Nate Stout

Nate Stout earned a bachelor's degree from Indiana University in 2005. His career experience includes working as a business consultant.[1]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I'm a proud Dad to two great teenagers and I'm a small business owner after spending over 20 years growing sales for premier brands in the golf, fishing and hospitality industries. I'm a true fiscal conservative and I'm passionate about ensuring our natural resources are around for generations to come. I also believe Indiana policy has resulted in our great state falling behind in all the metrics that matter: public education, healthcare access/affordability, and sustainable economic growth.

We have a public education crisis in Indiana, and I believe we must end subsidized private education and reinvest those dollars back to public schools. I graduated the same year as the Columbine tragedy, and teachers have LESS respect and pay today. Paying teachers & limiting state control in community school budgets is priority one.

With my business background, I have already found multiple examples of how incumbent Republicans are not good stewards with our money. Spending hundreds of millions on jails, a few hundred thousand for luxury government SUV's, and most counties are struggling financially. We need to support true small business, and significantly improve transparency in all business dealings.

District 38 is a lot of small towns, and there's one thing about a small town, when they come together, anything can be accomplished. I'm ready to unite District 38 and get new leadership for our needs in Indianapolis.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Without an educated youth, our futures become very uncertain. Since 2011 over $2.6 Billion has been siphoned from public education funding to subsidize the charter school system. This has resulted in teachers jumping from school to school for their own financial security and we've lost the trust between small communities and their teachers.

We should be proud of our education system regardless of the zip code, and state policies continue to make great education zip code dependent. We also have kids that may or may not eat, yet we guarantee three hot meals for prisoners. Our priorities must change.In the last few years, it seems government spends a lot of time deciding what industries and job opportunities come to our rural areas. Unfortunately, they don't seem to listen to us. Giant industrial complexes sit idle across District 38 and all of them were heavily managed by government groups. Economic development is critical for any area, but the state's sole responsibility should ensuring it's entrepreneurs can keep industries competitive.

In Indiana, most industries classify small business as 500 employees or fewer. I believe we need real small business leadership and a company with 400 employees is not a small business.Indiana ranks at the bottom of the list in key areas like maternal and infant mortality. Cuts from Medicare and for-profit Healthcare facilities are consolidating and ending services in rural Indiana.

With the technology we have today, I know we can do better for our rural communities and those that are in need of extra support. As we age, we ALL will need more medical support, but we have to change policy to ensure base level care is accessible for all.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I'm most passionate about public education. In Indiana, we have not guaranteed basic things like free pre-k and school lunches. Other states have ensured that children will at least get some nutrition while they're at school so they can be ready to learn.

I'm tired of watching people in our prison system get a better deal than our kids. We can learn from states around us and start moving away from standardized testing. Collaborate with other states to see how we can learn from their performance.

It sounds cliche that the children are our future, but I'm passionate to create a system that ensures we prioritize them from pre-k to adulthood.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

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