Why doesn't the second query use the index? Is there a way I can index keys and values seperately so I can text search like I would with to_tsquery?

Found it in the psycopg2 documentation: "For positional variables binding, the second argument must always be a sequence, even if it contains a single variable (remember that Python requires a comma to create a single element tuple)" psycopg.org/docs/usage.html#query-parameters

I don't understand the necessity of the "," in the "cursor.execute(query_sql, (data,))" statement. Is that what you mean by wrapping it in a tuple?

Thank you for your answer, I eventually used json.dumps and figured it out.