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The Indiana Republican Party is putting its weight behind U.S. Rep. Jim Banks in his pursuit of Indiana’s open U.S. Senate seat in the 2024 election, all but guaranteeing that the 3rd District congressman will secure the GOP nomination in the May primary.
State party Chair Kyle Hupfer made the announcement Thursday at the GOP’s annual State Dinner, held at downtown’s JW Marriott Indianapolis hotel.
The endorsement is significant because it means the Republican National Committee can send money and resources to support Banks’ run, allowing the state party to conserve its financial coffers. It will also deter other potential Republican candidates from entering the race.
Hupfer said he believes it’s the first time in at least several decades that the state party has endorsed a candidate in an open U.S. Senate primary.
“In a cycle like this where the Senate is going to be incredibly important for the Republican Party to win back, it’s going to be incredibly expensive,” Hupfer told reporters following the surprise announcement. “To take this state off the table early, from the party’s perspective … it’s going to be incredibly beneficial not just in Indiana but across the country.”
John Rust, a Republican from Seymour and chair of Rose Acre Farms, is the only other GOP candidate with much name recognition running for the seat. But Hupfer says he believes Rust is basically ineligible because he doesn’t have a primary voting record and would therefore need approval from his county party chair, which Hupfer said is unlikely to happen.
Banks, who has made a name for himself in the party by aligning with former President Donald Trump, advocating for veterans and seizing on divisive culture war issues, was the star of the show Thursday. Dozens of his campaign staff and volunteers filled the JW Marriot Grand Ballroom, where Indiana’s most prominent Republican leaders were all in attendance.
In his speech, Banks painted a picture of a divided nation, saying the GOP is “in a war to save this country” and that the Democratic Party was “trying to destroy the American Dream.”
“I’ve been to a war. I know what it looks like when you’re under attack,” the U.S. Navy veteran said. “If you think about it, if you were trying to destroy a country, how would you do it? I think first you would target its children. You would lie to boys by telling boys that they can be girls, and then you would tell kids that our country is inherently systemically racist and evil and is not worth fighting and dying for.”
Banks also predicted a “red wave” in 2024, declaring the GOP “the party of normal working-class Americans.”
During Thursday’s event, the Indiana GOP celebrated four graduates of its Diversity Leadership Series, a training program with the goal of increasing engagement of minority Republicans across the state. Banks gave a nod to those graduates during his prepared remarks.
When asked how his support of party diversity squared with his stance against federal diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, Banks said he considered them to be separate issues.
“The Republican Party is more diverse than it’s ever been before because we are the party of the working class,” Banks said. “That’s a very good thing that doesn’t have anything to do with the federal government pushing a woke DEI bureaucracy in the military and telling kids that America is racist and evil.”
Banks, who has represented Indiana’s 3rd Congressional District since 2017, announced in January that he would run for Sen. Mike Braun’s U.S. Senate seat. Braun is running for governor in 2024.
Several Democrats have entered the U.S. Senate race, including former state lawmaker Marc Carmichael and Indianapolis City-County Council member Keith Potts.
As a congressman, Banks has focused on social issues, holding China to account and fighting for military veterans. In December, he launched an “anti-woke” caucus to “root out all far-left political programs from the federal government.”
Prior to getting elected to Congress, he was an Indiana state senator from 2010 to 2016, where he sat on the Education and Career Development and Veterans Affairs committees.
Banks served in the U.S. Navy Reserve from 2012 to 2015 and was deployed to Afghanistan during the 2015 legislative session.
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