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Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, has announced he will be stepping away from his seat in order to make a bid for the Senate seat of Mike Braun, who is vacating his seat to run for the 2024 GOP gubernatorial nomination in the state.
“We’re losing a conservative Senator in Mike Braun and Indiana deserves another conservative to replace him,” Banks noted on Twitter.
We’re losing a conservative Senator in Mike Braun and Indiana deserves another conservative to replace him
— Jim Banks (@Jim_Banks) January 9, 2023
In November, Banks’ spokesperson Buckley Carlson told Axios in a statement, “He will strongly consider it if Sen. [Mike] Braun runs for governor in 2024.”
Braun announced last month he would run for Indiana governor.
The “announcement, made in front of campaign supporters and politicos at upscale downtown Indianapolis steakhouse Prime 47, was expected after he filed paperwork last week to run for Indiana’s governor in 2024. Braun’s decision is likely to draw a crowded field to replace the first-term Republican on Capitol Hill,” USA Today reported.
“After serving in the state legislature beginning in 2014, Braun, 68, was first elected to the Senate after defeating incumbent Democrat Joe Donnelly in 2018. He also won a divisive primary against two sitting congressmen at the time: Todd Rokita and Luke Messer,” the report continued.
“A conservative, Braun has voted against several federal relief measures, including the American Rescue Plan. Last month, he also voted against the Respect for Marriage Act. Relatively unknown before his Senate campaign, the Jasper native and businessman told IndyStar in 2018 that more people who run businesses should be in Washington. He often likened himself to Trump in that way,” the outlet noted further.
Braun is running to replace current Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, who is term-limited and cannot seek office again.
Just last month, Steve Braun, the brother of Mike Braun, died days after his 63rd birthday “after a well-fought battle with cancer,” according to an obituary posted online.
“Braun preceded his brother — U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind. — as a member of the Indiana House, representing a suburban Indianapolis district in the Republican-controlled chamber from 2012 to 2014,” NWI.com said in a Thursday report.
Shortly after he won reelection to a second term, Steve Braun left the state House to become director of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development under Republican Gov. Mike Pence.
At the time of his appointment, Pence — who went on to become Donald Trump’s vice president for a term — said that Braun’s experience serving the public and as a successful businessman, having owned a technology consulting company that was based in Chicago, provided him “the unique background and skills necessary to continue to drive Indiana’s workforce development and pair it with innovative career and education opportunities for Hoosiers.”
He sold his company in 2004 for roughly $30 million, the Indianapolis Business Journal reported. “Braun stayed with the company for two more years to manage its worldwide consulting group,” the outlet added.
NWI.com noted further: “Braun resigned from DWD in 2017 and subsequently launched a bid for the 2018 Republican nomination in Indiana’s 4th U.S. House District, which includes Newton and Jasper counties in Northwest Indiana. The seat was open because U.S. Rep. Todd Rokita — now Indiana’s attorney general — chose to run instead for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination against U.S. Rep. Luke Messer and two-term state Rep. Mike Braun. Mike Braun ultimately prevailed in the Senate contest. But Steve Braun ran 5,717 votes behind now-U.S. Rep. Jim Baird, R-Greencastle, in the Republican U.S. House primary that included Secretary of State-elect Diego Morales.”
“Steve was born on November 13, 1959, to Amos and Laverne (Beckman) Braun in Jasper, Indiana. After Steve graduated from Jasper High School in 1978, he earned a degree in Economics at Harvard University in Cambridge. After college, Steve married his middle school sweetheart, Jennifer (Schneider) Braun, and began a successful career working in technology consulting,” Braun’s obituary continued.
“In 1990, he founded Braun Consulting, taking his company public in 1999 and selling it to Fair Isaac Group in 2004. During this time, Steve acquired land in Dawson Springs, Kentucky, and developed a beautiful space for farming, cattle ranching, and recreation that has been enjoyed by family and friends for years. He additionally began land acquisition around the greater Indianapolis area and went on to form Braun Property Development with his sons and son-in-law,” it added.
