INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) announced Tuesday he will run for US Senate in 2024. The seat currently occupied by Sen. Mike Braun is opening up, with Braun campaigning for Indiana Governor. 

In an interview with ABC57 News, Rep. Banks said he’s running “because Indiana needs and deserves a conservative in the United States Senate” and to fight what he sees as the three “biggest threats to our country”: China, “woke-ism”, and the national debt. 

“We need more conservative fighters in the Senate,” Banks said. 

Congressman Banks’ brand of conservative politics, which includes the recent announcement of a new “Anti-Woke Caucus”, have put him in the center of controversy. 

Twitter temporarily suspended his official account for intentionally misgendering a White House health official, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to sit Rep. Banks on a committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot, and in an unsuccessful attempt to remove Banks from the 2022 ballot, a political opponent accused Banks of “supporting an insurrection” for voting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. 

Banks first won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2016 to represent Indiana’s 3rd Congressional District. Banks won his bid for re-election in 2022, when Republicans won back a majority in the House despite the lack of a “red wave” of Republican turnout. 

“The voters were skeptical of Republicans because when Republicans had majorities in the past, they didn’t follow through on their campaign promises and commitments,” Banks told ABC57. “When Donald Trump became president we saw Republican leaders fight with President Trump over issues like building the wall and didn’t deliver on one of the biggest promises that President Trump campaigned on.” 

As far as issues which could be areas of compromise, Banks sees the economic and military threat of China, the fentanyl crisis, and addressing the national debt as opportunities to work across the aisle. 

“I want to go to the United States Senate to fight back against the radical, socialist agenda that is an attempt to change America from who we are and what we are,” Banks said. 

As a member of the House, Banks has served as Chairman of the Republican Study Committee. Before his election to Congress, Banks served as a member of the Indiana State Senate from 2010 to 2016. He has a wife and three daughters. 

So far, Congressman Banks is the first to enter the US Senate race. As prominent Indiana politicians jockey for new positions in 2024, the Hoosier State will see a new Governor, Lt. Governor, new US Senator, new US House Representative, and potentially more new faces filling prominent state and national positions following the 2024 election.

Watch the full interview below: