Earlham student from Pendleton to run for Statehouse in District 53

Evan Weaver, Richmond Palladium-Item

Wed, August 6, 2025 at 2:38 PM EDT

5 min read

RICHMOND, IN — An Earlham College student has officially thrown their hat into a 2026 election race.

Reece Axel-Adams, a 21-year-old politics student who is comfortable with an alternate pronoun, said they are running for an Indiana House of Representatives seat in District 53 against incumbent Ethan Lawson.

District 53 covers most of Hancock County and part of Madison County. Axel-Adams is from Pendleton, which sits in the district.

Axel-Adams said they are living with their parents and spoke about the hardships the current generation faces.

Axel-Adams said they have struggled with mental health issues, sharing their history of depression and being put on a suicide alert in January. They took a medical leave from Earlham for a second straight semester but said they have been doing much better with therapy.

"The stigma around mental health, especially among men in America, is awful," they said. "For me, that's a center point of the campaign. I could go on and on about the mental health crisis that we as a society and youth in particuliar are facing. (Therapy) is a wonderful thing, because it makes us realize things about ourselves that we didn't know and process those hard, traumatic things in life. It truly is life-changing."

Campaign theme centers around Indiana's future

Axel-Adams said they are running on the theme of "The Future," asking where the state is now and should be heading.

"When you've got people graduating from Indiana and people still in college looking at leaving the state that they grew up in, that's a problem," they said. "If we lose young people, we lose the future."

Among Axel-Adams' other platform points are housing, opportunities and jobs, community, equality and unity, cannabis reform and the economy.

"The economy is stupid," they said. Prices and rents are high, and it's difficult for younger people to afford to buy a home. "What are we as Gen Zers, Millennials, Gen Alphas and the generations that come after us are supposed to do?"

Axel-Adams called themselves a "true-blue Democrat," but they bash their own party as hard as the Republican Party.

"Biden and Trump were saying how the economy is doing great," they said. "Jobs are great, how prices were down, how people could afford to buy a house on a single job. Whatever party's not in power is going to be saying the economy's doing awful.

"When Jane goes down the road to the grocery store and pays 6 bucks for a dozen eggs and 2 bucks for a gallon of milk, that's 8 bucks right there for two staples that practically every house has in the refrigerator almost every time," they said. "Throw in produce and some meat and other dairy products, you're already up to 50 bucks. If you're creative and are a good enough shopper, you've got food for maybe five days."

Axel-Adams said they are in the process of finalizing a domain for a campaign website.

Experience with campaigns, lawsuits, protests

Axel-Adams is no stranger to being involved in local government.

Last year, Axel-Adams was a campaign manager for Indiana Senate candidate Suzanne Fortenberry, which was ultimately unsuccessful but served as further motivation to seek an elected office.

"Ever since high school, I knew one day that I was going to run for office of some kind," they said. "A lot of my friends and people who knew me at school were convinced that one day I was going to run for office. There's sort of a gag among some of my friends and I that one day I'd be governor of Indiana. Who knows?"

While at Earlham, Axel-Adams was one of the students who spoke out in support of professors becoming unionized and was present at a Richmond Education Association rally in 2023.

Axel-Adams also served as a student senator for Earlham's student government and, as a high school junior, sued Pendleton Heights High School for discrimination after teachers were told to take down pride flags in classrooms.

"I started a petition online, got 5,000 signatures and talked in front of the school board and administration," they said. "I wasn't able to change their minds, so that prompted me to start the school's Gay-Straight Alliance with one of the teachers, because if they're going to try and make us hide, we're just going to be louder."

Axel-Adams partnered with the state's ACLU and filed a lawsuit, which ended in a settlement with the corporation after a judge ruled a preliminary injunction. Axel-Adams said they weren't asking for punitive damages.

"I'm not in this whole politics business to get rich," they said. "If I was, there are far easier ways to make a lot of money, and politicians don't make a lot of money in Indiana, especially if you're a state legislator."

Axel-Adams also started a nonprofit campaign consulting firm, Axel Campaign Consulting. They focus on low-cost services to local candidates without a lot of money.

Expectations to win low

Axel-Adams said they don't expect to win but that they are "going to work like hell to win."

"I expect to lose because, gerrymandered, I don't think this seat has been Democratic ever," they said. "But I do have to think about the future, because I probably won't win."

Despite their low expectations, Axel-Adams said they will run again for another position, possibly for the state's senate.

"I think I've got a chance, but if I don't win, by the time I'll be old enough to run for Senate, I'll run against (Mike) Gaskill," they said. "I think in that scenario, I think I'd have a better chance of winning there."

Axel-Adams acknowledged they'd be just one of 100 in the Lower House.

"I'm not promising to go in there and completely change everything," they said. "I would be ecstatic if I got one bill passed, and that would probably be a very nonpartisan roads funding bill because I like having nice roads to drive on."

View the original article here or here (for free)