U.S. Senator-elect Jim Banks speaks to Allen County Republicans
U.S. Sen.-elect Jim Banks delivers his victory speech Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, during a vigil hosted by the Allen County GOP in Fort Wayne.
Hoosiers tapped Republican U.S. Representative Jim Banks on Tuesday to serve as Indiana’s next U.S. senator i a wave of major Republican victories in the Indiana state election.
Banks, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trumpwon his race with nearly 60% of the vote. He will be sworn into the US Senate in January where he will work on the side US Senator Todd YoungIndiana’s senior senator.
The senator-elect spoke with IndyStar Thursday afternoon about Republican gains in Indiana, what a Trump victory means as he enters the U.S. Senate and the first steps he wants to see the chamber take after Trump returns to the White House.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You won on Tuesday by about 20 percentage points. What do double-digit wins for GOP candidates in statewide races mean for the Republican Party?
JIM BANKS: In the end, it all depends on Donald Trump. Donald Trump wears tailcoats, and now all three times that Donald Trump has been on the ballotwe have won seats in Congress. He’s bringing Republicans with him, because Donald Trump, he’s changed the Republican Party.
What I mean by that is you have unions and working class voters who used to vote Democrat, who are Trump Republicans. You see it with the steel workers and up in the region, factory workers in Fort Wayne and places like Terre Haute and Evansville. I mean, these working-class towns and cities and communities across Indiana that used to be Democrats are now heavily Trump Republican, because the Democrats have completely abandoned the working-class voters that used to be part of their coalition, their party. They vote Republican now because Donald Trump represents their values and the new Republican Party represents them.
That’s you close with Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance. Have you spoken to them since Tuesday?
BANKS: I texted them both and congratulated them, thanked them for their support, and I’ve been in touch with many of my friends on the Trump team. Once again, the result was better than we expected. Now we have a mission and a mandate, and President Trump is focused today on making major decisions to fill out the Cabinet, and I know he will soon name his chief of staff. All of that will happen very quickly. And all of a sudden I find myself in a position as the next senator where I will vote to confirm these nominations in the Senate.
If the incoming Trump administration looked at you for a cabinet or other role, would you consider it?
BANKS: I was the first candidate in this election cycle, almost two years ago, that Donald Trump endorsed to be a US Senator. That’s exactly where Donald Trump wants me to be in the Senate, and that’s what Indiana just elected me to be.
I am fully committed to being Indiana’s senator for the next six years, and I have a great job and a role to play in supporting President Trump in the United States Senate. That’s what Indiana expects me to do, so President Trump is asking me to do something else, that’s not going to happen.
You enter the US Senate with a Republican majority. What issues do you hope the House will address after you are sworn in?
BANKS: When Donald Trump is inaugurated on January 20, he will get into a vehicle and drive to Pennsylvania Avenue. He’s going to open that door and walk into the Oval Office, and he’s going to sign executive orders to reinstate Trump’s border policies, Remain in the politics of Mexico. He will do away with catch and release, and he will allow us to finish the construction of border wall. And he’s going to look to me and and Republicans in the U.S. Senate to back him up on that, to fund the border wall.
And then after that we will begin the process of deporting the over 15 million illegals who have entered this country on Joe Biden’s watch. So in the United States Senate, I will be there to make sure that happens. That’s what the voters demanded on election night. They are tired of the open border policy, and the crazy Democratic policies that have driven up the cost of groceries and the cost of filling our gas tanks and the cost of living for working class people in this country. They expect our majority in the US Senate, and I believe we will retain the majority in the House, to get rid of the crazy politics of the last four years. They have done so much damage to this country.
The Senate must elect a Republican majority leader. Any thoughts on who to support?
BANKS: We have three senators running: Rick Scott, John Cornyn and John Thune. All of this will happen next week. The House will meet to elect the Speaker and House Republicans will meet to elect their nominees for leadership positions, and the Senate will have to do the same. I will attend the Senate Caucus, and I will tell you what I am what I am looking for: I will support the best candidate who will support Donald Trump.
You will work with Indiana’s other U.S. Senator Todd Young, who had been critical of Trump’s 2024 re-election bid. How do you plan to work with him on issues affecting Hoosiers?
BANKS: Todd and I have been friends for a long time. He is a veteran colleague. We have worked closely together for the past eight years, he in the Senate, I in the House, on issues important to Indiana. That won’t change.
Contact IndyStar state government and politics reporter Brittany Carloni at brittany.carloni@indystar.com or 317-779-4468. Follow her on Twitter/X@CarloniBrittany.
