Potts: Congressional Republicans infringing on personal freedoms
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A city councilor on Friday said he wants to push back against what he sees as efforts in Congress to prevent Americans from living as their authentic selves.
Keith Potts, who has served on the Indianapolis City-County Council since 2019, announced late last week he is running in the Democratic primary for the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Mike Braun, a Republican. Potts is forgoing a second term on the council to focus on the Senate race.
In his campaign launch ad, Potts cast the race in terms of more vs. less freedom. He told News 8 he is referring to efforts by Congressional Republicans to, among other things, ban access to abortion services and restrict LGBTQ+ rights.
“The fight that I want to bring is to expand on those freedoms, so that every American and every Hoosier can live authentically and have every right that they deserve,” he said.
Potts said Congress should pass legislation codifying the standards of Roe v. Wade into law, meaning abortion would be legal for reasons of medical necessity or up to fetal viability. Asked whether there should be a specific time limit, he replied fetal viability varies from pregnancy to pregnancy.
The United States saw a record number of deaths from mass killings in the first six months of 2023. Potts voted for a city ordinance this week that, if the state preemption law was repealed, would raise the minimum age to buy a gun in Indianapolis to 21, repeal permitless carry, and prohibit any new sales of military-style rifles. He said he would like to see Congress pass similar legislation for the entire country, with military-style rifles bought prior to such a ban grandfathered in.
“I think Americans have the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms,” he said. “I also think that we should do everything in our power to keep people safe.”
Potts, in his launch ad, criticized Republican frontrunner Jim Banks’ call to cut Social Security. He said he would rather raise the cap on social security taxes and index them to inflation.
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