By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
May 30, 2024
Vowing to make sure the voice of Southern Indiana is heard in the Statehouse, Wendy Dant Chesser was elected in a quick Democratic caucus Wednesday evening in Jeffersonville to fill the House District 71 seat formerly held by Rep. Rita Fleming and to take Fleming’s place on the November ballot.
Dant Chesser, chief director of corporate strategy and external affairs at the River Ridge Development Authority, was the only candidate in the caucus. She had been endorsed by the recently retired Fleming and has deep roots in Southern Indiana, growing up Jeffersonville, earning a bachelor’s degree at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany, and serving just over 11 years as the president and CEO of One Southern Indiana, the chamber of commerce and economic development organization for Clark and Floyd counties.
However, Dant Chesser said the seven years she served in Gov. Frank O’Bannon’s administration underscored for her how the decisions that are made in the Statehouse affect every corner of Indiana. She also realized, she said, that Southern Indiana was not always engaged in the conversations and often was not asked for input on policies and initiatives.
Crediting former Reps. Fleming and Steve Stemler with getting the concerns and needs of House District 71 heard in the Indiana General Assembly, Dant Chesser told the caucus voters that she would love the opportunity to help the region maintain its voice by serving “with integrity, with respect, with the ability to collaborate and find solutions.”
“We need to make sure that our voices are those that are heard in Indianapolis when the policy is being made,” Dant Chesser said, “because the impact of those policies is what is going to affect our opportunities for both ourselves and our children and future generations.”
The caucus took two separate votes to elect Dant Chesser to Fleming’s seat in the legislature and to put her on the ballot for the 2024 general election. Precinct members chose Dant Chesser on two voice votes.
Now, the new state representative said she will be simultaneously preparing to serve on the legislature’s interim study committees, which usually hold hearings in the late summer and fall, and campaigning for the November election.
Dant Chesser will be facing Republican challenger Scott Hawkins, a high school history teacher and Jeffersonville city councilor. Hawkins narrowly lost to Fleming in the November 2022 election.
Speaking before the caucus vote, Dant Chesser said her plan for keeping Fleming’s seat blue is to stay in the center of the political spectrum.
“While we often hear about the extremes, there are so many people – voters and legislators – who are more moderate and are looking for ways to compromise and make the best policy,” she said. “With that approach, I hope to have an open door to my friends and colleagues in the legislature to make sure that they are hearing all sides of any issues that may be in front of them.”
Dems trying to flip four seats
Showing how important House District 71 is to Democrats, Mike Schmuhl, chair of the Indiana Democratic Party, and Democratic Caucus chair in the Indiana House, Rep. Carey Hamilton, D-Indianapolis, were at the caucus as part of the Democrat’s Break the Supermajority tour.
Indiana Democrats are working to flip at least four seats this November in order to break the Republican supermajority in the Indiana House. Currently, Democrats hold 30 seats in the House and 10 seats in the Indiana Senate.
Schmuhl conceded breaking the GOP’s stranglehold on the House will be difficult, because the Democrats not only have to get four new members elected but also retain all the current Democratic seats. However, he is confident his party will pick up seats in November, saying voters are tiring of the Republican extremism.
“We’ve been under a supermajority for 12 years,” Schmuhl said, blaming the GOP’s ability to control the General Assembly on the gerrymandering of the legislative and congressional maps in 2011 and 2021. “I think the average Hoosier feels that Indiana is kind of off-kilter. It’s unbalanced.”
Hamilton highlighted education as an example of what she said is the state’s decline under Republican leadership. The GOP has defunded public education and attacked teachers, she said, which has hurt student outcomes such that third graders who cannot meet the state’s reading standards will be held back, instead of continuing to the fourth grade.
“Alarm bells should be going off for Hoosiers across the state because of these decisions,” Hamilton said. “So it’s time to change the story of the Statehouse and it starts with keeping seats, including District 71.”
Time for family
Echoing Schmuhl, Hamilton said Democrats must keep “every single one of our House seats,” so Fleming’s retirement did cause “a bit of a nail biter for a minute.” But, Hamilton said, Dant Chesser has calmed any trepidation, because her professional experience makes her “extremely qualified to serve in the Indiana House of Representatives.”
Democrats acknowledge filling Fleming’s shoes will be difficult.
“We will miss Rep. Fleming,” Hamilton said. “She has been a stellar legislator with quite an accomplished resume in the legislature.”
Fleming, a retired OB/GYN who delivered more than 7,000 babies in her career, served six years in the Statehouse. She made health care a central issue of her tenure by authoring bills that passed through the legislature with strong bipartisan support, such as one that ended the practice of shackling pregnant inmates while they gave birth. Also she served on the House Public Health Committee, the Indiana Commission to Combat Substance Use Disorder and the Medicaid Advisory Committee.
Speaking after the caucus vote, Fleming said she enjoyed the “good fights” she had in the Statehouse. However, Fleming said she was frustrated during the 2024 legislative session, when she had to battle her fellow Democrats over her bill, House Enrolled Act 1426, which provided same-day birth control access for postpartum mothers on Medicaid. Republicans amended the measure to exclude intrauterine devices but Senate Democrats and pro-choice advocates were angered by the new language that they saw as equating IUDs with causing abortions.
“It was frustrating because I couldn’t make them understand you don’t ignore the good when you have to have the perfect,” Fleming said. “It wasn’t perfect, but it was much better than what we have. … It was for moms and babies.”
As for why she retired so suddenly, Fleming thumbed through her phone until she found the photo of her 5-month-old grandson, Atlas. She has four children and 15 grandchildren spread across the country and the work in the legislature and serving her constituents was taking too much time from them, she said.
“I just can’t keep missing out on things,” Fleming said. She noted as an OB/GYN, she was often on call and had to leave birthday parties early and sometimes was not at home when her family opened their Christmas presents. “I’ve missed out on a lot and I don’t want to keep missing out on these kinds of things.”
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.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org
