Hold 'em Accountable

Allen Miller, Democratic candidate for Indiana House District 73, joins Hold ’em Accountable for a conversation about what happens when major decisions are made about rural communities without enough input from the people who actually live there. Miller talks about data centers, farmland, water use, AI and the future of work, public-school funding, rural healthcare, broadband access, unions, and t...

Austin Meives, Democratic nominee for Indiana House District 23, returns to Hold ’em Accountable for a conversation about rural Indiana, rising utility bills, data centers, crumbling roads, public schools, healthcare access, and why small towns deserve more than attention during election season. District 23 includes communities throughout Cass and Miami counties, including Logansport, Peru, and su...

Maggie Davis, Republican candidate for Indiana House District 26, returns to Hold ’em Accountable for a conversation that does not fit neatly inside the usual party lines. Davis says she wants to change the Republican Party from within, and she takes positions that put her at odds with parts of her own party. In this interview, we press beyond campaign slogans and ask what those positions would ac...

Jack Chance, Democratic candidate for Indiana House District 30, returns to Hold ’em Accountable for a conversation about what happens when technology, economic development, and working-class life all collide. In Kokomo and Howard County, AI and automation are not distant ideas. They raise real questions about manufacturing jobs, data centers, union labor, wages, and whether the next wave of econo...

Dr. Karen Whitney, Democratic candidate for Indiana House District 28, joins Hold ’em Accountable to talk about public-school funding, property taxes, affordability, healthcare, economic development, government reform, and what happens when Indiana cuts state support for services Hoosiers still depend on. Whitney spent more than 40 years in higher education, including leadership at IUPUI and as pr...

Julie McGill, Democratic nominee for Indiana Senate District 15, returns to Hold ’em Accountable for a conversation about Medicaid, public schools, housing, affordability, worker power, and what happens when government programs become almost impossible for ordinary families to navigate. Julie is not talking about Medicaid from a spreadsheet. As the mother of a child with significant disabilities,...

Alex Wait, Democratic candidate for Indiana House District 5, joins Hold ’em Accountable to talk about the cost of living, housing, public schools, childcare, healthcare, organized labor, data centers, and whether working families can still afford to build a future in Indiana. Alex describes what he calls the “cost squeeze” facing Hoosiers: wages struggling to keep pace while housing, groceries, c...

Hamilton County is one of Indiana’s fastest-growing and most prosperous areas. So why are working families still living paycheck to paycheck? Lauren Cole, Democratic candidate for Indiana House District 37, joins Hold ’em Accountable to talk about affordability, housing, childcare, healthcare, public schools, corporate influence, and whether Indiana is measuring economic success the wrong way. Lau...

Magdalaine Davis, Republican candidate for Indiana House District 26, joins Hold ’em Accountable for a conversation that does not sound like the usual Indiana political template. District 26 is centered around West Lafayette and Purdue University, while also including surrounding neighborhoods and rural parts of Tippecanoe County. It is a district shaped by students, longtime residents, small busi...

Lauri Shillings, Libertarian candidate for Indiana Secretary of State, joins Hold ’em Accountable for a conversation about one of the most overlooked offices in Indiana politics. The Secretary of State may not get the same attention as governor, Congress, or the Statehouse, but this office touches every Hoosier. Elections, ballot access, business filings, campaign finance records, public records,...

Brad Meyer, Democratic nominee for Indiana’s 9th Congressional District, returns to Hold ’em Accountable for a conversation about Southern Indiana, economic anxiety, healthcare, Social Security, rural hospitals, medical debt, disability policy, food insecurity, and the fight between exploitation and opportunity. District 9 stretches across one of Indiana’s largest and most diverse congressional di...

Sharon Wight, Democratic nominee for Indiana House District 81, returns to Hold ’em Accountable for a conversation about empathy, accountability, healthcare, public education, infrastructure, data centers, and what it means to actually listen before making decisions at the Statehouse. District 81 includes parts of Northwest Fort Wayne, Huntertown, Arcola, and surrounding Allen County communities....

Floyd Taylor, independent candidate for Indiana’s 9th Congressional District, returns to Hold ’em Accountable with one of the most unconventional campaign ideas in Indiana politics: what if voters directly controlled how their member of Congress voted? Floyd is not running as a Democrat, Republican, or Libertarian. His campaign is built around direct representation, radical transparency, rejecting...

Kirsten Root, Democratic nominee for Indiana State Senate District 21, returns to Hold ’em Accountable for a conversation about change, public service, healthcare, affordability, working families, public safety, and why Indiana needs people in the Statehouse who understand broken systems from the inside. For the first time since 2008, District 21 will have a new state senator. Longtime incumbent J...

Candy Greer, Democratic nominee for Indiana House District 64, returns to Hold ’em Accountable for a conversation about what voters in southwestern Indiana are actually feeling: rising electric bills, healthcare desperation, public school funding, data centers, tax abatements, legal cannabis, public transportation, and the feeling that rural communities are being forgotten. Candy is not running li...

Gabrianna Gratzol, Democratic candidate for Indiana State Senate District 11, joins Hold ’em Accountable for a conversation about working families, public education, healthcare, childcare, labor rights, manufacturing, Medicaid, and why Indiana needs more regular people in the room where decisions are made. District 11 includes parts of Elkhart and St. Joseph counties, including Elkhart, Mishawaka,...

Travis Gearhart, Libertarian candidate for Indiana House District 4, joins Hold ’em Accountable for a wide-ranging conversation about NIPSCO bills, utility accountability, cannabis legalization, right-to-work, labor rights, taxes, toll roads, civil liberties, and why he believes Northwest Indiana voters deserve more than the same two-party machinery. District 4 covers much of northwestern Indiana,...

Indiana’s Department of Child Services is one of the hardest systems to talk about honestly. Some people see DCS as the agency that removes children. Others see it as the last line of defense for kids who are not safe at home. The truth is more complicated. In this special episode of Hold ’em Accountable, Derrick Holder sits down with Kristie Holder, Kacey Blundell, and Kirsten Root for a raw conv...

Most healthcare debates focus on insurance. Premiums. Deductibles. Copays. Coverage. But what happens when there isn't a doctor available to see you? What happens when the nearest emergency room is an hour away? What happens when the maternity ward closes, the mental health provider retires, or the local hospital shuts its doors? In this episode of Hold 'em Accountable , Derrick Holder examines th...

Being poor is difficult. But in America, it is often expensive too. In this episode of Hold 'em Accountable, we break down the poverty premium: the hidden surcharge attached to financial instability. The basic idea is simple. People with more money often get better terms, lower interest rates, better financing, stronger rewards, lower fees, and more flexibility. People with less money often pay mo...

Every June, America has the same conversation. Why do we still have Pride Month? Haven't we already achieved equality? Why is it still necessary? In this special mini-sode of Hold 'em Accountable, Derrick Holder steps away from politics, utility monopolies, healthcare systems, and economic policy to explore a different question: Why does Pride Month still matter in 2026? The answer isn't about pol...

For generations, Americans were promised a simple bargain: Work hard. Get an education. Stay out of trouble. Show up every day. In return, you could build a stable life. Not a mansion. Not a yacht. Just stability. A home. Reliable transportation. Food on the table. A retirement you could count on. The confidence that one unexpected expense wouldn't destroy everything you've worked for. So what hap...

You can vote for President. You can vote for Governor. You can vote for Congress. You can even vote for the person deciding whether your county installs another stop sign nobody asked for. But the company deciding whether your electric bill jumps another $40 this summer? That decision was largely made long before you moved in. In this episode of Hold ’em Accountable , we take a deep dive into one...

Indiana trusts you to choose the President of the United States. Governor. Congress. State House. State Senate. But apparently, you are too fragile to choose your own Attorney General. In this episode of Hold ’em Accountable , we break down one of the least understood systems in Indiana politics: The convention delegate system. For some of Indiana’s most important statewide offices—including Attor...

The votes are in. The signs are coming down. The consultants are sending invoices. And somewhere in Indiana right now, a candidate who spent six straight months posting pancake breakfast selfies is asking the most painful question in politics: How did I lose? In this episode of Hold ’em Accountable , we break down the May 5 Indiana primary elections and what they actually mean heading into Novembe...