Rep. Jim Banks eyes Indiana Senate seat

Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) has constructed a public profile as chairman of the Republican Research Committee, Congress’s largest bloc of conservative lawmakers. Now, Banks is contemplating making an attempt for an additional function throughout the Capitol — Indiana’s open Senate seat.

Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) is giving up the Senate seat in 2024 after a single six-year time period to run for governor. And Banks is weighing whether or not to run for Senate in a Republican race that will be no positive factor within the closely pink state, with a number of different GOP candidates already within the Senate contest or anticipated to leap in. Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) is contemplating operating for Senate. So is former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who headed the Workplace of Administration and Finances through the George W. Bush administration. Different Republicans may additionally leap in.

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Nonetheless, Banks might have a leg up within the GOP Senate scrum after heading the Republican Research Committee over the last Congress, having just lately turned over the function to Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK). Chairing the Republican Research Committee elevated Banks’s profile, with the group enjoying a central function in crafting the GOP’s messaging technique. Lunchtime conferences when the Home was in session turned a key cease for potential 2020 presidential contenders seeking to garner favor with conservatives. In the meantime, Banks emerged as a daily tv presence defending former President Donald Trump, which might solely assist in a GOP main in Indiana.

The function of Republican Research Committee chair has served as a springboard for quite a few nationwide political figures, together with former Vice President Mike Pence, Home Majority Chief Steve Scalise (R-LA), and Home Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH). Banks advised the Washington Examiner that main the biggest conservative caucus in Congress has supplied him with a novel talent set to turn out to be a senator.

“Mike Braun has been a constant and dependable conservative within the Senate for Indiana,” Banks mentioned. “Indiana deserves a conservative senator — it is a conservative state. So I am positively concerned with and strongly contemplating a run for the Senate in Indiana, and the Republican Research Committee has uniquely ready me to be that sort of conservative chief in my state.”

Banks, 43, was beforehand a member of the state Senate in Indianapolis. He at the moment serves within the Navy Reserve as a provide corps officer. From 2014 to 2015, he took a go away of absence from the Indiana Senate to serve in Afghanistan.

Banks was first elected to the Home in 2016, and the Fort Wayne-based third Congressional District, which he represents, takes within the northeastern a part of Indiana.

Banks is a well-liked determine among the many GOP base on a nationwide scale. He is maintained shut relationships with Trump, Pence, and different high-profile politicians he introduced in to satisfy with the Republican Research Committee throughout his tenure.

“I discover that Republicans are hungry for substantive conversations and that the most effective place you are going to discover that’s the Republican Research Committee as a result of we’re speaking about massive concepts. We’re speaking about the place the celebration goes from right here,” he mentioned.

Banks took the reins of the group in early 2021, shortly after Republicans misplaced whole management of Congress and President Joe Biden kicked Trump out of the White Home. Throughout his two-year time period, Banks got down to discover methods to offer a discussion board for GOP members to debate concepts and listen to from notable audio system within the hope of serving to the celebration unify round widespread objectives.

“[The Republican Study Committee] has at all times stood for robust nationwide protection, fiscal conservatism, fiscal accountability, and being the pro-family, pro-life celebration,” Banks mentioned, “with the populist coverage insurance policies and ‘America First’ insurance policies of the Trump period: robust borders and immigration insurance policies, placing American employees first, an America First international coverage, being robust on China, and reining in Huge Tech.”

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Whereas fractures stay within the celebration, with splits over ideology evident through the current vote for Home speaker through which it took Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) 15 ballots to win, Banks mentioned he believes the GOP stays a giant tent and is headed in the correct route. Banks applauds the populist route it has taken lately and the way it has introduced working-class voters into the fold, which he feels will play a key function within the GOP’s odds of succeeding in future elections.

“The bottom of the Republican Social gathering is broader than what it was earlier than — it’s a proven fact that Donald Trump introduced extra working-class voters to the Republican Social gathering,” he continued. “We’re not conventional Republican voters, and we want these voters to win majorities and win again the White Home.”