantled a democracy in only 53 days. So, as we near 100, I am happy to announce that our representative form of government still stands… at the precipice, staring into the abyss of tyranny, hanging by a thread… barely… I guess?

There has been no Reichstag fire, no singular moment marking America’s descent in fascism, but a thousand cuts. I think the “it can’t happen here” crowd imagines a sort of reverse Wizard of Oz situation - one moment you’re living in color only to find a cold, gray autocracy with tanks rolling down on the street on the other side of that door. 21st Century dictators don’t operate like that.

Just as he’s done with countless women, Trump has repeatedly violated the law, ignoring court orders and essentially saying, “whaddya gonna do about it?” So far, nothing.

In March, the president issued an executive order asserting far-reaching powers over state election laws that would disenfranchise millions of voters and clearly violates Article I, Section IV of the Constitution. The day I write this, a judge blocked parts of the order from taking effect. Will the administration heed this order? Will we even have free and fair elections in 2026?

We have to fight this regime at every turn, right now, to ensure the creeping vines of authoritarianism don’t completely strangle what democracy we’ve got left - and we also have to plan for those elections next year as if they will proceed normally. And, it might feel early to think about November of ‘26, but in Indiana, the primary is just over a year out.

So with that, I welcome my first candidate for office in next year’s midterm elections. Jackson Franklin is 25 years old, and a Staff Sergeant in the Indiana Army National Guard. He’s served as a combat medic for 6 years and went overseas to Kosovo in 2023. He works as a paramedic, and has assisted in several local campaigns, as well as serving as a policy advisor for previous congressional races. From the Muncie area, Jackson is also close to earning a bachelor’s degree in American history from American Military University. He’s running for Congress in Indiana’s 5th District, which includes the communities of Carmel, Noblesville, Fishers, Anderson, Muncie, Marion, and Kokomo - and is currently represented by Republican Victoria Spartz.

In this discussion, I’ll ask what motivated Jackson to jump into such a big race for his first campaign, and we’ll talk about ways the Democratic Party could better appeal to working class voters. We’ll look at some of Congresswoman Spartz’s failures, and I ask if this district ready for a left populist candidate. We touch on universal healthcare, Ukraine, imperialism, greed, and the flaws in our system of government.

Before we jump to the interview, please consider supporting HoosLeft with a paid subscription. This is an independent media project; I don’t paywall content; and I don’t rely on advertising. Only individuals like you sustain this endeavor. So please, if you find value in my work, go to HoosLeft.us and subscribe at the paid level - it’s only $5 a month, or $50 a year, to help me write more, research more, and organize more. Not ready for long-term commitment? You can throw a one-time contribution in my hat on Cash App or Venmo. I would like to dedicate my full time to you, this project, and Indiana’s future; but I need your financial support to do so. And right now, I’m offering yearly subscriptions for $30 until the end of April.

And there are other ways to help grow this community - by liking and sharing on social media, commenting, leaving reviews, providing feedback, and forwarding articles to your people. We are building a community of Hoosiers dedicated to making this state, and its government, work for all of us, not just the elite few.

Follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, YouTube, and TikTok at HoosLeft, and I’m personally at scottrog78 on Instagram, Threads, Twitter and Mastodon. Tell the others. Let’s build a radically-democratic Indiana together. Thanks again.

Now, here is my conversation with Jackson Franklin.

Things We Talked About:

Bernie/AOC Fight Oligarchy Tour: https://bsanders-astro.pages.dev/oligarchy/

Kamala Harris’ Cheney Endorsement Flops: https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/liz-cheney-electoral-fiasco-kamala-harris/

Tea Party of the Left? https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/todays-angry-dems-are-not-tomorrows-tea-party-of-the-left.html

Who’s the Leader of the Democratic Party? https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2025/01/14/democratic-party-leadership-crisis/77680714007/?tbref=hp

Bernie/AOC Draw Record Crowds: https://www.dw.com/en/us-bernie-sanders-rally-draws-record-crowd-in-la/a-72231033

10 Senate Democrats Collaborate: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5195990-senate-democrats-advance-funding-bill/

Indiana 5th Congressional District Demographics: https://datacommons.org/place/geoId/1805?topic=Demographics

Hamilton County Trending Democratic: https://readthereporter.com/hamilton-county-is-undeniably-bipartisan/

Democrats Overperform In Recent Special Elections: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/democratic-performance-improving-slew-special-elections-weary-party-lo-rcna198984

Trump/Sanders Similar Appeal: https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/09/politics/sanders-trump-economy-trade/index.html

Booker’s Marathon Speech: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyq24388ppo

Spartz Town Halls: https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/indiana-us-rep-victoria-spartzs-town-hall-in-muncie-met-with-protests

Spartz’s Ukrainian Roots: https://kyivindependent.com/4-things-you-need-to-know-about-viktoria-spartz-the-ukrainian-born-us-lawmaker/

Spartz Votes NAY on PACT Act: https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/202257

Spartz Accused of Repeating Russian Talking Points: https://united24media.com/latest-news/kyiv-denounces-ukrainian-born-us-lawmaker-victoria-spartz-for-suggesting-territorial-concessions-to-russia-7422

The Split Over Ukraine on the Left: https://unherd.com/2022/03/why-the-left-is-split-over-ukraine/

Zelenskyy’s Oval Office Visit: https://www.npr.org/2025/02/28/nx-s1-5312076/zelenskyys-visit-to-the-white-house-ends-abruptly-after-oval-office-spat

How Many Colonists Supported the Revolution? https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/02/john-adamss-rule-of-thirds/

Russia Trafficking Ukrainian Children: https://understandingwar.org/backgrounder/putin-still-stealing-ukrainian-children

My 2024 Interview with Deborah Pickett: https://www.hoosleft.us/p/episode-56-the-suburb-strategy?r=1ss5n3

How Do We Pay For It? https://jacksonfranklinforcongress.com/how-do-we-pay-for-it-tax-the-rich-1

Medicare For All Would Be Cheaper Overall: https://www.citizen.org/news/fact-check-medicare-for-all-would-save-the-u-s-trillions-public-option-would-leave-millions-uninsured-not-garner-savings/

Drug Makers Abuse Patents to Maintain Exclusivity: https://www.npr.org/2023/11/08/1211459920/the-ftc-is-threating-legal-action-against-drug-makers-over-patent-abuses

Americans Unhappier Than Ever: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/2025-world-happiness-report-us-lowest-ranking

GDP A Poor Measure of What Matters: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gdp-is-the-wrong-tool-for-measuring-what-matters/

Elon’s Welath Largely Comes From Federal Money: https://goodjobsfirst.org/elon-musks-business-empire-is-built-on-38-billion-in-government-funding

Elie Mystal’s Bad Law: https://thenewpress.org/books/bad-law/

Proposal to Enlarge House of Representatives: https://www.amacad.org/sites/default/files/publication/downloads/2021_Enlarging-the-House.pdf

History of Gerrymandering: https://www.newamerica.org/political-reform/reports/what-we-know-about-redistricting-and-redistricting-reform/where-we-have-been-the-history-of-gerrymandering-in-america/

Pros/Cons of Ranked Choice Voting: https://my.lwv.org/vermont/article/pros-and-cons-instant-runoff-ranked-choice-voting

Once again, that was Jackson Franklin, Democratic candidate for the US House of Representative in Indiana’s 5th congressional district.

If the stumbling final chapter of the Biden presidency, the recent calls for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s resignation, and - here in Indiana - the contentious race for Democratic Party Chair tell us anything, it’s that large portions of the population are desperate for a new generation of leadership.

The sad end of Diane Feinstein’s life, the demented ramblings of Donald Trump, the continued existence of Chuck Grassley - he’s so old he fought at the Battle of the Bulge (fact check: ok, not really)- these things are painful to watch. We’ve crossed into a completely new world that people of all ages are still trying to navigate; but watching folks who’ve lived 70, 80, 90 years under a completely different global order try to figure it out AND lead at the same time isn’t just cringe or comical, it’s fucking dangerous.

Baby Boomers - and late Silent Generation stragglers like Grassley, Biden, and Nancy Pelosi - inherited a world built by sacrifice. Their parents and grandparents survived the Great Depression, defeated fascism in the most brutal war in human history, and then came home to build - literally build - the foundations of the American middle class. The post-war period was defined by shared prosperity: strong labor unions, massive public investment in infrastructure and education, a growing economy, and a tax code that prevented wealth from congealing at the top. And while it is true that the gains mostly accrued to white Americans, we were finally beginning to address many of the foundational disparities built into our system in response to the Civil Rights Movement.

And then the Boomers came of age.

What followed wasn’t just decline. It was demolition. And it was deliberate.

This generation - not every individual, of course, but as a political and economic force - inherited the greatest expansion of middle-class prosperity the world had ever seen. And instead of preserving it, they disassembled it, piece by piece, in the name of “small government,” “individual liberty,” and “free markets.”

They broke the unions, slashed taxes, and deregulated Wall Street. They gutted the safety net and turned public goods into sources of private wealth. They sold the idea that government couldn’t work, then spent their lives proving it.

And now, here we are. In the rubble. The remaining few of the Silent Generation, only about 5% of the population, and the Boomers, about 20%, still hold more than 60% of of the country’s wealth. Millennials - the largest generation, and still somehow treated like youngsters by the mainstream despite their middle age, hold less than 10%. Gen Z is just now coming of age, trying to pay rent, start families, and maybe - if they’re lucky - grab a foothold in a rigged economy. Baby Boomers were given an express lane to a comfortable life and burned the bridge behind them.

Yet somehow, we're still told to believe it's our fault. If only we hadn’t squandered our inheritance on frivolous things like gender studies degrees and avocado toast. That we’re just lazy. That if we worked harder, saved more, or stopped complaining, we’d be just as well-off.

Bullshit.

What we inherited is a poisoned well: a climate near the point of no return, an economy tilted toward the billionaire class, and a political system designed to serve only those with the wealth to buy it. Boomers were the beneficiaries of a collective American dream — and they turned it into a gated community.

I was born in late 1978, a Xennial - straddling the Gen X and Millennial generations - and the cohorts on either side of me watched the slow deconstruction of the system that had set our parents and grandparents up for success. Still, our formative memories and our educations told us all was well. We grew up in the long shadow of the postwar high, played in the fenced yards of homes purchased on a single income, celebrated gains by women and minorities in an increasingly inclusive society , and cheered the end of the Cold War, the “end of history” culminating in a victory by the “good guys.” We know the pieces fit, ‘cause we watched them fall away.

My age group graduated into the dot com bust, a pair of wars manufactured on false pretense, and the worst financial catastrophe since the Great Depression, finding ourselves disillusioned by the broken promises.

Gen Z holds no such illusions. They were born and came of age in a system that has NEVER worked for them, and owe no loyalty or fealty to such a dysfunctional political economy.

That is why I’m so excited for this crop of young candidates and activists now coming into their own - Maxwell Frost, David Hogg, Kat Abughazaleh, and yes, Indiana’s own Jackson Franklin. Truly “unburdened by what has been,” this generation is free to imagine what can be, and go about building a more just, equitable, and compassionate future.

What do you think? Let us know. Reach out on social media - I’m on Facebook, Bluesky, YouTube and TikTok at hoosleft and on most other social media sites at scottrog78. You can also email me at scott@hoosleft.us.

Thanks again to our guest Jackson Franklin. Links to his campaign website and social media accounts are in the show notes. How about heading over to his ActBlue page and making a donation? And after that contribution, if your budget allows and you value this work, please consider a paid subscription over at HoosLeft.US, where you can also find every episode and article we’ve ever published. Hit me up on social media with your feedback, tips, ideas, and concerns. Please forward the show to a friend and have them to forward it to another friend. Let’s keep building this project - and a truly democratic state - one conversation at a time. Until the next one, this has been the HoosLeft podcast. I’m Scott Aaron Rogers. Love each other, Indiana.