Baron Hill, the
Democrat candidate for the open seat in the U.S. Senate currently held by
Republican Dan Coats, vows to be a champion of steel and labor.
Hill visited the
Chesterton Tribune newsroom on Wednesday during a swing through
Northwest Indiana and made it immediately clear he knows what folks in the
region care about: steel.
“I’ve always been a
free-trade person but when it comes to steel, it’s not soybeans or corn,”
Hill said. “Steel is a matter of national security. It makes our tanks and
aircraft carriers. We can’t depend on China for our steel. That’s why I’ll
join (U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind. and U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-1st)
and make sure our domestic steel industry remains robust and prosperous.”
Despite the
resurgence of the economy since the bottom dropped out in 2008--“We’re
better off today than when President Obama took office,” he said--Hill told
the Tribune he’s become aware of a lingering “anxiety” as he travels
the state. “Families are struggling. There an uneasiness. An anger. They
don’t know what the future will hold. And they want their representatives in
Congress to care about them and the middle class.”
The problem, in
Hill’s view, is that the middle class has been “diminished,” and that’s
because labor unions have been “weakened.” When workers “aren’t able to
negotiate better wages and benefits, that affects their families,” Hill
said. Or as an executive for Cummins, the engine manufacturer headquartered
in Columbus, Ind., once told Hill, “Unions keep people like me honest. The
unions created the middle class.”
“I’m going to be
the U.S. Senator who protects steel and look out for the backs of labor
unions,” Hill said.
Hill made one other
promise: to visit Northwest Indiana often while in office. “I love this
state and I want to be part of this community,” he said. “The only way you
can do that is to be here. I’ll visit your community and businesses.”
Hill held five
non-consecutive terms in the U.S. House, representing Indiana’s 9th
Congressional District south of Bloomington. He was defeated for re-election
in 2010 by Republican Todd Young, who as it happens is now Hill’s opponent
once again, as the GOP’s nominee for the Senate seat. Coats is not seeking
re-election.