Banks touts senate, military experience

For Jim Banks, running for office is about experience — as a state senator since 2010 and as a naval reserve officer recently returned from a deployment to Afghanistan.
Banks, one of four candidates seeking the Republican nomination for Indiana’s third district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives being vacated by Rep. Marlin Stutzman, made a stop Tuesday at Jay County Public Library to meet with local voters. He is running on the GOP ticket against fellow state senator Liz Brown, former Wisconsin state senator Pam Galloway and Leesburg farmer Kip Tom.
He said he hadn’t considered running for a federal office, but felt compelled to do so when Stutzman decided to run for the U.S. Senate.
“Sen. (Dan) Coats announced he wasn’t running again and Congressman Stutzman announced that he was going to run for the U.S. Senate seat, creating this rare opportunity to run for an open seat,” said Banks, who currently serves as a state senator representing Indiana’s 17th district serving parts of Wabash, Whitley, Huntington and Grant counties. “I just felt strongly that during these difficult times that this is a place where I continue to serve my country …”
Banks’ announcement of his candidacy came two weeks after his return from a six-month tour in Afghanistan.
A U.S. Navy Reserve supply corps officer for about four years, he deployed in late 2014 to Afghanistan as part of operations Enduring Freedom and Freedom’s Sentinel. His duties there were logistical, helping train and advise the Afghan military.
His experience in Afghanistan, he said, gives him a unique perspective compared to other candidates both in the District 3 race and nationwide.
“I’m the only candidate running for federal office in the country who was recently deployed to a combat zone who knows what our troops endure, who knows the challenges that we face in combating an unconventional enemy in ISIS and radial jihadist terrorism that we face around the globe and here at home,” he said. “That’s one of my main motivating factors in running — to try to protect our country, to try to protect our troops abroad and our country at home.”
In addition to strengthening the military, Banks said his other main focus is dealing the national debt and growth of the federal government.
He put blame for the problem on both parties for the “crippling” debt that is now nearly $20 trillion. He added that he is concerned the American Dream will not exist for his daughters — ages 6, 4 and 2 — in the same way it has in the past.
“I think for the first time in generations, maybe the first time ever in our country, we’re faced with whether or not an American Dream will exist for my children like it did for me,” said Banks, a commercial real estate broker from Columbia City. “If we don’t fix that national debt, I think we’re headed in a direction we don’t want to go, which cripples the ability for our economy to grow and present opportunities for my daughters’ generation.”
Banks, whose first campaign stop was at the Jay County Fair in July, also emphasized his desire to be in constant contact with his constituents.
“I’m not afraid to give out my cell phone number and my private email address and every day talk to the people who are actually voting for the position,” said Banks, who can also be reached via his website — www.jimbanks.us/contact. “I believe greatly in that.”