With Democrats in Indiana failing as yet to recruit a strong contender for retiring GOP Sen. Dan Coats' seat, state Republicans can feel confident that a four-candidate GOP primary won't endanger their chances of retaining the seat in 2016.
In the last few weeks, former Sen. Evan Bayh, who held the same Senate seat from 1998 until his retirement in 2010, announced he would not consider a comeback bid next year. Bayh, a former two-term governor and centrist Democrat, is one of Indiana’s most popular politicians.
His announcement was followed by a similar "no-go" from state Rep. Christina Hale, considered one of the most promising young Democrats in Indiana. The former Kiwanis International executive and two-term lawmaker from Indianapolis has been a leader on several issues, including sexual abuse, and is known for successfully reaching across the aisle in the legislature for Republican support.
That leaves former Rep. Baron Hill as the likely Democratic Senate nominee. Ousted from his U.S. House seat in 2010, Hill, as the Indianapolis Star’s Tim Swarens wrote, "crossed the line on early Social Security eligibility last month and would be edging up on age 70 by the end of a first Senate term. He’s simply not the face of a party that desperately needs to replenish the bench."
In striking contrast, Indiana Republicans are now experiencing an overflow of riches in their three announced Senate hopefuls. Reps. Marlin Stutzman and Todd Young, both of whom came to Congress in 2010, represent the "tea party" and "establishment" wings of the state GOP, respectively. Eric Holcomb, longtime top political operative for former two-term Gov. Mitch Daniels, also is in the race. Considered likely to announce soon is State Sen. Mike Delph, a self-styled "constitutional conservative."
Stutzman, who came in second to Coats in a five-candidate primary in 2010, made it to the House that year after scandal brought down a Republican incumbent in the 4th District and Stutzman was selected as the replacement nominee. A farmer and former state legislator, he voted against raising the debt ceiling in August 2011 and the Farm Bill in 2012, attempting to put the funding for food stamps in a separate bill.
Coupled with his opposition to Speaker John Boehner’s re-election in January, such votes have made Stutzman a favorite throughout Indiana’s network of tea party organizations and many have already endorsed him in the primary.
Young, a U.S. Army veteran married to the niece of former Vice President Dan Quayle, sports a more "establishment" pedigree. He serves on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, backs Boehner, and voted to lift the debt ceiling. Overseeing the Young Senate bid are two of the state’s top political operatives, Cam Savage and Trevor Foughty.
"But it is unfair and untrue to simply say 'Marlin Stutzman is a conservative' and 'Todd Young isn’t,'" Ed Feigenbaum, editor of the must-reading-for-pols Indiana Legislative Insight newsletter, told Newsmax. "One is more pragmatic than the other but that’s about it. They are both strong conservatives whose differences are stylistic."
Stutzman’s voting record is rated 98.4 percent by the American Conservative Union, compared to Young’s 84 percent. On its conservative scale, Heritage Action rates Stutzman at 88 percent and Young at 54 percent.
Holcomb has the backing of Coats and the "Mitchies," supporters of Mitch Daniels and past state officials under him when he was governor. Holcomb brings to the race widespread contacts among Republicans, and as Feigenbaum put it, "if a convention picked the nominee, Team Eric would win in a walk."
But a primary in May will select the nominee, and there is concern among some Republicans who spoke to us that Holcomb is more a political operative than a "policy guy." Moreover, while Daniels (now president of Purdue University) remains a widely popular figure, there are questions as to whether that popularity can translate into election success for someone formerly in his employ.
An analogy can be made to John F. Kennedy and three of his closest associates in the White House. JFK is revered among Democrats, but his press secretary Pierre Salinger lost a Senate race in California in 1964, and appointments secretary Ken O’Donnell and speechwriter Ted Sorensen failed to win primaries in Massachusetts (1966) and New York (1970).
Delph told Newsmax recently he was "seriously considering the Senate race," but would make a decision based in part on the opinion of his wife and five daughters. Brandishing much-worn copies of the U.S. and Indiana Constitutions that he always carries with him, Delph is a hardline conservative on both economic and social issues and believes "economic blackmail" led Indiana legislators to undo a controversial bill recognizing the religious convictions of businessmen who don’t want to provide services to same-sex couples.
A fluent Spanish speaker, Delph is a strong proponent of making English the official U.S. language.
In past years, a hard-hitting Republican primary in Indiana led to some severe internal wounds and helped Democrats win in the fall. But given the condition of the Democratic Party now, this is highly unlikely to be the case in the race to succeed Sen. Coats in 2016.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax.
Related Stories:
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.