After just his first term at the Indiana Statehouse, District 22 Rep. Craig Snow received accolades for his work on child care.
Among those was that the Indiana Philanthropy Alliance presented Snow with the 2022 Public Policy Champion of Philanthropy Award for authoring a new law helping to expand childcare options.
But if Snow wants to serve another term, he has to win the general election in about two weeks.
Snow previously represented District 18, but after the 2020 U.S. Census, redistricting overlapped Snow’s and Rep. Curt Nisly’s District 22 into a new District 22. Snow beat Nisly in the Republican primary this year. For the Nov. 8 general election, Snow faces Democrat Dee Moore and Libertarian Josh Vergiels. Though Kosciusko County is heavily Republican, Snow said he’s not taking anything for granted.
“I’m sure they’re both qualified and good candidates. So, we’re kind of keeping an eye on it and that kind of thing, but I’ve kind of kept busy. Obviously, at the businesses, but down at the statehouse working on different ideas for bills, different committees that I’m on. I’ve tried to focus on the general election. Certainly, most of my focus was on the primary, that was a lot of where I focused,” Snow said in an interview Oct. 7.
If re-elected, Snow said there will be a need to keep focusing on child care, including early learning. “It’s a great need and there’s so many statistics that we can get from LaunchPad. Sherry Searles has really done wonders with that group. … I think there’s always going to be more opportunity to continue to work on legislation and make it easier, more accessible, more affordable, those types of things. Now, whether I will personally carry any bills or not, I’m pretty certain there will be some bills written so it focuses on child care,” he said.
Another big component that he thinks will hit the state legislature in its next term is mental health.
“I’ve heard a lot about that. Again, I don’t know that I will carry any of those bills, but I know that will be a big topic down there this year, it seems like,” Snow said.
He said he’s still trying to figure out what specifically the plans are, though he said he knows they’re going to add money toward that topic. “I just don’t know the ins and outs of, when they say that, where the money is going to go. Is it new programs? Is it existing programs? Because of the pandemic, it’s obviously been heightened,” he said, noting there’s been a lot more awareness around mental health than there was previously. “I would assume they’ve come up with, through the summer committees, they’ve probably looked at some things and said here’s some areas we want to boost in terms of helping out with mental health.”
If re-elected, Snow said he’s been interested in getting on the Ways and Means Committee. “It looks like there’s a couple bills that I might carry that have to do with local government finance and tax concerns. And, so, if I’m lucky enough to win the general and then I get put on Ways and Means, there’s some things there that I’m hoping to carry and work toward,” Snow said.
For a couple years, Snow has had an idea of working with the state to invest in Kosciusko County, specifically orthopedics.
“Not that money would go to the orthopedic companies, but to help orthopedic companies have an area where they can attract talent. And so, working on infrastructure projects or quality of life projects in our county, and make it a place where employers can attract resources or talent to this area. We’ll see what that looks like. We’ve been talking quite a bit down at the statehouse. (Indiana Sen.) Ryan Mishler and I’ve talked a fair bit and it’s getting attraction, but I don’t know what it will look like,” Snow said.
Orthopedics is a 127-year-old industry in Kosciusko County and they want to see it continue to thrive, he said.
“We all know Medtronic left. We don’t want to see that become a theme,” Snow said. “So, if there’s things that we can do from a state perspective to attract new talent, attract new businesses here, we want to work on those things. So I’m working on some things that would relate to that.”
