District 15 rematch adjusts for pandemic

Chyung, Slager find new ways to campaign while social distancing

State Rep. Chris Chyung and Hal Slager, in a rematch of their tight District 15 race from 2018, said canvassing amid a global pandemic has been different than previous years, but not impossible.

Democrat Chyung, 27, of Dyer, and Republican Slager, 61, of Schererville, are candidates for the Indiana House of Representatives to represent District 15. Both have spent the better part of the pandemic canvassing for the

position.

“The shutdown early on didn’t allow us to get out early and start knocking on doors,” Slager said, talking about himself and his volunteers. “So, interestingly, we started making calls in early April and actually used the pandemic in that way because people were home and they were interested in talking — they didn’t have anything else to do.”

The phone calls proved to be beneficial, Slager said, noting that they were able to control when the calls were made and he could reach people at more convenient times during the day.

“There are any number of issues that prevent people from wanting to stand at the door and so the interaction at the door is generally pretty quick,” Slager said. “On the phone, however, I found that I was able to get a much more in-depth conversation with people because they had time.”

Like Slager, Chyung has also been doing more socially distant canvassing.

“In my case, what I’ve been doing is rolling up the literature, putting it in the door handle, ringing the doorbell and talking from far away,” Chyung said. “That way I never hand anything off to them directly and I never talk to them at a close distance. It’s been a lot different.”

After spending a couple months making phone calls, Slager, who spent 10 years on the Schererville Town Council and served three terms as state representative before his 2018 loss to Chyung, said he and volunteers began knocking on doors in June and campaigning as usual while continuing to do fundraising events outdoors.

According to Slager’s campaign website, his agenda priorities are pediatric care, financially distressed government units, mental health and utilities.

While a lot of areas have good pediatric care close by, Slager said with half of the children in the state on Medicaid, many of them have to travel great lengths to get the care they need.

“The pediatric care issue is interesting, because even though I’m talking about Northwest Indiana, this is not just a Northwest Indiana issue,” Slager said. “We have the same issue in the Louisville market and Cincinnati market where we have Hoosiers who are very close to pediatric services, but they’re across state lines.”

Slager said he felt he was successful in the legislature and there are many things he would like to do if elected, among them get back to work on things he was doing before Chyung took office.

“My interest in trying to get back to the legislature is to finish on these priorities, that were frankly my priorities two years ago,” he said “I don’t like leaving the job unfinished, I’m trying to get back to finish what I started.”

Chyung said he, too, has issues he would like to continue working on if he wins reelection.

“We have a lot of unfinished business in terms of how we can make sure we focus on delivering lower health care costs for people, more accessibility for those health care costs, and making sure our tax dollars stay in our school districts,” Chyung said.

Before being elected in 2018, Chyung said he had never been involved in politics, but he wanted to see a representative who was more in-step with the district.

“Being able to support organized labor and workers and our own public schools, that was really what motivated me to get involved,” he said. “I think it’s time for more legislatures to focus on people over corporations.”

Chyung said he does not take corporate donations, and would not serve more than four terms, or eight years, in his position. His website lists a plethora of issues he focuses on, among them pre-K and school funding reform, health care costs, tuition reform and voter access.

While he has many issues listed online, he said his top three issues are defeating the coronavirus, making sure the state’s budget is focused on people and not just corporations and redistricting reform in Indiana.