Republican nominee Jim Banks’ odds of winning Indiana’s 3rd Congressional District race Tuesday look very good.
His Democrat opponent – Tommy Schrader – isn’t supported by his party, and Schrader and Libertarian Pepper Snyder haven’t filed reports with the Federal Election Commission, according to an Oct. 23 Journal Gazette story.
Candidates must file a report if they raise or spend at least $5,000. Meanwhile, the Fort Wayne newspaper reports Banks raised over $400,000.
But Banks isn’t assuming victory is in hand yet.
“We’re not coasting, we’re not taking anything for granted. We don’t look at it that way,” the state senator said in an interview Thursday morning. “I’ve been intentional about running an aggressive campaign ever since the primary.”
In the primary, Banks received 34 percent of the vote in the six-candidate contest to replace Marlin Stutzman, who ran for the U.S. Senate, but lost to Todd Young in the primary. Finishing second was Kip Tom with 31 percent, followed by state Senator Liz Brown with 25 percent. He said he still has plenty of work to do to introduce himself to the voters in the 12 counties that are part of the district.
“I’ve been focused on that over the last five months since the primary – getting out to each community, each county and building relationships with local leaders, elected officials and business leaders. I’m very proud of the campaign that we’ve run in spite of the circumstances of the race,” Banks said.
As he has been meeting with his constituents, Banks said he has a sense “that maybe more than anytime in a generation, Americans are fed up with both parties, they’re fed up with the Washington, D.C., that doesn’t work for us. And they’re looking for leadership. I don’t know what that will mean on Election Day Tuesday, but I think what it ultimately will mean is that voters will be less focused on parties and partisan candidates and more focused on candidates that they believe can be leaders and solve problems.”
He said that’s how he’s tried to present himself as a candidate – issue-oriented and a problem solver with experience at the statehouse in addressing issues.
“That’s what I think we need in Washington, D.C. Both parties have failed us, both parties have failed to address the soon-to-be issues that face our country today like a $19.5 trillion national debt, a weakened military that isn’t able to confront the dangers that we face in our world. We need new leadership in Washington to step up and solve the problems that we face, and that’s what I’ve tried to portray myself as, that type of leader,” Banks continued.
He serves in the U.S. Navy Reserve as a supply corps officer and took a leave of absence from the Indiana State Senate in 2014 and 2015 to deploy to Afghanistan during operations Enduring Freedom and Freedom’s Sentinel. He received the Defense Meritorious Service Medal for his military leadership in Afghanistan, according to his campaign website.
In Afghanistan, where the fighting against the Taliban continues, and in Iraq, where forces are battling ISIS, Banks said, “I believe fundamentally we need to aggressively pursue ISIS, pursue our enemies and radical Islamic terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan. This administration’s policy has been to take a step back, to draw down and pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan. And that ultimately is what has lead to the rise of ISIS, the Taliban recapturing provinces of Afghanistan that they haven’t held since 9/11 in 2001.”
If he gets to Washington, he said he would be an advocate for addressing the national debt and the weakened state of the military to rebuild it.
He said that the Obama administration’s lead-from-behind approach to national security has led to the issues with ISIS. Because of the national debt, Banks said, “… (W)e can not afford to rebuild our military in a time in our nation’s history when we need a very strong military to project strength around the world,” Banks said.
“I believe that the $19.5 trillion national debt is a national security issue and it holds us back from fully funding and rebuilding the military to a state of strength to confront the crisis we face around the world,” he said.
To “fix” the national debt, Banks said two things need to be done. “First we need to address the challenges that our economy faces in overburdensome regulations,” he said.
On a weekly basis, he said he tours a couple of businesses in the district. This week, he toured farms and manufacturing operations. At every company that he’s toured – from Zimmer Biomet to family farms – he said the No. 1 issue that he hears at every tour is “that the burden of federal regulations is preventing those companies from growing and creating new jobs and creating economic growth.”
The rising number of federal regulations holding back businesses in Northeast Indiana from creating jobs and growing need to be addressed, he said. “And if we do that, then the economy will grow, increase the tax base – and that’s one way to pay off the national debt,” Banks said. That, coupled with what he believes is the need to reduce the size and scope of the federal government to make it more lean and efficient – will help address the federal budget.
“Yet, when I talk about failed leadership in Washington from both parties, what we’ve seen from Washington has been the opposite – the kicking the can down the road mentality of federal spending, growing the federal budget, raising the debt limit and passing budgets that continue resolutions that just grow spending rather than address the federal budget from a responsible manner, passing annual budgets like we do at the state level. So that takes responsible leadership. That takes leaders to step up and say we need to address the issues rather than kick the can down the road,” Banks said.
