Rep. Marlin Stutzman Mulling 2016 US Senate Bid in Indiana

Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) is mulling a bid for the U.S. Senate in 2016, now that Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN) has announced he won’t run for re-election.

In a statement, Stutzman writes:

For too long America has been on the wrong track and we desperately need to reform the way Washington does business if we want future generations to live the American Dream. I care very deeply about my fellow Hoosiers and the many challenges we face as a nation. Over the next month, Christy and I will very seriously consider pursuing a seat in the United States Senate, and I will declare my candidacy if I feel that is the best place to advance a conservative and reform minded agenda that will strengthen America both at home and abroad.

Coats said earlier in the day he plans on retiring after this term:

Today I am announcing that I will not seek re-election to the United States Senate. This was not an easy decision. While I believe I am well-positioned to run a successful campaign for another six-year term, I have concluded that the time has come to pass this demanding job to the next generation of leaders.

Until the end of my Senate term, I pledge to my constituents that I will continue to focus all of my time and energy on the major challenges that Hoosiers sent me to Washington to address. I am grateful to God and to Hoosiers who allowed me to serve my state and my country. I am particularly thankful for the unqualified support of my wife Marsha and our family. Regarding this decision, they were 100 percent in favor of whatever choice I would make. Marsha and I look forward to continued engagement in Indiana in many other ways.”

Stutzman is a conservative leader in the U.S. House, and at the beginning of this year voted against John Boehner for Speaker. Stutzman’s vote for a Boehner alternative came after House GOP leadership weeks earlier misled him on its plans with regard to the $1.1 trillion, 1,771-page so-called “cromnibus” spending bill that set up the congressional Republicans’ eventual complete cave-in to President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty.

Stutzman said leadership told him to switch his vote on a procedural measure from against it to for it—a vote that was crucial to the full bill getting to the floor—because leadership planned to eliminate the cromnibus and use the procedural measure instead to bring to the floor a two month clean continuing resolution which would have allowed Republicans to fight Obama’s executive amnesty for real using Congress’ power of the purse in early 2015 with the new GOP majority. Leadership obviously did not do that, and infuriated Republican voters nationwide by moving forward with the cromnibus.

Due to the fact that Stutzman has stood up for conservative values in the House, and that he voted for a Republican alternative to Boehner, he will likely get much national conservative support for a Senate bid should he decide to run.