Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush (right) swears State Sen. Greg Goode (R-Terre Haute) into office during a ceremony in the Indiana Senate Chamber on Nov. 1 (Photo/Indiana Senate Republicans).
By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
November 2, 2023
Greg Goode, who described some Indiana Democrats as “do-nothing liberals,” was sworn in Wednesday at the Indiana Statehouse as the new state senator for Senate District 38, which covers Vigo and Clay counties and northeastern Sullivan County.
Goode handily won the Republican Party caucus election on Oct. 7 to fill the seat formerly held by Sen. Jon Ford, R-Terre Haute, who resigned from the legislature effective Oct. 16. Winning the caucus on the first ballot with 56 votes, Goode will finish the remainder of Ford’s term through November 2026.
Ford had endorsed Goode, describing him as a “great Christian conservative, “who has “deep ties to the Indiana Right to Life movement and Second Amendment groups.”
Currently the state director for U.S. Sen. Todd Young, R-Indiana, Goode has served as executive director of government relations and university communication for Indiana State university. Also, he is credited with helping form the Wabash River Regional Development Authority and working with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and local leaders to implement the READI grant program in the Terre Haute area.
Goode was sworn in on the Senate Chamber floor by Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush.
“I am pleased to be given the opportunity to represent the Wabash Valley in the Indiana Senate,” Goode said in a press release. “I look forward to meeting with constituents throughout the district as I consider legislation that will make Indiana an even greater place to live, work and raise a family.”
Goode is among five new Republican legislators who have been caucused into the Statehouse this year. He delivered a fiery partisan speech at the District 38 caucus in Brazil, Indiana, striking a combative tone that was absent from the caucus speeches given by Sen. Randy Maxwell, who replaced former Sen. Chip Perfect, R-Lawrenceburg, who resigned in September, and Senator-elect Cyndi Carrasco, who filled the seat of the late Sen. Jack Sandlin, R-Indianapolis, who died in September.
Speaking at the caucus, Goode told the crowd of Republican Party precinct committee members that Indiana is “the greatest state of the greatest country of the world.”
Then he turned to disparaging Indiana’s neighbor, saying “we have to look no further than 20 miles to our left, Illinois, to see how bad and how quickly things can go. But (Gov.) JB Pritzker and his band of brothers and sisters of liberals have made it so bad that their answer to their complete dysfunction is to distract their voters by making them stoned on legalized marijuana.”
The 2024 legislative session will formally commence on Nov. 21 for Organization Day and reconvene in early January.
Dwight Adams, a freelance editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.
