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Episode 99: Installing a New Overton Window w/ ReCenter Indiana's Jocelyn Vare & Independent Indiana's Nathan Gotsch

The executive directors of these two organizations join the show to talk about fixing our shattered political dynamic and letting some fresh air into the system.

Episode 99: Installing a New Overton Window

Guests: Jocelyn Vare - Executive Director, ReCenter Indiana & Nathan Gotsch - Executive Director, Independent Indiana

https://hoosleft.us

https://www.recenterindiana.org/

https://www.independentindiana.org/


Welcome to the HoosLeft Podcast, a show about Indiana politics, history, and culture from an unapologetically leftist perspective. My name is Scott Aaron Rogers and I’m recording from Bloomington.

Just the other day, a group called Independent Indiana released the results of a survey of more than 600 Hoosier voters conducted by North Star Opinion Research, and - given the pollster’s lean and our state’s reputation - the results might surprise you.

Nathan Gotsch, Executive Director of Independent Indiana, said, “this is a Republican polling firm, so what we found is the Republican Party is not popular in Indiana. Mike Braun is not popular; Diego Morales is not popular. It’s not like the Democratic Party is popular, either. People are just upset. They’re sick and tired of the way things are going. They don’t like the two-party system.”

The poll found President Donald Trump’s favorably numbers seven points underwater - 42% favorable and 49% unfavorable. Secretary of State Diego Morales was unknown to the majority of respondents, but 12 points underwater with those who had and opinion, and Governor Mike Braun found himself with an unfavorable rating 19 points greater than his favorability.

Both major parties are also wildly unpopular. Republicans are 12 points underwater - 33% favorable vs. 45% unfavorable. Democrats, though surprisingly viewed unfavorably by less Hoosiers - 43% - are deeper underwater, with only 25% of respondents holding a favorable view of the minority party.

I don’t know if the respondents full grasp WHY Indiana politics are so broken - decades of tilting the playing field and rigging the rules by an increasingly radicalized Republican party - but Hoosiers don’t like their options. Even former two-term GOP Governor Mitch Daniels recently bemoaned the “one-party rule” under which we find ourselves (though he conveniently omits the fact that he started us down this path).

The game is rigged. One side keeps making up new rules while the other keeps playing by the old ones - badly. How do we fix this?

Two organizations in the state are taking slightly different approaches to that question. Gotsch’s Independent Indiana seeks to get more players into the game, helping candidates run outside the traditional two-party system. He joins me here on todays’s show. But first - another group - ReCenter Indiana, is looking to change the playing field itself - their Executive Director, Jocelyn Vare, is my first guest.

In the following conversations, we’ll learn about both groups and their different approaches to bringing Indiana politics into line with Hoosier voters’ values - which the vast majority of us across the spectrum share!

Real quick before we get to the interview, please consider supporting HoosLeft with a paid subscription. This is an independent media project; I don’t paywall content; I don’t sell out to advertisers; I don’t have billionaire benefactors. Only individuals like you keep this thing going. I refuse to gatekeep valuable information in the middle of a political crisis, even to my financial detriment. So please, if you find value in this 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 make a one-time contribution on Cash App or Venmo. Links are in the show notes. Look, I’m pushing 50. My sore old body could better serve this state constructing a better future for Indiana than actual construction, but I need your financial support to do so.

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Now, here are my conversations with Jocelyn Vare and Nathan Gotsch.

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Things We Talked About:

Independent Indiana Poll: https://www.independentindiana.org/oct-14-in-statewide-survey-presentation-2.pdf

HoosLeft Episode 3 w/Jocelyn Vare: https://www.hoosleft.us/p/getting-involved

Changing voting patterns in Hamilton County: https://www.wishtv.com/news/i-team-8/voting-trends-hamilton-county-2024/

ReCenter urged Democrats to pull Republican primary ballots: https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/briefs/new-billboards-urge-indiana-democrats-to-take-republican-ballots-in-may-primary/

ReCenter shifts gears from PAC to nonprofit: https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/indiana-political-centrist-group-shifts-focus-as-partisan-divide-grows

Pulling Republican primary ballot burns Corinne Straight: https://youtu.be/atCbPQG1OzE

Gerrymandering - reinforcing a cycle of political disillusion: https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2025/08/12/gerrymandering-erodes-confidence-democracy

ReCenter Indiana hosting redistricting town halls: https://indianacitizen.org/recenter-indiana-hosting-three-redistricting-town-halls/

Daniels bemoans ‘one party rule’: https://www.mdlfindiana.org/stories/opinion-indiana-is-revealing-the-real-consequences-of-one-party-rule

Independents are winning in Indiana: https://wibc.com/744162/independents-make-gains-in-indiana-elections/

Gotsch ran for Congress in ‘22: https://ballotpedia.org/Nathan_Gotsch

Independent Voter Project data: https://independentvoterproject.org/voter-stats/in

Duverger’s Law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law

Independent Mayor Richard Strick in Huntington: https://www.independentindiana.org/richard-strick

Voters increasingly value authenticity: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4886152-young-voters-authenticity-integrity/

Ballot access requirements in Indiana: https://ballotpedia.org/Ballot_access_requirements_for_political_candidates_in_Indiana

The John Rust example: https://www.wthr.com/article/news/politics/indiana-election-committee-votes-exclude-john-rust-egg-farmer-us-senate-seat-jim-banks-mike-braun-senator/531-84fbff9a-d1d3-40cd-961a-266cb6822cda

Indiana one of few states that allow straight ticket voting: https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/indiana-is-one-of-only-a-few-states-that-allows-straight-ticket-voting-with-just-one-mark-on-ballot

The ballot question Nathan referenced: https://ballotpedia.org/Indiana_Remove_Superintendent_of_Public_Instruction_from_Gubernatorial_Line_of_Succession_Amendment_(2024)


Once again, that was ReCenter Indiana Executive Director Jocelyn Vare, followed by Independent Indiana Executive Director Nathan Gotsch. I hope to have further conversations with both in the future and maybe we’ll even see them on HoosLeft This Week, which streams live every Sunday morning at 10:30am on Project Next Media network’s YouTube, FaceBook Live, and Twitch streams. Indiana’s most thorough weekend morning news and politics talk show, it’s a lot of fun - if you can call following the news in this timeline fun. I bring together a diverse group of panelists from the democratic socialist left to never-Trump conservatives and we look at the week’s headlines from around Indiana and beyond. We’ll also take time to examine one big thing, a different deep dive every week. I hope to see you there in the comments, but if you can’t make it live, the program will be available as a podcast Sunday afternoon.

Thanks to both Jocelyn and Nathan for their time - and for their efforts to build a better political environment in our state - and thank you for listening. If you can, please consider contributing to this project with a paid subscription at HoosLeft.US, where you’ll find my entire archive. I rely solely on the generosity of kind patrons like you to make this information available for free to everybody. In addition to the website, you can find me on Bluesky, Instagram, and Threads at HoosLeft.US and on Facebook, X, TikTok, Mastodon, and YouTube at HoosLeft. Direct message me at any of those sites with feedback, tips, ideas, and concern or email me at scott@hoosleft.us. While you’ve got the old email machine out, please forward the show to a friend and have them pass it on, too. 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.

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