Indiana Rep. Jim Banks on Tuesday became the first prominent candidate to kick off a campaign for the Senate seat that his fellow Republican, Mike Braun, is giving up to run for governor, and the deep-pocketed Club for Growth quickly endorsed its fellow conservative hardliner.
Club president David McIntosh, a former Indiana congressman who is trying to deter former Gov. Mitch Daniels from entering the primary, told Politico that his group was willing to spend at least $10 million on this contest. Banks also launched his bid with the backing of fellow Reps. Larry Bucshon and Greg Pence, who is the older brother of Mike Pence.
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Daniels isn’t the only fellow Republican that Banks, a four-term Northeastern Indiana congressman who previously served with the Army in Afghanistan, may need to go through, though one potential contender seems to be backing away. Rep. Victoria Spartz, who like Banks from the state Senate to the U.S. House after winning a primary with Club support, tells Politico, “I am not inclined to do it at this time, but many of my supporters would like me to still consider it.” She added, “I do not worry about who is in the race.”
Former Rep. Trey Hollingsworth reportedly has also been considering while termed-out Gov. Eric Holcomb, the man that Braun is hoping to replace, has not ruled anything out. Attorney General Todd Rokita, meanwhile, is keeping the Hoosier State guessing about his plans; Air Force veteran Jennifer-Ruth Green, who failed to unseat Democratic Rep. Frank Mrvan also continues to be mentioned even though she’s yet to say if she’s thinking about running for Senate. There’s also plenty of time for other Republicans to campaign to succeed Braun in this red state.
Banks, though, is so far focused on contrasting himself just with Daniels, who described Banks as the future of the GOP a decade ago when they were each serving in state government. The congressman referenced the 2010 comments where Daniels, who was considering a White House bid at the time, said the next GOP president “would have to call a truce on the so-called social issues” so they could concentrate on solving fiscal issues like the deficit. “I’ll never be calling for a truce on social issues or cultural issues,” Banks instead told Politico in an interview where he argued that they “matter more than at any point in my lifetime.”
Indeed, Banks has stood out even within the GOP caucus for his record of anti-trans rhetoric: In 2021 he intentionally misgendered Rachel Levine after she became the highest-ranking trans official in U.S. history, and he used his announcement video to brag that he’d fought to keep trans girls from playing in the sport that corresponds with their gender identity. Banks also reiterated his opposition to abortion rights in that message.
Banks additionally voted to overturn Joe Biden’s win hours after the Jan. 6 attack, and while he initially called for a bipartisan commission to investigate the riot, he quickly reversed himself and told colleagues to oppose the plan. A few months later, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy picked Banks and Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan as two of his nominees for the Jan. 6 committee. Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected them both, saying their “statements and actions” disqualified them; Banks made sure to use headlines about this story in his launch video as he said that Pelosi and Joe Biden “have tried to block me before.”
However, some of Banks current House colleagues have also interfered with his advancement in the lower chamber, most notably in an incident last year that sucked in Fox blowhard Tucker Carlson. Banks’ allies started a super PAC late in the midterm campaign to elect like-minded candidates, a move that very much seemed to be about helping his bid to become House majority whip. NRCC chair Tom Emmer, who also wanted the whip’s job, was not happy, and his supporters told the Daily Beast that Banks wasn’t actually the ardent anti-establishment conservative he presented himself as.
“Deep down, he dies to be liked by the Establishment. He hires Tucker Carlson’s son, a 24-year-old kid, to be his communications director,” said one strategist in comments that the elder Carlson unsurprisingly saw. Emmer’s people also made sure to dig up a 2016 tweet where Banks responded to Trump’s “Access Hollywood” tape by writing, “This election's low bar hit the floor today with the revelation of Trump's crude comments. America and my daughters deserve much better.”
But all of this drama, as well as Carlson’s private fury at Emmer, wasn’t enough to stop the Minnesotan from narrowly beating Banks a few weeks later in the whip race. A short time after that rejection, Banks began making it clear he’d likely run for the Senate.