Republican candidate for Indiana’s 9th Congressional District Trey Hollingsworth made his case to the Bloomington Rotary Club on Monday.
He introduced himself as a conservative Christian, a businessman and an outsider and said he came to talk about policy, not politics.
“Representatives should have their own interests aligned with our interests,” he said.
Hollingsworth said he wants to instill term limits to prevent politicians from being career politicians instead of servants of their constituents.
“I want real, committed public servants in Washington,” he said.
Hollingsworth has said that his run for Congress was prompted by “desperation” and dissatisfaction with the way current politicians are running the country.
As a multimillionaire businessman, Hollingsworth employs more than 100 Hoosiers in an aluminum remanufacturing operation.
“We’ve got to go back to a regulatory environment that enables businesses to grow,” he said.
Hollingsworth said federal regulations and President Obama’s health care law have crushed job growth.
Despite his claim, since the United States recovered from the Great Recession, the country has seen more than 70 months of private-sector job growth under President Obama.
When he travels throughout Indiana, Hollingsworth said Hoosiers express many of the same concerns as him. “We feel less safe, we feel less prosperous and we feel less free,” he said.
Regarding safety, he said he does not want Americans to feel unsafe. He wants terrorist groups like ISIS to feel threatened by expanding our military.
Hollingsworth also called for major tax code reform by proposing to make it simpler, flatter and fairer, though he did not say how specific tax policy changes would benefit everyday Americans.
“I want to see the federal government take its nose away from local communities,” Hollingsworth said.
He said it is time for Americans to reclaim their government from political insiders because they do not work for the people.
“We are at a crossroads,” he said. “We must do better than what Washington is doing right now.”
For some voters, Hollingsworth’s status as a political outsider is not something they are concerned with.
Hollingsworth’s business, which employs blue-collar workers, is something some voters say means he understands their needs.
During a question-and-answer period, one member of the audience asked Hollingsworth whether he supported the 2010 Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which allows independent organizations to spend unlimited amounts of money on behalf of political candidates.
The Supreme Court ruled money is a form of speech.
“I have a lot of concern that we should not abridge people’s First Amendment right,” he said, which sharply contrasts with his opponent Shelli Yoder’s position.
Yoder said at last week’s Rotary Club meeting she want to repeal the decision because many Americans are concerned it gives corporations too much influence over politicians.
Steve Moberly, the program chair for the event, said he thinks the country is going in the wrong direction and Hollingsworth’s plans to deregulate business will make America more productive.
“I think he takes the conservative viewpoint,” he said.
