Latest / Breaking The Meta / Social Worker vs. The System | Indiana SD-21
Transcript
- Breaking The Meta: Hello everyone and welcome to Breaking the Met. My name is Mike Quince and today we are sitting down with Kirsten Root who is running for Indiana State Senate District 21. Hello Kirsten, how are you doing today? Kirsten Root: Hello, I am good. Thank you for having me on today. Breaking The Meta: Absolutely. ⁓ So let's start off by just learning a little bit about who you are and why you decided to run in the first place. Kirsten Root: Yeah, I am a social worker. think that defines me more than anything else that I've done in life. And I am running because I've worked in the front lines and seen how the systems are just broken. And as a social worker, we can do everything we want. But when we are working against a system that is intentionally keeping people from progressing and doing better for themselves, it's a kind of a losing battle. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. For people that don't know your district, ⁓ could you kind of give us an idea of where your district or district 21 is encompassed in? And then what are the pain points? What are the things that you hear about most from the people you talk to there? Kirsten Root: Yeah. So district 21 is very central in Indiana. It starts in Westfield, which is just north of Indianapolis and goes all the way up to Kokomo and encompasses all of Tifton County. So we have a lot of different demographics in our area since we have one major-ish city, really two at this point, and then a lot of rural area. But the biggest things that I'm hearing are that people aren't able to pay for their utilities right now. They can't afford housing and they don't have access to healthcare. We've had. a lot of hospitals, clinics like that closed down in rural America and that doesn't exclude our state, unfortunately. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Has the effects of the recent ACA subsidy cuts affected your district a lot? Kirsten Root: I don't know that I could speak to it confidently yet. think people are still figuring out what it's going to look like. I've heard a lot of, don't know what it looks like yet, ⁓ but there have been a significant amount of concerns. The state has been allegedly trying to set up extra help for people, but we are yet to see what that really looks like. Breaking The Meta: Okay. ⁓ One of the other problems that you hear lot from a lot of different people regarding things that they're having issues with a lot of candidates for is this idea of accountability or the lack thereof. ⁓ What does accountability look like to you? does being held accountable by the people of District 21 look like? Kirsten Root: Yeah, I think a part of being held accountable is that you have to actually face your constituents and have real conversations with them without that. It's just hearing a letter, hearing what staffers are giving you for voicemails. So part of it is having those real conversations. I mean, the ultimate accountability is you get voted out of office or go to jail for choices that you're making. Right. ⁓ but as far as like, while you're in office, I think it looks like being transparent with people and making time to actually hear what they're saying. Breaking The Meta: Yeah Kirsten Root: instead of just hearing it from your staffer. holding town halls, giving them opportunities to meet with you and really taking down the time or taking the time out of your day to hear everybody out, whether they agree with you or not. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Your Indiana as a whole is is considered a very red district or a very red state. ⁓ What has been your experience going out and talking to people, especially after everything that's happened over the last year? In this country has. Have have you been able to talk with people that may have been historically? more conservative, especially in how they vote? Has there been more of an openness to having a conversation with you that there wasn't before? Kirsten Root: say yeah. I think there's this major misconception that Indiana is more red than it actually is. There are a lot of people who are very loud and say things aren't going to change so then that really disenfranchises people from wanting to get involved and go vote. But I've had a lot of people reaching out to me who are like, I've always voted Republican because I didn't think it mattered. But it doesn't feel like that anymore. ⁓ Breaking The Meta: Mm. Kirsten Root: We're even seeing that with like the primaries, people are getting involved in a way they never thought they would before. They're like, I've always voted in the Republican primary because it didn't matter. ⁓ so I think as like us in leadership now, it's up to us to educate people and let them know that they're not just a single person in their town. I've had a lot of people since I live in Sheridan, which is very, very rural. And I've had a lot of people reach out to me to be like, Hey, I didn't want to comment on your stuff because I don't want to put myself out there as a Democrat. And I'm like, Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Mmm. Kirsten Root: Well, your neighbor reached out to me too, so I promise it's not just you. Breaking The Meta: What do you hope to bring to the state legislature if and when you get voted into office? Kirsten Root: I think empathy is the biggest thing that I would hope to bring as a social worker, somebody who's actually worked within the system. I see what happens when we make choices that are benefiting ⁓ corporations and people who already have significant amounts of money versus what's actually benefiting people. There are a lot of misconceptions around like Medicaid fraud and that people on food stamps are just like abusing the system. And that's just not true. I mean, there's that like less than 1%, right? But I want to bring in what is actually going to be benefiting people and educating them too. So I want to be completely transparent about the decisions that I'm making and what data is backing that up because I'm not running on feelings, I'm running on facts. That's what we have to do. ⁓ So I know I say empathy, but that empathy does come with strings of what's actually benefiting people in the communities. Breaking The Meta: Mm. What are some things that you wish people knew about you that they may not know just from looking at you or talking to you from ⁓ just a very general standpoint? Kirsten Root: Yeah, I think this may sound silly, but I think the biggest one is that I'm super pro second amendment. I think since I definitely am seen and stereotyped as like super leftist progressive, all of that, that people think that I'm like coming after their rights. I've shot competitively before and am super, like my parents both worked in factories growing up. I don't have like some uppity. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Kirsten Root: upbringing I grew up in rural La Porte County. So I think there's gonna be this misconception that because I have like a master's in social work and where I live, that I'm not trying to go for blue collar people and like represent them when that's not the case. I want to represent everybody. And that's the majority. That's pretty much everybody that I know personally, are people who work in factories who are working in farms and things like that. I'm not a stereotype. Breaking The Meta: I think there are a lot less people. I think there are a lot of areas where we overlap than most people realize. just think whether it's through identity politics or just propaganda from the people that have been in charge for all this time has caused us to us versus them everything. Kirsten Root: Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Breaking The Meta: ⁓ If you could go in and change something that the Indiana legislature has done this last year, what would it be? Kirsten Root: SCA won 2025. That is the easiest answer. It was, it was a mistake. It put all of the tax burden on local communities and it was seen as a win for like the state, like, ⁓ we're lowering your property taxes, but it just benefited corporations significantly more. The average person is saving $300 while the average corporation is saving over $6,000 a year. Meanwhile, we're cutting services. We're cutting. Breaking The Meta: Wow. Kirsten Root: everything that keeps our communities going. People are losing EMS, they're losing food stamps, we're losing childcare. It's obscene. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. What has been the biggest surprise that you've had since you started running for office in the first place? Kirsten Root: think the biggest surprise has been how open people have been to new ideas. There's always going to be people who push back, but I think people are ready for change. And the more human that I think I've presented versus trying to fit myself into a politician's box, the better things have gone. So it's been a really pleasant surprise. Breaking The Meta: Mm. If people that have listened to you on this podcast or seen you anywhere else just as you're walking around talking to people, what are one or two things that no matter what you would want to make sure that anyone came away with knowing about you and this campaign? Kirsten Root: I think the biggest, the first biggest thing was that they would know I'm walking with an air of transparency and honesty. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not going to tell you what you want to hear. I of course get those questions where it's, it's a loaded question, right? It's like rage fading at its basic form. ⁓ but I'm still going to answer it honestly, regardless of what I think you want to hear. So I think that would be the first thing. And the second would be that I genuinely care and want to do what's best for the community. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Kirsten Root: it's not about anything else. I'm not doing this for the money. That's why I'm in social work because it's for people. And like if this doesn't Breaking The Meta: You don't join social, be a social worker for the money? Kirsten Root: This may be a surprise, but ⁓ sure don't. So like if this doesn't work out, I'll just go back to that and that's fine. It is what it is. But I think just that like I genuinely have people's best interests at heart, whether we agree on a specific stance or not. Breaking The Meta: Mm. Yeah. Assuming that you win in November, what are the first things that you would want to do? Kirsten Root: ⁓ probably sleep would be the genuine first thing, but yes, yes. After a little bit of sleep. ⁓ the first things would be getting power back to local governments. So making some reforms to what SCA one and some other changes have been that have taken power away from local governments, giving that back, putting money back into like trustees offices and things like that, where they're able to make an impact in their community. ⁓ Breaking The Meta: Okay, okay. Well after sleep then Kirsten Root: Same with schools, just changing our tax structure entirely would be the ideal situation because right now we're giving a lot of subsidies, a lot of money to corporations and things like that while we're saying we don't have money for schools and public services. ⁓ The next thing would be prioritizing rural healthcare. We have a lot of maternal health deserts, people were pro-life, right? That's what the tagline is here at Indiana. Well, then we need to take care of those people and those babies that are in the communities. Breaking The Meta: Mm. Kirsten Root: So refunding hospitals, making sure everybody has EMS. There are places that don't even have one within the county. Breaking The Meta: That's wild. Kirsten Root: I didn't expect Kokomo to be one of those places that doesn't have public EMS. ⁓ It baffles me. Breaking The Meta: If anyone wants to learn more about you and support you, whether through volunteering or donations, where can they find you? Kirsten Root: Yeah, easiest is my website route for indiana.org and then I'm on pretty a good chunk of the socials. So Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube. Now, ⁓ if you type in my name, I should be there somewhere. Breaking The Meta: ⁓ Kirsten, thank you for sitting down with us, letting us get to know you and what you hope to do for your district in Indiana. ⁓ For everyone who listened and got this far, thank you very much. Please hit all the buttons, like, follow, subscribe, do all the stuff down below that makes it possible for me to keep doing what I'm doing and help people like Kirsten who need name recognition, who need visibility, who need stuff like this that they're not going to get because they don't get millions of dollars from people. So please help out. Kirsten Root: Thank you. Breaking The Meta: likes, subscribe, share, do all that kind of stuff. And for anyone who might be new to what this podcast is all about, Breaking the Meta is about having hard conversations when necessary, fighting to break the status quo and the idea that all people, no matter your race, religion, gender or identity, get rights, respect, dignity and safety. Again, Kirsten, thank you for being here. For everyone else, we'll see you next time on Breaking the Meta. Bye guys.