Rep. Todd Young has won the backing of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in his Indiana Senate bid, representing the business lobby’s first entry into a Republican Senate primary this cycle.
The Chamber announced Monday that it had cut an ad for Young, a three-term congressman representing Indiana’s 9th District in the southern part of the state. Young faces another member of Indiana’s delegation, fellow three-term Rep. Marlin Stutzman, in the GOP primary.
Stutzman has the backing of the Club for Growth, a group that favors fiscally conservative candidates in Republican primaries, as well as other conservative groups.
The 30-second ad the Chamber cut for Young, a former Marine, portrays him as a “rock-ribbed conservative” who has led the congressional effort to “dismantle” Obamacare.
The U.S. Chamber and the Indiana Chamber of Commerce are set to hold five events throughout the state for Young on Wednesday and Thursday, and he will be joined by Rob Engstrom, the national political director for the national group.
In the 2014 cycle, the Chamber waded aggressively into Republican primaries to stop candidates it thought would be unable to win in a general election or prove to be an obstacle to its pro-business agenda.
Indiana’s 2012 Republican primary was part of the motivation for such a strategy. Then, state treasurer Richard Mourdouck unseated long-time incumbent Republican Richard Lugar in the primary, only to lose to Democrat Joe Donnelly in the general election after he invited a firestorm of criticism for impolitic remarks about rape.
The Senate seat this year is an open one, as sitting Republican Dan Coats will retire. The winner of the Republican primary will face Democratic candidate Baron Hill, a former Blue Dog Democrat who lost to Young in 2010.
