Virtual Town Hall w/ Tabitha Zeigler for Congress

https://progressiveindiana.net

https://tabithazeiglerforcongress.com/

SUMMARY:

In this Progressive Indiana Network virtual town hall, HoosLeft host Scott Aaron Rogers speaks with Tabitha Zeigler, a Democratic primary candidate in Indiana’s 8th Congressional District running against incumbent Republican Mark Messmer. Zeigler -- an autism mom, late-diagnosed autistic adult, community organizer, and former postal worker -- covers an expansive range of issues over more than an hour, including the Trump administration’s escalating military conflict with Iran, the Democratic Party’s disconnect from working-class and younger Hoosiers, the RFK Jr.-led assault on autism services and disability rights, the fight for trans rights in a rural district, the corrupting influence of big money and AIPAC in Congress, the need to abolish ICE and reform immigration, her opposition to data centers on Indiana farmland, the housing crisis driven by private equity, and what it would take for an outsider progressive to win in a district rated R+18.

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QUESTIONS:

00:00:23 INTRODUCTION

- Scott introduces the town hall format: viewer questions relayed from YouTube, Facebook Live, and ProgressiveIndiana.net.

- Tabitha Zeigler introduces herself: autism mom of three, late-diagnosed autistic adult, community organizer, and self-described rabble-rouser.

- She explains her path to running: frustration with the federal government’s treatment of the autism community drove her to launch a podcast and eventually seek office.

- She argues that if medical professionals won’t be trusted, the next best thing is sending actual autistic people to Congress.

00:03:00 THE IRAN WAR AND DEMOCRATIC COMPLICITY

- Scott asks Zeigler to respond to Trump’s threats of bombing civilian infrastructure in Iran and his inflammatory social media posts targeting Muslims.

- Zeigler draws on her millennial generation’s lived experience watching the post-9/11 wars unfold -- she was a college freshman when the Twin Towers fell -- and warns this conflict will be long, costly, and bloody.

- She criticizes the administration’s gutted military leadership under Pete Hegseth and argues that a well-prepared military exists to avoid combat, not rush into it.

- Scott follows up on Congress’s abdication of its war powers -- the last formal declaration of war was World War II -- and asks what Democrats should be doing.

- Zeigler frames military service as a working-class issue, noting it’s blue-collar Hoosiers -- plumbers, contractors, tradespeople -- who bear the cost of war while the wealthy profit.

00:10:37 THE INDIANA DEMOCRATIC PARTY PLATFORM

- Viewer Papa Rottzi asks via the web form whether the Indiana Democratic Party’s draft platform reflects what Hoosiers actually want.

- Zeigler says flatly that the party hasn’t listened to Hoosiers in a long time -- particularly younger and working-age voters -- and is led primarily by people who are already retired and financially comfortable.

- Scott presses: if the party is that out of touch, why stay a Democrat?

- Zeigler says she remains in the tent because she’s a progressive and believes in moving left, not toward the center, but warns that if the party keeps drifting toward “Republican lite,” that could change.

00:13:17 RFK JR., MAHA, AND THE ATTACK ON AUTISM SERVICES

- Scott asks Zeigler to explain what the Trump administration and RFK Jr.’s MAHA agenda are actually doing to the autism community.

- Zeigler walks through Indiana’s First Steps program (which ends at age three), the difficulty of getting diagnoses and ABA therapy in rural areas, and the cascading effects of losing providers.

- She calls RFK’s approach -- blaming mothers for their children’s autism through vaccine fearmongering -- criminal, adding that mothers of autistic children are already under enormous stress and guilt without being told they caused it.

- She raises Indiana’s history of institutionalization, noting the state ended the practice in 1997 after widespread abuse, and warns that current legislative language around “institutionalization” is a step back toward eugenics.

- She frames the broader attack on disability services as classic fascist scapegoating: autistic families, immigrants, trans people -- always an “other” to blame.

00:20:47 TRANS RIGHTS, GAVIN NEWSOM, AND HOLDING THE LINE

- Scott asks Zeigler to respond to Gavin Newsom’s call for Democrats to be more “culturally normal” -- widely seen as throwing trans people under the bus.

- Zeigler dismisses Newsom’s position as easy political cowardice: it’s simple for a straight white man with no skin in the game to sacrifice a minority community.

- She invokes the Niemoller poem (”First they came...”) and argues Democrats who abandon trans people are setting themselves up to be next.

- She discloses personally: one of her children, age six, has been expressing a female identity for several years, and she is preparing herself for that possibility with full support.

- She calls people who won’t stand up for the trans community right now “cowards” and says it violates the core tenets of most faiths.

00:25:22 TRANS GIRLS IN SPORTS (FROM CHRIS RECTOR)

- Scott notes that the question comes from Chris Rector, identified as one of Zeigler’s opponents in the primary -- another progressive outsider and friend.

- Rector asks about Zeigler’s stance on transgender girls participating in female high school sports.

- Zeigler says she’s not a trans woman and would like to hear more directly from those who are, but her position is clear: if someone tells you they’re female, let them compete with other females.

- She uses an example of a trans man in her social circle who served in the military and met the full physical demands of his position as a man.

00:27:49 ACCOUNTABILITY IN OFFICE (FROM JOEY IN TERRE HAUTE)

- Viewer Joey asks how Zeigler plans to remain accountable to constituents and what that accountability looks like in practice.

- Zeigler says she wants people to be able to call her -- contrasting that with the experience of disabled constituents who had to physically travel to Washington in wheelchairs just to get a politician’s attention.

- She describes attending a town hall hosted by incumbent Mark Messmer and submitting multiple autism-related questions -- none of which were asked.

- She invites constituents to hold her feet to the fire if she gets it wrong, saying she’s going as their voice, not her own agenda.

00:31:33 WHAT DEMOCRATS NEED TO DO FOR YOUNG VOTERS (FROM Cameron Grubbs)

- Cameron Grubbs, running for Delaware County Clerk in Muncie, asks what Democrats should be doing to better engage younger voters.

- Zeigler says young people today don’t have a shot -- private equity is buying up their homes, their college degrees aren’t leading to careers, they can’t afford families, and Social Security may not exist for them.

- She argues it’s hypocritical to ask young people to vote blue when the party isn’t offering solutions to the material conditions destroying their futures.

00:34:55 PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRICES (FROM Hoosier Lemon)

- Viewer Hoosier Lemon asks whether Zeigler would support legislation allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices.

- Zeigler gives an unambiguous yes and shares a personal story: her son with autism and ADHD was forced through four generic substitutions before his insurer would approve the doctor’s original prescription, ultimately going without medication for two months.

- She says pharmaceutical companies have more influence on politicians than constituents do, and calls the system obscene.

00:38:13 MEDICARE FOR ALL, FREE COLLEGE, PUBLIC HOUSING

- Scott follows up: Zeigler is on record supporting Medicare for All -- what’s her vision for what government should actually provide?

- Zeigler ties it back to war spending, arguing that a country spending a billion dollars a day on bombing campaigns has no credibility telling people free healthcare or college is unaffordable.

- She notes Americans are increasingly fleeing the country for cheaper healthcare abroad -- dental tourism to Turkiye, retirement to lower-cost countries -- as evidence the current system has failed.

- Scott asks the follow-up: how do you pay for it? Zeigler says start by taxing the one percent, and calls out the irony of politicians who benefit from a form of socialism for themselves telling working people they can’t have the same.

00:42:36 THE SUPREME COURT AND ANTI-DEMOCRATIC STRUCTURES

- Scott asks how progressives get around a Supreme Court that has been stacked against them.

- Zeigler supports expanding the court and endorses term limits for justices, arguing lifetime appointments for ideologically captured justices serve no legitimate democratic purpose.

- Scott broadens the question to the Senate and Electoral College -- both anti-democratic structures baked into the Constitution.

- On admitting new states, Zeigler is supportive, calling out the ongoing colonialism of Puerto Rico and American Samoa in particular, and arguing representation must reflect population demographics.

00:49:51 DATA CENTERS, NUCLEAR ENERGY, AND INDIANA FARMLAND (FROM PAPA ROTTZI)

- Papa Rottzi asks whether hydroelectric power from the Ohio River should be considered to offset data center energy demands, and whether Zeigler is open to nuclear power.

- Zeigler says she is a hard no on data centers as currently implemented -- they’re being sited in rural and low-income communities, bringing diesel turbines that produce noise pollution comparable to half a jet engine, respiratory health risks, and electrical costs passed directly to residents.

- She warns that Indiana’s 63% tillable farmland -- once paved over -- takes a century to recover, and that building data centers on it is a food security issue, not just an environmental one.

- She calls for a full moratorium on new data centers pending more research, and says she’s open to nuclear but would want to hear from people currently working in those facilities before taking a firm position.

00:56:31 PRIVATE EQUITY AND THE HOUSING CRISIS (FROM HOOSIER LEMON)

- Hoosier Lemon asks whether Zeigler would support legislation banning private equity and out-of-state investors from buying up Indiana homes.

- Zeigler responds with an immediate hell yes and describes her own small town of Covington -- population 2,500 -- where an outside firm bought up homes previously selling for $50,000 and is now renting them for $1,000 a month, pricing out locals.

- She links the problem to Airbnb as well, noting entire neighborhoods have been converted into short-term rentals, squeezing out permanent residents.

- Scott editorializes that private equity firms are ghouls, notes the national figure is around 3% of homes owned by institutional investors, and argues any number above zero is too many.

01:01:41 WOULD YOU VOTE FOR HAKEEM JEFFRIES AS SPEAKER?

- Scott asks whether Jeffries -- the current House Minority Leader and presumptive Speaker-in-waiting -- is the right person to lead if Democrats retake the House.

- Zeigler is skeptical, lumping Jeffries in with Chuck Schumer as examples of leadership that has bent too far to donor interests, including AIPAC.

- She says she’d want to see a woman -- specifically one who doesn’t take AIPAC or corporate money and will fight -- and would vote accordingly if she gets to Congress.

01:03:48 GETTING BIG MONEY OUT OF POLITICS

- Scott presses on how you fight corporate power from inside a Congress where most of your colleagues are dependent on it.

- Zeigler says the only real answer is overturning Citizens United and getting all corporate money out of politics -- on both sides.

- She calls it a uniparty problem: Republicans and Democrats alike are beholden to the same donor class, and until that changes, personnel shuffles don’t fix the underlying corruption.

01:06:04 AIPAC, FOREIGN INFLUENCE, AND THE ANTI-SEMITISM CHARGE

- Scott asks how Zeigler responds when criticism of AIPAC gets labeled as antisemitism.

- Zeigler says the first question she’d ask any congressmember is where their allegiance lies -- to the American people or to the state of Israel -- and says that question should be answerable without controversy.

- She raises the issue of American legislators who have served with the IDF as a conflict of interest and says no other foreign government has the kind of influence over Congress that Israel does.

- She is careful to distinguish between criticism of Israeli government policy and hatred of Jewish people -- noting her children’s sperm donor is Jewish -- and argues accountability must apply equally to all governments.

01:09:04 ICE, DHS, AND IMMIGRATION POLICY

- Scott frames the question around ICE’s escalating violence, including shootings of American citizens, and the split within Democrats between reform and abolition.

- Zeigler says she supports abolishing ICE outright, citing the connection between IDF training of domestic law enforcement and the tactics now being used on American civilians.

- On what replaces it, she advocates for diplomatic investment in Latin America to address root causes of migration, a streamlined and humane legal immigration process, and cracking down on the corporate farming interests that depend on and exploit undocumented labor.

- She connects the Dilley detention facility and reports of abuse -- including pregnant minors -- to the broader failure of an unaccountable enforcement apparatus.

01:14:52 THE PRIMARY DYNAMICS: OUTSIDERS VS. THE ESTABLISHMENT

- Scott notes the four-candidate Democratic primary field: one establishment-endorsed candidate and three outsiders, including Zeigler.

- He asks how the progressive vote gets consolidated to prevent the establishment favorite from running away with the nomination.

- Zeigler encourages voters to research candidates’ social media histories -- particularly what they were doing in January 2025 -- and look at who they’ve consistently been, not just what they’re saying now.

- She flags her own litmus test: can a candidate say the word genocide? If not, that tells her something about how they’ll hold up under pressure.

- She also pushes back on candidates who bend to party pressure on even small things -- like being told to remove facial jewelry -- as a signal of how they’ll behave in office.

01:18:29 PATH TO VICTORY IN NOVEMBER

- Scott asks: if Zeigler wins the primary, how does she beat incumbent Mark Messmer in an R+18 district in November?

- Zeigler says truth and authenticity -- people want someone who will give it to Messmer ten toes down, every single time.

- She says Hoosiers are gritty people who don’t want a representative who just rolls over, and that Messmer has never stood up to Trump on anything, including the Epstein revelations.

- She closes by encouraging voters across all races to pick the candidate their gut says has the fight in them, not the one the party is telling them to vote for.

01:20:55 FINAL WORDS AND HOW TO FIND TABITHA

Thanks again to Tabitha Zeigler for joining us. For more information and to get involved, visit her campaign website at TabithaZeiglerForCongress.com. You can also find her on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

Our next virtual town hall is with 5th District congressional candidatate Jackson Franklin on April 12 — mark your calendars. Early voting for the primary begins Tuesday, April 7 and Election Day is May 5.

Progressive Indiana Network is subscriber-supported independent media. To help us continue doing this work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.