Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) has constructed a public profile as chairman of the Republican Examine Committee, Congress’s largest bloc of conservative lawmakers. Now, Banks is contemplating attempting for one more 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 working for Senate. So is former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who headed the Workplace of Administration and Price range throughout the George W. Bush administration. Different Republicans might additionally soar in.
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Nonetheless, Banks might have a leg up within the GOP Senate scrum after heading the Republican Examine Committee over the last Congress, having lately turned over the function to Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK). Chairing the Republican Examine Committee elevated Banks’s profile, with the group taking part in 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 Examine Committee chair has served as a springboard for numerous 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 instructed the Washington Examiner that main the most important conservative caucus in Congress has offered him with a novel talent set to develop into a senator.
“Mike Braun has been a constant and dependable conservative within the Senate for Indiana,” Banks stated. “Indiana deserves a conservative senator — it is a conservative state. So I am positively considering and strongly contemplating a run for the Senate in Indiana, and the Republican Examine 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 present serves within the Navy Reserve as a provide corps officer. From 2014 to 2015, he took a depart 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 Examine Committee throughout his tenure.
“I discover that Republicans are hungry for substantive conversations and that the very best place you are going to discover that’s the Republican Examine Committee as a result of we’re speaking about massive concepts. We’re speaking about the place the occasion goes from right here,” he stated.
Banks took the reins of the group in early 2021, shortly after Republicans misplaced complete 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 supply a discussion board for GOP members to debate concepts and listen to from notable audio system within the hope of serving to the occasion unify round widespread targets.
“[The Republican Study Committee] has all the time stood for robust nationwide protection, fiscal conservatism, fiscal duty, and being the pro-family, pro-life occasion,” Banks stated, “with the populist coverage insurance policies and ‘America First’ insurance policies of the Trump period: robust borders and immigration insurance policies, placing American staff first, an America First international coverage, being powerful on China, and reining in Large Tech.”
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Whereas fractures stay within the occasion, with splits over ideology evident throughout the latest vote for Home speaker through which it took Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) 15 ballots to win, Banks stated he believes the GOP stays an enormous tent and is headed in the proper route. Banks applauds the populist route it has taken in recent times 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 Get together is broader than what it was earlier than — it’s a proven fact that Donald Trump introduced extra working-class voters to the Republican Get together,” he continued. “We’re not conventional Republican voters, and we’d like these voters to win majorities and win again the White Home.”