James Edward Banks (born July 16, 1979) is an American politician who is a United States Senator-elect from Indiana. He has served since 2017 as the U.S. representative for Indiana’s 3rd congressional district. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a member of the Indiana Senate from 2010 to 2016.

On January 17, 2023, Banks announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Mike Braun in 2024.^[1] After winning the Republican nomination unopposed, he defeated Democratic nominee Valerie McCray in the general election.^[2]

Banks was born on July 16, 1979, in Columbia City, Indiana.^[3] He graduated in 2004 from Indiana University Bloomington with a Bachelor of Arts in political science and later received an MBA from Grace College & Seminary.^[4] Banks worked in the real estate and construction industry in Fort Wayne, Indiana, before serving in elected office. He serves in the United States Navy Reserve as a Supply Corps officer. From 2014 to 2015, he took a leave of absence from the Indiana State Senate to serve in Afghanistan.^[5]

From 2008 to 2010, Banks represented the at-large district on the Whitley County Council.^[6] He won the primary after defeating incumbent county councilman Scott Darley.^[7] Paula Reimers succeeded him on the County Council.^[8] Banks chaired the Whitley County Republican Party from 2007 to 2011.^[9] Matt Boyd succeeded him as chair.^[10] With assistance from the American Legislative Exchange Council, Banks has supported right-to-work legislation in Indiana.^[11] He addressed the 2014 Conservative Political Action Conference in 2014 after he was selected as one of their Top 10 Conservatives Under 40.^[12]

In 2010, Banks was elected to represent the 17th district in the State Senate. Upon military deployment to Afghanistan, he took a leave of absence from the State Senate in September 2014.^[13] Invoking an Indiana state law that allows state and local officeholders to take leaves of absence during active duty military service, Banks was replaced by his wife, Amanda Banks, during the 2015 legislative session.^[14][15] He returned to Indiana from overseas duty on April 14, 2015,^[16] and resumed his duties as state senator on May 8.^[17]

On May 12, 2015, Banks announced his candidacy for Congress. The incumbent, Marlin Stutzman, announced he would not run for reelection and would instead run for the Republican nomination to succeed retiring Indiana senator Dan Coats.^[18] The Club for Growth endorsed Banks.^[19]

Banks defeated five opponents in the primary with 34% of the vote. Spending in the campaign exceeded $2 million as Banks raised $850,000 before the primary and the candidate who finished second, businessman Kip Tom, raised $950,000, including $150,000 he loaned from his personal funds.^[20]

Banks was reelected; he was unopposed in the Republican primary and defeated Democratic nominee Courtney Tritch in the general election^[21] with 64.7% of the vote.

Banks was elected to a third term, defeating physician Chris Magiera^[22] in the Republican primary^[23] and Democratic nominee Chip Coldiron in the general election^[24] with 67.8% of the vote.^[25]

Banks was sworn in on January 3, 2017. He is a member of the Republican Study Committee.

In December 2017, Banks joined representatives Ron DeSantis, Scott Perry, and Robert Pittenger in co-signing a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson requesting that Tillerson release a classified counterterrorism agreement with Qatar.^[26]

In January 2020, Banks faced backlash after saying that remarks by Representative Ilhan Omar about her experiences with post-traumatic stress disorder were “offensive to our nation’s veterans”. As a child, Omar fled civil war in Somalia and spent four years in a Kenyan refugee camp.^[27]

After Joe Biden won the 2020 election and Donald Trump refused to concede while making claims of fraud, Banks was one of 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives to sign an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case.^[28][29][30] Banks later objected to the certification of the election results.^[31]

After the January 6, 2021, United States Capitol attack, Banks expressed support for a bipartisan commission to investigate the riot. He later changed his mind.^[32] On July 21, 2021, House speaker Nancy Pelosi vetoed Kevin McCarthy‘s assigning of Banks and Jim Jordan to the January 6 Select Committee on the grounds that both had amplified Trump’s false claims of fraud.^[33] Banks subsequently claimed that Pelosi was at fault for the January 6 insurrection and was using the commission to cover up her role.^[34]

In February 2021, Banks and a dozen other Republican House members skipped votes and enlisted others to vote for them, citing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. He and the other members were actually attending the Conservative Political Action Conference, which was held at the same time as their absences.^[35] In response, the Campaign for Accountability, an ethics watchdog group, filed a complaint with the House Committee on Ethics and requested an investigation into Banks and the other lawmakers.^[36]

In October 2021, Representative Liz Cheney, vice chair of the January 6 Select Committee, revealed that Banks had been sending letters to federal agencies, claiming to be the committee’s ranking member even though he had been rejected from it.^[37] In one September 2021 letter, Banks requested that the Department of the Interior give him information it had sent the committee. He also wrote, “Pelosi refused to allow me to fulfill my duties as Ranking Member” and signed the letter as “Ranking Member”, which he was not.^[38][39]

Also in October 2021, Business Insider reported that Banks had violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act of 2012, a federal transparency and conflict-of-interest law, by failing to properly disclose sales of stock in Kroger, Roblox, and Starbucks worth up to $45,000.^[40]

Also in October 2021, when Rachel Levine, who is transgender, became an admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, Banks wrote in his official Twitter account: “The title of first female four-star officer gets taken by a man.” Twitter, which at the time prohibited “targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals”, suspended his official account in response.^[41]

Shortly after Republicans retook control of the House of Representatives in the 2022 midterm elections, Banks ran for the position of Majority Whip, the third highest ranking position in the Republican caucus. He narrowly lost to Tom Emmer, 115-106.^[42][43]

In May 2023, Banks co-sponsored a resolution by Marjorie Taylor Greene to impeach Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.^[44]

For the 118th Congress:^[45]

• Committee on Armed Services
  • Subcommittee on Military Personnel (chair)
  • Subcommittee on Strategic Forces
• Committee on Education and the Workforce
  • Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions
  • Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development
• Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party

• Congressional Western Caucus^[46]
• Congressional Pakistan Caucus^[47]
• Republican Study Committee^[48]

Banks is politically conservative, with some outlets labeling him far-right.

After the Biden administration announced a plan to forgive $10,000 in federal student debt and other provisions, Banks tweeted his opposition, writing, “Student loan forgiveness undermines one of our military’s greatest recruitment tools at a time of dangerously low enlistments.”^[49][50]

Banks supported repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).^[51] He voted for the American Health Care Act of 2017 on May 4, 2017.^[52] He opposes single-payer healthcare, which he claims would cost taxpayers $32 trillion.^[53]

Banks has criticized Biden’s immigration policy and called on him to reinstate Trump-era policies. Banks urged Biden to mention Laken Riley, a college student at The University of Georgia who had been killed by an illegal immigrant, in his State of the Union address.^[54]

In December 2017, Banks voted for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.^[55] Upon the bill’s passage, Banks said it was “a good day for the future of the American dream”.^[56]

In 2020, Banks voted against the Families First Coronavirus Response Act.^[57] In 2021, he voted against COVID-19 economic stimulus a second time.^[58][59]

In October 2016, Banks said, “I believe that climate change in this country is largely leftist propaganda to change the way Americans live and create more government obstruction and intrusion in our lives.”^[60][61]

Banks opposes abortion. He long opposed Roe v. Wade, and praised Dobbs, the 2022 decision that overturned it.^[62][63][64] The National Right to Life Committee, an organization dedicated to opposing abortion, gave him a 100% lifetime rating.^[65] In 2023, Banks voted for the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.^[65] He opposes federal funding of abortions, as well as Planned Parenthood.^[51]

Banks opposes same-sex marriage.^[66][67] In 2022, he voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, which repealed the Defense of Marriage Act and required the federal government, the states, and all territories to recognize the validity of same-sex marriages in the United States.^[68]

Banks has called banning transgender people from serving in the military an “emotional issue” due to Americans’ polarized views on gender and the government’s role in those issues.^[69] He opposes the military paying for sex reassignment surgery, saying, “I don’t think taxpayers should be on the hook for that.”^[53]

In 2022, Banks was one of 39 Republicans to vote for the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2022, an antitrust package that would crack down on corporations for anti-competitive behavior.^[70][71]

On January 27, 2023, Banks reintroduced the MAHSA Act (H.R. 589), which sanctions Iran’s leaders for terrorism activities and human rights violations after the nationwide uprising from the Mahsa Amini protests.

Banks voted to provide Israel with support following 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.^[72][73]

In 2023, Banks voted for a moratorium on aid to Ukraine.^[74][75]

In 2023, Banks was among 98 Republicans to vote for a ban on cluster munitions to Ukraine.^[76][77]

In December 2024, Banks announced his intention to steer Republican policy toward a more pro-worker and pro-American-industry stance, as outlined in his memo “Working Families First”. In this memo, Banks calls for a shift in party focus away from Wall Street and toward supporting the working and middle classes. His suggested policy changes include expanding access to apprenticeships and technical training and increasing opportunities through Pell Grants to prepare people for the workforce.^[78][79]

Banks emphasizes the need for Republicans not to take America’s working population for granted. He advocates a detailed strategy to incentivize domestic investment and enhance the U.S. industrial base, particularly in defense sectors.^[79]

On January 17, 2023, Banks announced his candidacy for the United States Senate in 2024 in a tweet.^[1] He was endorsed by Donald Trump and won the general election.^[80]

Banks is Protestant and attends Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian Church.^[81]

• Congressman Jim Banks official U.S. House website
• Jim Banks for Senate official campaign website
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Legislation sponsored at the Library of Congress
• Profile at Vote Smart
• Appearances on C-SPAN