Mike Braun Launches Bid for Indiana Governor

Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) launched on Monday his bid to be the next governor of Indiana.

Braun, a populist senator, announced his candidacy in Indianapolis, Indiana, to run for Indiana’s governor in 2024.

A businessman, Braun served in the state legislature in 2014 and was first elected to the Senate in 2018 after defeating two sitting congressmen, then-Reps. Todd Rokita and Luke Messer, in a heated primary battle. His 2018 Senate victory unseated incumbent Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN).

The Hoosier senator quickly sought to shake up how Washington works. Braun told Breitbart News right after taking office that he ran for Senate because he was tired of the Mitt Romney “old way of governing” and wanted to shake up the “status quo” in Congress.

Braun introduced legislation, the No Budget, No Pay Act, that would ban lawmakers from receiving a paycheck if they failed to produce a budget.

The Hoosier senator served as a leader for a difficult and controversial topic for Republicans: health care. Braun has pushed Republicans to adopt reforms such as enforcing healthcare price transparency and combating surprise medical billing.

Sens. Braun, Joni Ernst (R-IA), and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) introduced the Healthcare PRICE Transparency Act in 2020, which became the basis for Trump’s healthcare executive order that set up a hospital price transparency rule.

Braun has attacked Senate Republican leadership and praised Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) for putting himself forward as an alternative to the Senate GOP status quo.

Polling suggests that Braun would serve as a strong frontrunner.

A survey from Mark It Red found that Brauns leads his next potential challenger by 37 percent.

Now that Braun will leave a Senate seat vacant, Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), the former Republican Study Committee (RSC) chairman, said he is “strongly” considering running for Senate:

Senator Braun has been a reliable and strong conservative in the Senate and I’m grateful for all he has done for our state over the past four years. I am confident that he will continue to champion Hoosier values in the next stage of his public service career.

Indiana deserves a proven conservative to continue Senator Braun’s work in the United States Senate.

He added, “I am strongly considering running for the open Indiana Senate seat in 2024, and I will spend the upcoming holidays praying and talking with my wife, family and close friends about how I can best serve Indiana.”