Conservative Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., launched his bid for U.S. Senate Tuesday, hoping to replace Republican Sen. Mike Braun, who is leaving the seat to run for governor in 2024.
“One thing is clear to me, and that’s that Hoosiers deserve a conservative fighter in the Senate,” Banks told the Indiana Capital Chronicle Tuesday. “And Mike Braun has been a consistent conservative, and we should have a conservative replace Mike Braun, and I want to be that conservative leader, that conservative fighter.”
Banks, a former veteran and sate legislator started his fourth term in Congress this month where he has focused on veterans' issues and holding China accountable, the report said.
“I think it was obvious to me after being in the House for a few terms is that there aren’t enough conservatives in the Senate,” he told the news outlet. “We saw the massive omnibus spending bill get passed in the Senate here recently with Republican support and that’s only paved the way for our $32 trillion national debt to grow even more. So, we need conservatives in the Senate who are going to fight back against the Democrats and the Biden agenda, not to go along with it.”
According to OpenSecrets.org, Banks has almost $1.4 million cash on hand leftover in November from the 2022 race to fund a Senate run.
According to the website, Banks raised more than $2.5 million and spent just over $1.6 million to retain his seat in the midterm elections.
The National Review reported Tuesday that Banks could face former GOP Gov. Mitch Daniels in the Republican primary.
Although he has not announced a run for the seat, Daniels is seen as an “old guard” Republican who has polled at the top of the potential field for the seat, the report said.
Banks' brand of conservatism echoes that of former President Donald Trump, appealing to the working class and Main Street.
“Trump grew the Republican Party in Indiana with working-class blue-collar voters who were traditionally Democrats,” Banks said in the report. “My dad is a great example: union factory worker, made axles all of his life in a factory in Fort Wayne.
"I remember when I was a kid, he loved Ross Perot — he had a Perot bumper sticker. He didn’t get excited about another candidate for office until Trump came down the escalator. He was for him from the beginning. I thought he was crazy.”
Now Banks embraces the stricter immigration and tough on China policies Trump embodies.
“The question is if we can keep them there,” he told the news outlet. “Will the Republican Party go back to the old-school Republican Party that was beholden to corporate interests that send our jobs overseas, or will we be the party that reflects blue-collar, working-class Hoosiers and Americans?”
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