Libertarians stump in Martinsville

MARTINSVILLE — For Donald Rainwater, the reason he’s running for Indiana Governor is quite simple.

“I grew up learning and believing that our constitutional republic, our constitutional government, is designed for us to have a limited government and only collect the taxes that government needs to operate,” Rainwater said on Saturday.

Rainwater, the Libertarian Party’s nominee for governor, is running against the incumbent, Republican Eric Holcomb, and Democrat Woody Myers.

He, along with his running mate William Henry and 9th Congressional District nominee Tonya Millis, were at the American Legion in Martinsville on Saturday for a campaign stop.

Before the start of Saturday’s event, Rainwater took time to discuss why he believes voters should support him in the upcoming General Election.

“We are raising taxes, increasing the size and scope of government agencies and programs, and much of it doesn’t really benefit Hoosier citizens,” Rainwater said.

Rainwater, 57, previously ran twice for a seat in the Indiana General Assembly.

“This time, I felt like I needed to lend my voice to a more direct executive office position as governor,” Rainwater said.

The year 2020 has been a difficult one throughout the state of Indiana. The ongoing CO VID-19 pandemic has caused drastic changes to how Hoosiers go about their daily lives.

Earlier this year, Holcomb issued several executive orders — from requiring restaurants and bars to operate as carry-out only to stay-athome orders that caused many to be furloughed from work.

Some of these orders have been relaxed, but the long-term effects remain largely unknown. According to Rainwater, Holcomb’s executive orders going back to March 1 have put nearly one million Hoosiers onto unemployment.

“The thing that really concerns me more than anything else is that we have one man deciding the health, welfare and economic stability for 6.7 million people in the state of Indiana,” Rainwater said.

In Rainwater’s opinion, every Hoosier has the right to decide how to protect themselves as well as their families and businesses.

Holcomb’s executive order has limited church services, which Rainwater believes is a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

“If people are allowed to peaceably assemble, and exercise their religion, there is nowhere in the Constitution that it says that a governor can suspend that in an emergency,” Rainwater said.

If elected governor, Rainwater said the first thing he would do is eliminate Holcomb’s executive orders.

“The second thing I would do is go to the General Assembly and say, ‘You need to pass legislation immediately
that limits the governor’s powers in an emergency, and requires the governor to call a special session if the General Assembly is not in session,’”

Rainwater said. “There is no way the governor of Indiana is supposed to have that kind of power.”

Rainwater would also like to re-create the base of Indiana’s economy — family farms and small businesses.

“For too long, state government has eroded the small business and family farmer foundation of our state economy,” he said. “It is almost like there has been a war on Hoosier business in favor of out-of-state and out-of-country corporations coming in here.”

Rainwater added that he is not “anticorporation” but that small businesses and family farms helped build the state.

In the Libertarian nominee’s opinion, bringing in a bunch of jobs that Hoosiers are not trained to do is not helpful.

“My focus over the next four years is going to be shrinking the size and scope of state government, innovating and updating process, procedures (and) systems so that state government is more cost effective,” Rainwater said.

Recently, an Indy Politics and Change Research poll showed Rainwater within striking distance of both major party nominees.

Holcomb was polling at 36 percent, Myers at 30 and Rainwater was coming in at 24 percent support among likely voters during the survey conducted in early September — numbers that are almost unheard of for a third-party nominee.

“I think my message is one of limited government and personal responsibility and personal freedom,” Rainwater said. “I believe that the majority of Americans — not just the majority of Hoosiers, but the majority of Americans — believe in limited government, and they want control of their own lives and not to have government dictate it.”

Millis speech

During Saturday’s event, Millis was given an opportunity to speak to the crowd that had gathered.

Millis is running against Republican incumbent Trey Hollingsworth and Democrat Andy Ruff in the state’s 9th Congressional District.

“For decades now, I have been watching our freedoms and liberties slowly being whittled away,” Millis said during her speech. “We the people’s independence is fading — you all know it.”

She added that if just 15 Libertarian wins in the House of Representatives, the two-party system could be broken up.

Millis also pointed to recent changes in laws that banned anyone under the age of 21 from buying tobacco products.

“Let’s say a soldier who is 19 or 20 years old comes home from serving overseas, he can’t have a celebratory cigar with Grandpa on the back porch because it is against the law, and that is wrong,” Millis said.

She would go on to say that Hoosiers have the ability break up the twoparty system by voting Libertarian in the upcoming election.

Election information

This year’s General Election will take place from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Early voting, however, has already begun in Morgan County.

There are three early voting sites this year and residents can cast ballots on Mondays through Fridays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturdays, Oct. 24 and 31, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.; and 8 a.m. to noon on Monday, Nov. 2, at the Mooresville First Christian Church, 525 N. Indiana St., Mooresville and the Morgan County Administration Building, 180 S. Main St., Martinsville.

Voting will also take place from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays, Oct 24 and 31, at Monrovia Christian Church, 710 Gordon Road, Monrovia.