Former Rep. Marlin Stutzman, an Indiana Republican who was a tea party favorite during his tenure from 2010 to 2017, told WANE 15 Tuesday that he was considering running to reclaim his old safely red seat next year. The story says Stutzman is “expected to make his decision within the next several weeks” as he mulls whether to campaign to replace Rep. Jim Banks, a fellow hardliner who is leaving the Fort Wayne-based 3rd District behind to run for the Senate.
Stutzman, who made national news during the 2013 government shutdown by saying, “We’re not going to be disrespected. We have to get something out of this. And I don’t know what that even is,” left the House behind three years later to campaign for Indiana’s other Senate seat. But that bid ended in a decisive 67-33 primary defeat against eventual winner Todd Young, a colleague who was far closer to the party leadership, while Banks went on to take the 3rd District in the fall.
Campaign Action
Stutzman hasn’t run for office since then, though his wife, Christy Stutzman, was elected to the state House in 2018. The couple went on to purchase a tourist attraction previously called Amish Acres, and the state representatives announced after the 2020 elections she was resigning to focus on the business they’d renamed The Barns. (The Barns, which is home to several eateries, festivals, and “relaxing tours of Amish life,” is located in the 2nd District under both the current and previous congressional maps.)
Both Stutzmans were talked about last year as potential candidates to replace 2nd District Rep. Jackie Walorski, a fellow Republican who died in a traffic collision, and Christy Stutzman ultimately put her name forward. Party leaders, because the primary had already taken place months ago, were tasked with choosing their new nominee for that reliably red seat, and they passed over Stutzman and other candidates in favor of businessman Rudy Yakym.
