My iVoterGuide Questionnaire Answers
Most campaign surveys are designed to trap candidates into partisan boxes. When I filled out the latest iVoterGuide questionnaire, I decided to give folks something rare in modern politics: straightforward, unfiltered honesty.
I didn't hire a campaign strategist to tell me what to say, and I didn't copy-paste a party script. From defending the Second Amendment and holding violent criminals accountable to fixing our healthcare system and protecting constitutional rights, these answers reflect my exact beliefs as a working-class candidate who answers only to the people.
Here is my complete, unedited iVoterGuide questionnaire—exactly as submitted. Read it, share it, and decide for yourself where I stand.
Right to Life
Human life begins at conception and deserves legal protection at every stage until natural death.
Position: Strongly Disagree
Response: From a scriptural perspective, life and personhood are tied to the breath of life. Government mandates should not overwrite personal faith, bodily autonomy, and private medical decisions. Protecting life in practice means making sure families have affordable healthcare, food, and housing from day one.
Abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, should not receive taxpayer funds or grants from federal, state, or local governments.
Position: Strongly Disagree
Response: Taxpayer dollars belong in public health infrastructure. Our privatized system has driven down life expectancy and left rural working families behind. All healthcare providers offering vital preventative, maternal, and basic medical services should receive robust public funding to ensure quality care is accessible to everyone as a basic right.
I support the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which requires health care providers to provide life-saving treatment for infants who survive an attempted abortion.
Position: Neutral
Response: Federal law and standard medical ethics already guarantee full legal rights and medical care to any infant born alive. This bill targets a manufactured political scenario that doesn't occur in actual medical practice. State lawmakers should focus on real health crises—like rising infant mortality and rural hospital closures—rather than politicizing medical care.
Under what circumstances should abortion be allowed?
Response: Bodily autonomy is a fundamental, God-given right. Medical care—including abortion—is a private matter that belongs strictly between a woman, her physician, and her faith. Government officials and politicians have no business dictating private healthcare decisions or overriding personal conscience.
Economy
It is the government’s responsibility to ensure everyone has a livable income.
Position: Strongly Agree
Response: Promoting the general welfare is a core constitutional mandate. In a country as prosperous as ours, anyone putting in an honest day's work deserves an income that actually covers housing, food, and basic necessities. A livable baseline strengthens working families and local communities. A healthy, happy worker is a productive worker.
Free enterprise and the right to private property are essential elements of a productive economic system.
Position: Neutral
Response: Free enterprise works best when it actually means economic freedom for everyone—including worker-owned co-ops and local entrepreneurs. The breakdown happens when giant corporations use their clout to eliminate competition. We must protect the right of working people to start co-ops and build local wealth without market interference.
Taxpayer-funded public education should be guaranteed through college.
Position: Strongly Agree
Response: An educated populace is essential for economic survival and global competitiveness. Investing in post-secondary education—including trade schools, vocational training, and colleges—ensures our workforce remains innovative and productive. Public support for skills and higher education isn't an expense; it's a vital strategic investment.
What government spending would you reduce in order to balance the budget?
Response: We must end government handouts to big industry, fossil fuel interests, and billionaires. Balancing the budget starts by stopping corporate welfare, ensuring public money stays focused on actual public needs like schools and roads.
Religious Liberty
Governments should not discriminate against individuals, organizations or small businesses because of their belief that marriage is only a union of one man and one woman.
Position: Strongly Agree
Response: People are entitled to their personal beliefs, and government shouldn't police private conscience. However, civil marriage is a legal standard guaranteed under law. We can respect individual religious freedom while still upholding equal protection and constitutional rights for every family.
Governments should define marriage as between one man and one woman; no other definition of marriage should be legalized or supported with taxpayer or public funds.
Position: Strongly Disagree
Response: Civil marriage is a legal contract protected by equal rights under the law. Government should not enforce specific religious interpretations or mandate one faith's doctrine onto the entire public. True freedom of religion means the state respects religious diversity and guarantees civil rights equally for all citizens.
Religious liberty is at risk in the United States and deserves the highest level of protection in the law.
Position: Strongly Agree
Response: Religious liberty is under threat whenever government power is used to enforce one group's dogmas on the entire public. Protecting religious freedom means ensuring no state law dictates personal faith or moral conscience, preserving true freedom of belief—and freedom from religious overreach—for everyone equally.
I promise to protect the freedom of Christians to share the Gospel and to practice Biblical principles.
Position: Yes
Response: I support the First Amendment right of Christians—and people of all faiths—to practice their religion freely. True faith is practiced with humility and personal conviction, as Jesus taught in Matthew 6, not through public vanity or state coercion. Protecting religious freedom means preserving freedom of conscience for everyone equally.
What does "separation of church and state" mean to you?
Response: As outlined in Article I of the Indiana Constitution, it means the complete detachment of government power from religious doctrine. The state cannot enforce religious interpretations, control rights of conscience, or give preference to any creed. Government must remain neutral so that civil law applies equally to every citizen.
Healthcare
It is the government’s responsibility to ensure everyone has health insurance.
Position: Strongly Agree
Response: Government has a basic duty to ensure everyone has access to care. I support a state-sponsored supplemental insurance program that acts as a reliable backstop. People can keep their existing private plans, but this state coverage fills gaps, covers denials, and guarantees full care with minimal out-of-pocket costs so no family is ruined by medical debt.
How would you promote healthcare coverage that is adequate, affordable and accessible for all?
Response: I propose modernizing state healthcare through HIP 3.0—a universal, state-backed supplemental system designed to ensure every Hoosier has adequate, affordable, and accessible care without taking away existing private options.
Universal Dual-Layer Backstop: If you have employer or private insurance, you keep it. HIP 3.0 automatically acts as a secondary layer, stepping in to cover deductibles, copays, and out-of-pocket gaps. If you lose your job, change careers, or lack coverage, HIP 3.0 seamlessly shifts to become your primary insurance so you never suffer a gap in care.
Zero-Cost Emergency Protection: Medical emergencies must never lead to financial ruin. HIP 3.0 guarantees 100% coverage for emergency transportation, ambulance services, ER visits, and life-saving critical care with zero out-of-pocket costs, zero deductibles, and total protection against surprise billing. No Hoosier will ever have to hesitate before calling 911.
Overriding Corporate Denials: Private insurers frequently profit by denying necessary treatments and prescriptions. Under HIP 3.0, when a private claim is denied for needed care, the state backstop steps in to cover the costs, putting healthcare decisions back between patients and their doctors.
Preventative & Primary Care: Full coverage extends to routine check-ups, primary care, preventative screenings, mental health services, and essential prescription drugs with little to no out-of-pocket expense, keeping workers healthy, active, and productive.
Fiscally Responsible Structure: HIP 3.0 leverages existing state administrative infrastructure and cuts corporate middleman waste. By streamlining claims and prioritizing preventative health, we lower overall healthcare overhead and reinvest those savings directly into patient care.
Healthcare security is fundamental to economic freedom. HIP 3.0 ensures that no Hoosier family is ever one medical emergency away from bankruptcy.
National Security
The best way to maintain peace is through a strong military.
Position: Disagree
Response: Peace isn't achieved by military interventionism or entangling ourselves in costly offensive wars overseas. Our armed forces should focus squarely on defensive readiness: protecting our borders, securing our shipping lanes, and fulfilling obligations. Refusing unnecessary foreign wars keeps our nation safe and resilient.
Immigration
I am in favor of construction of a wall and other necessary infrastructure on our border that gives complete control over entering and exiting the United States.
Position: Strongly Disagree
Response: Scripture explicitly reminds us that we were once strangers in a foreign land and commands us to treat others with dignity. Constructing massive border walls ignores both this moral obligation and the historical reality of this land. We should focus on humane, sensible legal processes rather than spending billions on wasteful physical barriers.
State and federal funds should be denied to any public or private entity, including but not limited to sanctuary cities, that are not in compliance with immigration laws.
Position: Strongly Disagree
Response: Public funds belong to the taxpayers who contribute them, not political enforcers. Denying funding to local entities or faith organizations that welcome strangers forces communities to choose between federal coercion and basic human decency. Government should never penalize organizations or cities for acting with Christian compassion toward others.
Who should be allowed to immigrate to the U.S. and under what circumstances?
Response: Immigration should be open to anyone ready to put in the hard work it takes to build a life in America. Making ends meet is tough, and those willing to work hard, respect our laws, and support their families strengthen our towns and country. We need a streamlined, sensible legal process that welcomes honest workers who just want an opportunity to earn their keep and contribute.
Values
Judeo-Christian values established a framework of morality that is necessary for our system of limited government.
Position: Strongly Disagree
Response: Our system of limited government relies on constitutional principles, religious freedom, and disestablishment—not on mandating or privileging specific theological labels. True morality in civic governance stems from protecting individual liberty, equal rights under the law, and the freedom of conscience for citizens of all faiths and no faith at all.
I support adding sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression as protected classes in non-discrimination laws.
Position: Strongly Agree
Response: Government exists to protect the civil rights of all citizens equally. No one should face job loss, housing denial, or discrimination because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Equal treatment under the law is a fundamental constitutional right that must apply to every individual across our state.
Briefly describe your spiritual beliefs and values.
Response: I am a Heathen-Christian Universalist, guided by a deep reverence for all life, universal redemption, and true coexistence. Having experienced death firsthand—my heart failing and being revived—I gained a profound perspective on existence: we are all interconnected travelers on a shared journey. My faith blends Christian universal grace with the grounded honor, strength, and stewardship of Norse tradition. I believe government has no business enforcing dogma or defining spiritual validity. My core spiritual values are empathy, personal integrity, freedom of conscience, and an unshakeable commitment to protecting the rights and dignity of every individual, regardless of their path.
Elections and Voting
People should be able to vote without photo identification.
Position: Neutral
Response: In Indiana, we already have clear laws requiring photo ID at the polls and state ID verification for mail-in ballots. Piling on endless layers of redundant legislation to solve a problem that is already handled is unnecessary state overreach. We should keep our elections secure and efficient without creating extra red tape.
The Electoral College should be abolished.
Position: Strongly Agree
Response: The Electoral College is an outdated mechanism that silences voters in states across the country. Replacing it with a direct popular vote paired with Ranked Choice Voting guarantees that every individual vote matters equally regardless of zip code. Ranked Choice Voting would finally break the rigid two-party stranglehold, giving people real choices and forcing candidates to earn majority support.
Equality
Is racism a threat to domestic security in the United States? Why or why not?
Response: Yes. Any form of division that threatens the lives of our citizens is a direct threat to domestic security. We rely on each other in our communities to survive and thrive. Racism fractures that unity, fuels hostility, and turns neighbors against each other. When internal hatred endangers citizens' lives and tears at our social fabric, it weakens and threatens the entire nation.
About You
When you consider your views on a wide range of issues from economic and social matters to foreign policy and immigration, which of the following best describes you overall?
Position: Moderate
Response: I stand firmly in the middle because no single political ideology has all the answers. While I hold conservative principles around individual liberty and fiscal responsibility, I also believe every citizen deserves the opportunity to exist, work, and thrive. Effective leadership means rejecting rigid dogmas and delivering common-sense solutions that serve our entire community.
Please provide publicly available information validating your answer to the previous question.
Response: My public stance as an independent thinker is documented across my social media posts and published commentary https://www.threads.com/@ianrichardson566. My public record consistently demonstrates a balance of supporting individual liberty and fiscal responsibility alongside community-focused solutions, rather than adhering to rigid party-line agendas.
What education or experience qualifies you to hold the office for which you seek election?
Response: My greatest qualification is that I am living the everyday reality of working people. Decades of hands-on experience across multiple industries and holding diverse professional licenses have given me a practical understanding of how systems function—and where they fail. Combined with strong analytical and pattern-recognition skills, I can break down complex legislation to find common-sense solutions. Most importantly, I spend my time on the ground listening to folks who are fed up with the status quo, giving me the perspective to represent them.
Have you ever been convicted of a felony or been penalized for sexual misconduct? If so, please explain.
Response: No.
Is there anything else you would like voters to know about you?
Response: At the end of the day, I’m a real person who has lived a full, hands-on life. Having survived major health crises, I treat every day as a gift and approach leadership with deep gratitude and zero time for political games. I’m a father, a worker who has held diverse jobs, a nature enthusiast, and someone who values straightforward honesty above all else. I’m running to bring common-sense solutions, independent thinking, and authentic representation to our community—not to fit into anyone’s political mold.
Judicial Philosophy
I support the use of Sharia law as a basis for legislation and judicial decisions in the United States.
Position: Strongly Disagree
Response: The United States is a secular constitutional republic governed by the U.S. Constitution, not religious law. The principle of disestablishment explicitly prevents any theological system—whether Sharia, Christian, or otherwise—from serving as the basis for American legislation or judicial decisions. Civil law must remain entirely separate from religious dogma to guarantee freedom for all.
Criminal Justice & Public Safety
Mandatory minimum sentencing should be required and enforced for violent crimes.
Position: Strongly Agree
Response: Protecting law-abiding citizens from violent crime is non-negotiable. Mandatory minimum sentences for violent offenses ensure consistency in justice and guarantee that violent offenders serve real time, preventing weak plea deals from putting dangerous individuals back on the street. Communities deserve safety, and victims deserve certainty that true justice will be served.
2nd Amendment
Should teachers be allowed to carry guns at school?
Position: No
Response: Teachers are hired to educate, not to act as armed security guards. School safety is a serious responsibility that should belong to dedicated, well-trained Resource Officers and law enforcement professionals. Turning classrooms into armed environments creates unnecessary risks; we should focus on securing school infrastructure and supporting qualified security staff instead.
What restrictions on gun ownership are needed to protect public safety?
Response: The focus should be on education and responsibility, not piling restrictions on law-abiding citizens. Gun safety classes and registration processes should be free and accessible to anyone. Law-abiding citizens have a constitutional right to keep firearms at home for personal and family defense. Public safety is best served by empowering people with proper safety training and respecting Second Amendment rights, rather than adding bureaucratic restrictions.
Other Important Issues
I support the legalization of recreational marijuana.
Position: Strongly Agree
Response: Cannabis was a standard part of pharmacology for generations before biased 20th-century tax acts built prohibition on misinformation and greed. Full legalization restores individual liberty, stops wasting law enforcement resources on non-violent personal choices, and creates real economic growth. It is long past time to end an outdated prohibition and adopt a common-sense legal framework.
In priority order, what three areas of legislation do you propose to author or sponsor if elected?
First — Energy Affordability: Modernizing infrastructure to cut utility costs and protect household budgets.
Second — Education & Healthcare Reform: Improving local schools, supporting educators, and lowering healthcare expenses.
Third — Self-Sustaining Public Financing: Establishing a bank-administered 1.5% loan trust funded by a 0.5% bond with a rolling 12-month grace period. Designed as a long-term growth engine, surplus yield from the trust directly funds our healthcare and education reforms once revenue exceeds lending, eliminating tax hikes.
The Bottom Line
I published these answers because you deserve to know exactly who you are voting for. No carefully crafted talking points, no dodging the tough questions, and no hiding behind campaign consultants.
Taking on an entrenched legislative leader this November isn't going to be easy, and the political machine will do everything it can to protect its own. I don't have a massive war chest funded by corporate lobbyists, and working for a living doesn't leave room to self-fund a massive campaign. I am relying entirely on everyday people who are ready for honest, working-class representation in the State House.
If you read these answers and agree that it's time for a change, I need you in this fight with me.
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