Indiana House lawmakers will take testimony Thursday – for the second time in about three weeks – on a bill that would effectively ban private companies from enforcing COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
And the politics at play behind the measure, HB 1001, are a bit tricky.
The people advocating loudest against vaccine mandates – and who are generally in favor of the bill – traditionally support Republicans. But the state’s business community also usually backs the GOP and top businesses are lining up against the legislation.
Andrew Downs, Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics director, said there’s been a push-and-pull between those two sides for a while.
“The Republican Party historically has been the pro-business party and they certainly still fall into that category … but over the last several years, they have begun to focus quite a bit on individuals and individualism,” Downs said.
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