Rep. André Carson (D)

The congressman from the 7th District is André Carson, who won the seat in March 2008, succeeding his grandmother, Julia Carson, who represented the district for nearly 11 years until she died in office in late 2007. He is only the second Muslim to be elected to Congress; the other is Rep. Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat.

As a child, André Carson was interested in the priesthood, and he studied religion. He also had an artistic side. He wrote poetry as a young man and performed as a rap artist. But his career took him into law enforcement. He got a bachelor’s degree in criminal-justice management from Concordia University and a master’s degree in business management from Indiana Wesleyan. Carson spent nine years as a plainclothes officer of the Indiana Excise Police, which enforces alcohol and tobacco laws. He recalled that his political interest began in 1984, at age 10, when he attended the Democratic convention in San Francisco. There, he heard civil-rights leader Jesse Jackson speak. Carson said that his thinking was transformed by reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and he attended Louis Farrakhan’s Million Man March in 1995. In August 2007, at age 32, he won a seat on the Indianapolis City Council, his first elected office.

After Julia Carson died in December 2007 following multiple and lengthy illnesses, her grandson faced significant opposition for the Democratic nomination in the special election, which was held to fill the remainder of Carson’s term. At the January 12 Democratic caucus, André Carson won 223 of the 439 votes; state Rep. David Orentlicher, a lawyer and doctor, got 123 votes; and Marion County Treasurer Michael Rodman came in third with 27 votes. Against Republican state Rep. Jon Elrod, a young lawyer, Carson received extensive assistance from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. On issues, he called for U.S. troops in Iraq to come home “very soon,” endorsed tax cuts for working families, and said that companies should have incentives to keep them from sending jobs overseas. Elrod emphasized aid to small businesses and tougher enforcement of immigration laws, and he called for an end to federal spending earmarks, the special provisions that lawmakers often tuck into appropriations bills. “I will be part of the solution and not part of the problem in Congress,” he said. Carson won, 54%-43%.

Meanwhile, Carson had to continue campaigning for a May primary to determine the winner of a full term. That field included Orentlicher, former state health Commissioner Woodrow Myers, and state Rep. Carolene Mays. Running as the incumbent this time and with an endorsement from Barack Obama, Carson won the primary with 47% of the vote to 24% for Myers, 20% for Orentlicher, and 8% for Mays. In the contest for a full term, Elrod won the GOP nomination. But he soon withdrew and ran unsuccessfully to retain his seat in the state House. Carson faced minimal opposition.

In the House, Carson has established a liberal voting record, especially on economic and cultural issues. When he arrived, he got a seat on the Financial Services Committee and soon found himself embroiled in the debate over the $700 billion bailout of the financial markets in fall 2008. After initially opposing the bailout bill, he switched his position four days later to vote in favor after Obama encouraged him to support it.