Lou Holtz is good at picking winners.
The inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame, who led Notre Dame University to its last national football championship in 1988, led four college programs successfully. But lately, he has been switching from football to politics. In 2016, he emerged in the Indiana primary as an early backer of Donald Trump. And now Holtz has endorsed Hoosier Senate hopeful Mike Braun, the Republican nominee against Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind.
“I feel,” the legendary coach wrote in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, “that you can trust Mike completely.”
“So many times, politicians will say one thing to get elected, then they go to Washington and they act completely differently. Nothing is more obvious than Democrats who will say what the voters want to hear and then do exactly what Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi tell them to do. This can be pointed out in a hundred different ways,” Holtz wrote, referring to the Democratic Senate minority leader of New York and House minority leader of California, respectively.
“I trust Mike Braun to go to Washington and represent what is in the best interest of the people of Indiana and continue being guided by the philosophies that have been so successful for him as a state senator,” Holtz concluded.
Braun couldn’t have asked for a better endorsement, aside from the one he received from President Trump. Holtz brings credibility with an important electoral block, the Notre Dame voters. He started coaching the Fighting Irish in 1986 — ironically, the year Donnelly graduated from Notre Dame Law School. Holtz’s seal of approval will go over well with a nostalgic Notre Dame fan base that includes most Catholics in Northern Indiana and many others besides.
Holtz has gotten increasingly political in old age, not only endorsing Trump but also condemning illegal immigration in colorful terms. He has described himself at times as a former Democrat whose party left him.
