Former Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh is expected to mount a bid for the open Indiana U.S. Senate seat, according to CNN.
The former senator will make his decision public on Monday, said a single anonymous source to CNN. Bayh quit the Senate nearly six years ago and was replaced by a Republican, Dan Coats. Coats is preparing to retire, and Bayh appears to be chomping at the bit for his old spot.
Bayh will square off against GOP congressman Todd Young, who emerged victorious in the Hoosier State’s Republican primary with the backing of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s allies. Young’s campaign announced on Monday that he raised nearly $1.4 million in the second quarter and had $1.23 million cash on hand.
Early polling of the Senate race showed Young with an 18-percentage-point lead on his Democratic opponent, Baron Hill, 48-30. His advantage may have led Democrats to flock to Bayh, a well-known Hoosier who has served as governor and senator in Indiana.
When Bayh decided to leave the Senate, he penned a letter railing against rampant partisanship and the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling on campaign finance that he argued would worsen matters.
“Our most strident partisans must learn to occasionally sacrifice short-term tactical political advantage for the sake of the nation,” Bayh wrote in 2010. “Otherwise, Congress will remain stuck in an endless cycle of recrimination and revenge.”
But Bayh ultimately placed the blame for congressional dysfunction on the American people.
“Of course, the genesis of a good portion of the gridlock in Congress does not reside in Congress itself,” Bayh wrote in 2010. “Ultimate reform will require each of us, as voters and Americans, to take a long look in the mirror, because in many ways, our representatives in Washington reflect the people who have sent them there.”
Bayh joined the “No Labels” organization in March of 2016 arguing that politics has become too narrow-minded and partisan. Four months later, Bayh looks to be jumping back into the mix of major Democratic Party politics.
