Katie Forte
Keep Democracy Strong
Before Katie stepped up, the Republicans were running unopposed for this State Senate seat. In order for us to have a healthy and strong democracy we have 'All' got to be represented. Katie is willing to listen to and work for 'All' Hoosiers.
Forte
Mantener La Democracia Fuerte
Antes de que Katie se presentara, los republicanos se postulaban sin oposición para este escaño en el Senado estatal. Para que podamos tener una democracia sana y fuerte, tenemos que 'Todos' deben estar representados. Katie está dispuesta a escuchar y trabajar para 'Todos' los Hoosiers.
Why I'm Running
Working Families
I believe working families should have the opportunity and tools to build a good life.
Working families, small businesses and family farms are the backbone of the economy in Southern Indiana. I will work to make sure we have the tools in Southern Indiana to empower our working families.
My life experiences have prepared me for public service in the Indiana State Senate.
Over the last twenty years, I’ve worked as a line cook, waitress, bartender, mental health worker, church musician, public school teacher, and realtor to support my family. I’ve also been a single parent, a parent of a child with learning differences, and the board president of a local nonprofit.
From these experiences I have learned that we have to find common ground. I used to tell my fifth graders, "We live in the world with other people, and we have to figure out how to get along and work together."
I believe firmly that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and views. Most opinions can be lived out by individuals, and practiced and discussed within their religious communities. These issues have no place being dividing lines between the common ground that's needed to keep moving FORWARD.
I will listen to you. I will make sure that your story gets told. I promise to keep working families in Southern Indiana central to the work. Every single day of my four-year term at the Statehouse will be spent working towards commonsense solutions that respect the hard work of people like YOU.
My Story
Why did I decide to run for State Senate?
We had a problem! The Republican candidates were running unopposed for the District 47 State Senate seat. In order to have a strong democracy, in order to keep people motivated to exercise their right to vote, we have to give voters choices.
I’ve never been one to point out a problem and not do my best to come up with a solution. After reflecting, I realized that I was in a place in my life where I could do it. The opportunity to work as a state senator to empower the hard working families of Southern Indiana with the tools needed to thrive just seemed like the right thing to do. I have been encouraged by so many people in my life. I won’t ever be able to repay them fully, but I can pay it FORWARD.
I am running so that all voters will have a choice in the fall.
I have had the opportunity to be able to work a lot of different jobs. I have listened and learned from the people I’ve met along the way. I worked and attended college at the same time, earning a BA from IUS in New Albany followed by a Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of Louisville.
Later, when I became a single parent, I was painfully aware that the only thing that separated my own situation from the situations of so many of my students’ families, was my support system. I can’t imagine what it must be like to be a single parent and not have the support I did. My support system empowered me with the tools to work and build a better life for my family.
When I first started teaching, teachers weren’t experiencing the RESPECT problem that they face today. Teachers were encouraged to “use professional judgment” on how best to teach the students in his or her own class. It was acknowledged that not all 5th graders are the same, not all schools are the same, not all children come from the same background… some kids come to school hungry and tired, and some kids come to school mad and sad, and it was my responsibility to care and nurture their minds and make sure they learned about the history of this great nation... both its wonders and its blemishes. As a union rep, I saw how union representation worked to make teachers better at their jobs and take more pride in their work and mission. I also witnessed firsthand how, as the extremist politicians got more involved in the business of educators, analyzing standardized test scores, even tracking a particular school or grade or even a specific teacher’s test scores; these politicians, rather than recognizing our responsibility to empower ALL children with an education that empowered them to work 21st century jobs, were making teachers out to be the enemy, scapegoating them. Educators (bus drivers, custodians, school food workers, assitants, teachers and administrators) are the foundations of our communities here in Southern Indiana. If we want our communities to thrive, we have to start treating all of educators with more RESPECT.
And, as a parent and a former teacher, I also understand how hard it is to get students with learning differences and disabilities the help they need at school. The supermajority in Indiana has tied the hands of educators and administrators with years of chronically underfunding the public school system. As a family, we got to the point that we decided homeschooling was our best option, given the particular needs of one of our children who is on the spectrum. The decision to homeschool reflects the self-reliance and pragmatism we were all taught growing up here in Southern Indiana. We made the choice to downsize our home and lifestyle and began a new phase.
In 2020, the pandemic began and shortly thereafter, my husband was laid off from his job as a programmer in Louisville, KY. Fortunately, because we had high speed fiber internet at our home in Depauw, he was able to piece together contract work to keep the bills paid and the fridge stocked, and I was able to complete an online course and become licensed as a real estate agent. Having access to high quality, high-speed internet in rural Harrison County made it possible for us to keep moving FORWARD during the pandemic.
The pandemic highlighted what is and what’s not working for the families in Southern Indiana. Through all my experiences, I have learned that what I used to tell my fifth graders is just as true today as it was then: “We live in the world with other people, and we have to figure out how to get along and work together.”
My life experiences have prepared me for service in the Indiana State Senate.
Support for Working Families
High Quality, Affordable Broadband
I will work to make sure that all the residents of Harrison, Floyd, and Washington counties have access to high quality, affordable, high-speed, broadband internet.
- Increases educational opportunities
- Increases opportunities for people to work remotely
- Increases telehealth opportunities and the opportunities for services hospitals and medical centers can provide
- Increases access to mental health services
- Attracts businesses
- Allows entrepreneurs to make, create, and market products from their own homes
Well-Funded Public Schools
Working families in Southern Indiana deserve to send their children to top-notch, well-funded public schools where their children are safe, their minds are nurtured, and our children are taught the truth about our great nation-its wonder and its blemishes.
Teachers and RESPECT
I support restoring RESPECT and all of the collective bargaining rights of the teachers’ union in Indiana (ISTA).
- Teachers should have the right to bargain on issues related to class size, health and safety, and prep periods. (8 in 10 Hoosiers support letting teachers bargain on these issues.)
- We have to start asking the teachers what they need and LISTENING to their answers. When we support what our teachers are telling us that they need, the students are most likely to get what they need. Our children deserve the best!
Safe Communities
We need to reverse the law that allows permitless carry.
This is about restoring RESPECT for the professional judgement of law enforcement officials in the state. The majority opposed this law. Permitless carry makes our communities less safe.
...testimony from officers with the Evansville and Fort Wayne police departments and leaders of the state Fraternal Order of Police, police chiefs association and county prosecutors association. They argued that eliminating the permit system would strip police of a screening tool for identifying dangerous people who shouldn’t have guns. -Associated Press 2/25/2022
Legalize Cannabis
This is a commonsense issue. Legalize cannabis and have the product abide by the same laws and regulations as alcohol.
- Legalizing cannabis would create an economic opportunity for Southern Indiana's farmers and business community.
- We owe it to our veterans who use cannabis to treat their chronic pain, PTSD, anxiety, depression, or insomnia.
- Experts agree: its not a "gateway drug"
- Legalization of cannabis has shown to actually reduce prescription drug and opioid abuse, and decrease alcohol and tobacco use.
Clean Energy and Rising Costs
Every family in Southern Indiana should have the opportunity and tools to build a good life. But rising costs of basic things we need to work and take care of our families, like gas and other energy, hold us all back. Speeding up investments in cheaper, clean energy like wind and solar would save families money and create quality local jobs that can't be outsourced. That's just economic commonsense.
Whole Life Advocate
I am a Christian who understands that America is not, nor should it be, a Christian Nation. We are a secular nation founded by immigrants seeking religious freedom. The idea of religious tolerance is at the very core of our Constitution.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and views. Opinions and views can be lived out by individuals and practiced and discussed within their religious communities. Women and their families are free to practice their religion and live out these ideas without restrictions.
The extremists want us to think otherwise.
Here are the facts:
Criminalizing abortion does not stop abortions, it just makes abortion less safe.
Statistically, there are the same amount of abortions whether the procedure is legal or not. If it’s not legal, more lives will be lost.
Preventing women and girls from accessing an abortion does not mean they stop needing one. That’s why attempts to ban or restrict abortions do nothing to reduce the number of abortions, it only forces people to seek out unsafe abortions.
If you are concerned, like I am, about women having abortions, we need to make sure we are working to PREVENT circumstances, systems, and policies that lead women to the place where they feel an abortion for a viable pregnancy is their best option. And, if an abortion is performed, that it is a legally protected (safe) procedure.
We need to recognize that criminalizing abortion also endangers all those women that need to have an abortion because a pregnancy is found to be not viable. You see, when you work to criminalize things you really know nothing about, you wind up hurting people.
This is just commonsense. You have a unique opportunity to elect a moderate, a woman, a wife and mother, a former teacher, small business owner and real estate professional who understands what is needed to make our communities in Southern Indiana THRIVE… someone who truly GETS IT and cares about Southern Indiana women and their families.
We need policies at the state level that support women, men, babies, tots, teens, and seniors at ALL STAGES OF LIFE.
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Contact Us
Forte For Southern Indiana
P.O. Box 391 Corydon, IN 47112
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