Editor’s note: An extended version of this story was published in Howey Politics Indiana/State Affairs yesterday. It’s available here.

A celebration of the 200th anniversary of American and Russian diplomatic relations took place at the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Moscow. Attending this 2007 ceremony were Sen. Richard Lugar, former Sen. Sam Nunn, Ambassador Bill Burns (now CIA director) and Pavel Palazhchenko, the mustachioed interpreter for Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Lugar took the opportunity to pay tribute to the man who had held his Senate seat a century ago — U.S. Sen. Albert J. Beveridge — and will likely be held by U.S. Rep. Jim Banks after the November election. 

Banks, who in an unprecedented move was endorsed by the Indiana Republican Party last year ahead of the primary elections, is known as a staunch conservative. His campaign emphasizes border security, revitalizing the economy and, he said in a statement after the May GOP primary, opposing what he calls “the radical left’s woke agenda.” Banks is also a U.S. Navy Reserve Supply Corps officer and advocates strongly for the military.

The history of the seat

Beveridge was a complex figure. He opposed President Woodrow Wilson’s proposed League of Nations following World War I but evolved into a reformer who championed child labor legislation and the Federal Meat Inspection Act. In 1908, he refused the vice presidential nomination to run with GOP nominee William Howard Taft. He served as the chairman of the 1912 Bull Moose Party convention that nominated former President Theodore Roosevelt, who would finish third to Democrat Wilson and President Taft.

Lugar won the Beveridge Senate seat by defeating Democratic incumbent Vance Hartke in 1976. It had been a seat held for two terms by Republican William Jenner, a dedicated isolationist.

Thus, this Senate seat has been held in an internationalist tradition of Republican Lugar, then-Democrat Joe Donnelly and Republican Mike Braun following the example of 1940 GOP presidential nominee and native Hoosier Wendell L. Willkie, who traveled the globe as an emissary for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and authored the manifesto “One World,” writing, “All around the world, there are some ideas which millions and millions of men hold in common, almost as much as if they lived in the same town. There are no distant points in the world any longer. Our thinking in the future must be worldwide.”

Now the seat is poised to be passed to Rep. Banks, who is heavily favored in his race against Democrat Valerie McCray and perennial Libertarian candidate Andrew Horning.

That raises the question: What kind of senator will Jim Banks be?

Banks’ shifting stances

Banks has opposed the past three rounds of funding for Ukraine’s efforts to thwart the Russian invasion, voting against a $40 billion Ukraine aid package in May 2022.

“No more money to secure Ukraine’s border until we secure our own,” he said in a keynote speech at the Indiana Republican Party’s 2023 state dinner, prompting a standing ovation.

Banks has supported the Israel Security Assistance Support Act. In a Jerusalem meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in August, Banks said, “The U.S. must remain steadfast in its support of our closest ally, Israel, and I will continue to fight to provide the backing Israel needs to triumph over terrorism.”

When Banks was a freshman in Congress, Howey Politics Indiana joined him and then-Indiana National Guard Maj. Gen. Courtney Carr on a tour of Camp Atterbury-Muscatatuck Training Center. It was part of a routine where Banks was regularly available for coffee or a beer.

HPI reported that Banks “has been an ambitious Republican, moving from president of the Indiana University Republicans to chairing the Whitley County GOP and then to the Indiana Senate in 2010. At times, Banks seemed restless and potentially reckless, as early in his Indiana Senate tenure he seemed to foment leadership change.” 

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump’s “Access Hollywood” interview was widely regarded as a huge faux paus. A northeastern Indiana journalist described Banks’ reaction as one of “outrage” from the father of daughters.

But in the following years, Banks has become one of Trump’s most ardent supporters, insisting the former president would be the “best” 2024 nominee despite Banks’ Indiana ties with another candidate, former Vice President Mike Pence. 

In January, Banks erroneously claimed on X that “Donald J. Trump is the only candidate who qualified for the Indiana GOP presidential primary. Nikki Haley didn’t get enough signatures. It’s over. She needs to do what’s best for America and call it quits.”

Not only did Haley qualify for the ballot, but also Banks joined Trump when it came to the May primary undervote with more than 21% of the vote.

Last October, as House Republicans grappled to elect a new speaker after jettisoning Kevin McCarthy, Banks initially backed Rep. Jim Jordan. Banks said at one point of House Republicans: “We don’t deserve the majority if we go along with a plan to give the Democrats control over the House of Representatives.”

After Jordan flamed out, Banks quickly sided with eventual Speaker Mike Johnson, whom The New York Times described as “the most important architect of the Electoral College objections” following the 2020 elections that led to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Banks said, “Mike Johnson is a man of integrity and a principled conservative. I will be proud to cast my vote on behalf of northeast Indiana for him on the floor tomorrow to make him the next speaker of the House!”

In the Oct. 26, 2023, edition, Howey Politics Indiana/State Affairs observed, “It’s been said that Hoosiers tend to elect ‘Senate lions.’ U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh authored two of the 26 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, as well as Title IX. Richard Lugar helped save Chrysler Corp. in 1979 and was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Act. Dan Quayle was elected vice president and Evan Bayh was nosed out of the 2008 veepstakes by Joe Biden. Dan Coats became ambassador to Germany on Sept. 10, 2001, and was President Trump’s director of national intelligence. Joe Donnelly is the U.S. envoy to the Vatican.”

As for Banks, Howey Politics Indiana/State Affairs wrote, “A Senate lion? No, Jim Banks has become a House laughing hyena.”

When Howey Politics Indiana/State Affairs asked to interview Banks for this story, his deputy chief of staff, Buckley Carlson, responded, “Hey, Brian, don’t think he’s going to want to participate in your piece given you’ve already published your conclusion.”

Brian A. Howey is senior writer and columnist for Howey Politics Indiana/State Affairs. Find Howey on Facebook and X @hwypol.

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