Focused on What Matters for District 9
Randy’s priorities are shaped by decades of public service and a commitment to improving quality of life across House District 9. He is focused on real solutions for families, workers, and communities.
Indiana’s public safety systems are under growing strain, not because local departments have failed, but because the Statehouse has failed to keep pace with reality. Fire departments, EMS providers, and 911 centers across Indiana are dealing with staffing shortages, aging infrastructure, and rising call volumes driven by untreated mental health and addiction crises.
Under years of one party supermajority control, state policy has relied too heavily on local governments to absorb these pressures without providing stable, predictable funding. This has left many communities dependent on grants rather than long-term planning and has made recruitment and retention of first responders increasingly difficult.
Randy’s approach focuses on system capacity, not rhetoric. He supports:
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Stable state funding mechanisms for local fire, EMS, and dispatch operations
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Modernization of 911 infrastructure and interoperable communications
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Workforce pipelines for EMTs, paramedics, and dispatch professionals
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Expanded crisis diversion and behavioral health response models to reduce unnecessary emergency system strain
Public safety works when systems are designed to function, not when they are forced to compensate for state-level neglect.
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Indiana is often described as a “low-cost” state, but that label no longer reflects reality for many Hoosiers. Since 2020, housing prices have risen far faster than wages, leaving working families, seniors, and young people squeezed even when they are doing everything right.
This affordability crisis did not happen by accident. It is the result of years of policy choices made by Republican leadership in Indianapolis that failed to address housing supply, workforce wages, and cost pressures, while insiders and developers benefited from a system that favored asset growth over household stability.
Randy believes affordability must be addressed directly. His priorities include:
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Expanding housing supply targeted to working households, not just high-end development
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Reducing unnecessary regulatory delays that drive up construction costs
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Protecting seniors and fixed-income households from cost volatility
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Preventing state policies from shifting costs downward onto local taxpayers
Indiana should be affordable because wages and housing work together, not because families are forced to cut corners or leave their communities.
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Indiana’s economic development strategy has increasingly relied on large corporate incentive packages, particularly for projects like data centers, that generate headlines but deliver limited long-term benefit to local workers and communities.
Too often, these projects create short-term construction jobs followed by minimal permanent employment, while consuming significant public resources in the form of tax abatements, utility subsidies, water, and infrastructure investment. In many cases, these projects have also undercut union labor standards, relying on out-of-state contractors or labor models that weaken wages, benefits, and worker protections.
Under the current government in Indianapolis, incentive programs have lacked sufficient accountability, transparency, and labor standards. Public dollars have been committed without clear requirements for:
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long-term job creation
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wage and benefit standards
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local hiring
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or respect for collective bargaining
Randy believes economic development policy must prioritize job quality over press releases. He supports:
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Incentive structures that require living wages, benefits, and long-term employment commitments
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Strong labor standards on publicly supported projects, including support for union labor and apprenticeship pipelines
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Transparency and performance benchmarks to ensure public investments deliver real returns
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Workforce development programs aligned with sectors that offer durable, middle-class careers, not just temporary buildouts
Randy has worked alongside union members his entire career and understands the role organized labor plays in building safe workplaces, strong communities, and a stable middle class. He believes Indiana should be competing for investment by growing a skilled, union-supported workforce, not by racing to the bottom on wages and protections.
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Housing policy in Indiana has lagged behind economic reality. Supply has not kept pace with demand, infrastructure investment has been uneven, and state leadership has largely ignored the consequences for working families.
As a licensed real estate broker with decades of experience, Randy Novak understands that housing affordability is driven by policy choices; zoning, infrastructure, financing tools, and permitting timelines. Under the current status quo, those tools have not been used effectively.
In Indianapolis, Randy will fight for:
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Workforce housing development tied to local employment needs
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Rehabilitation and reuse of existing housing stock to stabilize neighborhoods
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Infrastructure investments that enable housing growth without burdening existing residents
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Local control in housing decisions, rather than one-size-fits-all mandates from Indianapolis
Stable housing is essential to public safety, education outcomes, and economic participation. Indiana cannot afford to treat it as an afterthought.
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Indiana consistently underperforms on core health outcomes, including life expectancy, chronic disease burden, and overdose deaths. These outcomes carry enormous costs. Not just in lives lost, but in workforce participation, Medicaid spending, and pressure on emergency systems.
Years of apathy from Indianapolis has produced piecemeal responses rather than a coordinated strategy, leaving local governments and first responders to manage the fallout.
Our legislature has a duty to pursue:
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Expanded access to mental health and addiction treatment
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Investment in Problem-Solving Courts and Veterans Courts
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Policies that integrate health, public safety, and workforce systems rather than siloing them
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Data-driven approaches that reduce repeat crises and long-term costs
Reproductive Freedom & Women’s Health in Indiana
Reproductive freedom is under attack across the country, and Indiana has not been immune. Across the Midwest and beyond, Republican legislatures have passed extreme abortion bans, threatened access to birth control, and driven doctors out of states through political interference in medical care.
In Indiana, decisions made by the Republican supermajority in Indianapolis in implement some of the most restrictive laws in the country have already reduced access to reproductive health care, contributed to OB-GYN shortages, and created uncertainty for patients and providers alike. Those choices have consequences; fewer doctors, longer travel distances for care, higher risks for pregnant patients, and worse maternal health outcomes.
At the same time, Donald Trump and his allies have made clear they want to take these restrictions even further, pushing for a one-size-fits-all national ban and using outdated laws to interfere with care across state lines. That threat makes it even more important that Indiana leaders stand up for Hoosiers, not outside political agendas.
For too long, politicians have treated reproductive health as a political weapon instead of a public health issue. The result has been instability, fear among providers, and real harm to families, especially in rural and working-class communities.
Randy believes these decisions belong with patients and their doctors; not politicians! As a State Representative, he is committed to:
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Opposing further state-level restrictions that interfere with private medical decisions or criminalize providers
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Protecting access to contraception and family planning services for Hoosiers across the state
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Addressing Indiana’s OB-GYN and maternal care desert crisis by stabilizing the workforce and keeping labor and delivery services available locally
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Ensuring state policy does not drive doctors out of Indiana, making care harder to access and less safe
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Approaching women’s health as a public health and access issue, not an ideological one
Indiana’s maternal health outcomes already lag national benchmarks. Making care harder to access only worsens those outcomes and puts more strain on emergency services, hospitals, and families.
Randy will not stand by while political decisions undermine health care access, drive providers away, and put Hoosier families at risk. He believes in practical, responsible leadership, focused on keeping care available, protecting patient autonomy, and ensuring Indiana is a place where families can get the care they need, close to home.
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Indiana’s Republican leadership frequently points to the state’s growing budget surplus as proof of good governance. Current projections show the surplus approaching $6 billion. But a large balance sheet means very little if families are struggling to afford housing, healthcare, childcare, and basic necessities.
Randy has managed multimillion-dollar budgets and understands how policy decisions ripple outward. Too many state policies have shifted costs onto counties and cities without providing resources to manage them.
That approach undermines local governments and erodes trust.
Randy supports:
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Balanced budgets that account for long-term obligations and the real needs of Working-Class Hoosiers
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Maximizing federal funding to reduce pressure on local taxpayers
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Transparent decision-making that treats taxpayers as stakeholders, not afterthoughts
A surplus is not success on its own, it is a tool. And under the status quo in Indianapolis, that tool has too often been left unused while costs rise for working Hoosiers and critical services remain underfunded.
Randy believes responsible budgeting means more than stockpiling cash. It means asking whether state dollars are being used to solve real problems or simply sit idle while costs are pushed onto families and local governments. When the state withholds investment, counties and cities are forced to raise fees, defer maintenance, or cut services while shifting the burden downward.
Budgets should balance the books and the needs of the people paying into them. A surplus that exists alongside rising costs, strained services, and struggling families is not fiscal discipline; it’s a failure to govern.
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Indiana’s challenges are not inevitable. They are the result of choices made by the political establishment — including leaders aligned with Mike Braun, Donald Trump, and a Republican supermajority that has governed without meaningful accountability.
Randy Novak brings a different approach: experienced, practical, community-first leadership that puts outcomes ahead of ideology and Hoosiers ahead of insiders.