Beyond the Bio: Indiana Sen. Randy Head

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Elected to the Indiana Senate in 2008, Sen. Randy Head, R-Logansport, has his hands in high-profile issues impacting Indiana and the country at large. As assistant majority floor leader in charge of communications, he works with the Senate Republican Caucus’s communication department to shape strategies to connect with constituents through emails, mailers, surveys, social media and other outlets. He also serves as chair of the Civil Law Committee and co-chair of the Task Force on Substance Abuse and Mental Health, which explores means of “improving assessment, access to treatment and wrap-around resources for vulnerable youth and households in need of mental health and substance abuse services.”

Head joins Faegre Baker Daniels Partner Chip Garver for the second episode of Beyond the Bio, a podcast from FaegreBD’s Indiana government advocacy and consulting practice. In this episode, Head discusses how his background — as a former deputy prosecutor in Lake, Marion, Tippecanoe and Cass Counties — led to his pursuit of public office. While content as a prosecutor, he was approached to run for Indiana Senate and, after careful consideration with his wife, Lisa, a fellow prosecutor, he decided it was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. He describes himself as someone who has “always been political,” and says it is “awesome to have the opportunity to serve.” For likeminded people who wish to enter public service, Head’s advice is simple: get involved immediately, wherever you are, whether through volunteering for a political candidate you support (“regardless of party”) or for a nonprofit involved in community service.

In addition, Head discusses how his experience as a prosecutor — and his wife’s continued prosecutor work — has informed his policy priorities and positions. He was highly involved in prosecuting sex crimes and crimes against children, and he works to shore up loopholes and gaps in the law, particularly for statutes related to predatory behavior. In the Task Force on Substance Abuse and Mental Health, he is also working to provide public resources — such as school mental health counselors and suicide prevention training for teachers — to at-risk students. In addition, he is seeking legislative means to curb the opioid crisis.

Head and Garver also discuss the changing dynamics in the Indiana General Assembly, which in recent years has added a number of lawyers as representatives. Head views the added legal clout as an advantageous development, since statutes are written in legal language and lawyers are practiced in understanding how laws will be interpreted by courts. As such, having lawyers in the legislative world helps ensure that the intent of the law is not undermined by loopholes or imprecise language.

Head also spends time talking about his recent experience skydiving, how his undergraduate degree at Wabash College shaped who he is today, his passion for Civil War history and his affinity for spaghetti Westerns. Finally, Head shares his definition of the word “Hoosier,” which he describes as someone who is passionate, willing to work for results they care about and not concerned with who receives the credit when the work is done.

Listen for insight into the life of an Indiana state senator, and stay tuned for more from Beyond the Bio.

Beyond the Bio is a podcast hosted by Faegre Baker Daniels’ Indiana government team. The podcast gives listeners a glimpse into aspects of Indiana state legislators’ lives — What’s life like in their district? What brought them to state government? And what do they do when not casting votes in the Indiana Statehouse? — that don’t appear on their official biography.

Note: The opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect the views of Faegre Baker Daniels or our clients.