In the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, candidates are not worried about Jim Banks

More than a decade has passed since Hoosiers last elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate, but the two candidates vying for the party’s nomination in the May primary said they see paths to success in 2024.

Marc Carmichael is a former state representative who entered the race because of his concern on how the fall of Roe v. Wade could impact his granddaughters, who span from elementary school-age to a senior in high school. Valerie McCray is a clinical psychologist who formerly ran for president and is championing mental health care in her run for U.S. Senate.

The successful primary candidate will face a David and Goliath-like scenario come November in their main opponent: Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Banks, who's also running to fill the seat Republican Mike Braun vacated when he decided to run for governor.

Indiana has not elected a Democrat to a statewide office since 2012 when Joe Donnelly was elected to the U.S. Senate and Glenda Ritz won the race for superintendent of public instruction.

Banks is unopposed in the Republican primary after Seymour-area egg farmer John Rust was removed from the ballot in February due to the state’s two-primary law. The congressman has a nearly-eight year career in Washington, a multimillion-dollar campaign war chest, support from influential Republicans in and outside of Indiana and an endorsement from former President Donald Trump, who remains highly popular in the Hoosier state.

On the fundraising side, federal reports show Carmichael raised just over $106,000 through the end of March. McCray raised under $5,000 as of the end of 2023, her most recently available report. Banks has raised more than $4 million this election cycle so far. Also running for U.S. Senate in 2024 is Andrew Horning, whom the state Libertarian Party nominated earlier this year. There are no federal reports on Horning's Senate fundraising as of mid-April.

Despite all of that, both Democrats said they are not concerned about facing Banks later this year.

“He’s a non-entity,” McCray said. “ I don't care that he's got billions of dollars or millions of dollars.”

Carmichael points to his election to the Statehouse in 1986, where he defeated the former Indiana House Speaker J. Roberts Dailey, as proof he can defeat Banks.

“My job is to try and convince people that I have a chance, and that’s what I went through when I ran against the Speaker,” Carmichael said. “People don’t think you’ve got a chance. It takes time.”

Marc Carmichael wants to restore Roe

Carmichael, 74, retired from his career with the Indiana Beverage Alliance in 2020. The Indianapolis resident was just a few months away from finishing rebuilding a wooden speed boat last year when he joined the Senate race.

He waited for months to hear what Democrat would step up to run against Banks, who officially announced his campaign in January 2023. When nobody surfaced, he decided to come out of retirement and do it himself.

“I started from a dead stop,” Carmichael said. “I hadn't been on the ballot in forever.”

The boat remains unfinished and Carmichael is now trekking up and down the state, often in a vintage van, for political events and fundraisers to encourage Democrats that they have a shot at the Senate this year.

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Carmichael said his motivation in the race is restoring Roe v. Wade. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal decision that protected access to abortion for women in 2022, and despite Indiana Democrats campaigning heavily on the issue that election year, the party still had no success in statewide races, including the 2022 U.S. Senate race.

Two years later, Carmichael said he believes abortion rights are a more effective issue for Democrats because there are clearer examples of how the decision has affected women across the country. But, again, for Carmichael, it’s all about his granddaughters.

“I'm doing this for them and for all the other women affected by the rule. I think it needs to be codified as a federal law, so that it doesn't matter what zip code you live in, as to what level of care you get, and for your reproductive freedoms,” he said.

Carmichael said he wants to join Congress with an “old school” approach, which means working with Republican Sen. Todd Young to “get things done.” He hands out small campaign cards with a list of his priorities, including banning the sale of military-style assault weapons, voting to take “immediate action” on global warming and “guaranteed professional healthcare” for LGBTQ children, especially transgender youth.

The former state representative tells potential supporters that the Senate is not a career move for him, as it might be for Banks. Hoosiers have this one shot to keep Banks out of the Senate, Carmichael said.

“There's a lot of doubters out there," Carmichael said. "I give them this, remember, you get just one chance. Now you can either lay down and die and you know, give up or you can throw in with us, and let's go beat him.”

Valerie McCray and her 2020 presidential run

McCray ran for president during the 2020 election cycle because she wanted more people to talk about the importance of mental health care. It was a tiny campaign and the Indianapolis resident remained in the race as long as she could, until people attacked her verbally for drawing votes away from Joe Biden or Donald Trump, she said.

Four years after her presidential run, McCray said former supporters asked if she would consider running for Indiana’s open U.S. Senate seat. She officially filed in January, with her campaign touting her as the first Black candidate for U.S. Senate in Indiana.

“It was still the next big megaphone for the mental health (issue),” McCray, 64, told IndyStar of her campaign this year.

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McCray, who went to Arsenal Technical High School, earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees and a doctorate in psychology from the University of Michigan. She returned to Indianapolis with her son in 2000 after receiving her doctorate.

Prior to running for office, McCray and her son operated scooter stores in Marion County: one on Massachusetts Avenue and one at the Fashion Mall on the north side. McCray told IndyStar in 2002 that the scooter businesses helped lift her depression after her parents died in the early 2000s.

McCray later took a job as a clinical psychologist working with prisoners at an Indiana women’s prison. That is where McCray began to see societal issues at work she wanted to fix, she said.

“You realize how much of this could have been avoided,” she said. “You realize how much is connected to abuse, neglect, money issues, drug issues. You realize how much creativity and how much genius is held back with these barbed wire fences and then you look at the fact that these organizations, the whole prison to pipeline thing. There's money behind it.”

Going to Washington and fixing these issues at the source is the best way to make change, McCray said. She is also passionate about women's reproductive health care rights and lowering the costs of medical care.

McCray said she believes Hoosiers are ready to elect “a real person,” and that she is a unique enough candidate that she could bring fresh air to Indiana Democrats.

“The problem with Indiana is that they've been beat down so bad by this supermajority Republican thing that they don't seem to have faith in themselves yet,” McCray said. “I think I can interject that. So the Democratic Party actually needs me, I think.”

Early voting has started. Primary Election Day is May 7.

Contact IndyStar's state government and politics reporter Brittany Carloni at [email protected] or 317-779-4468. Follow her on Twitter/X@CarloniBrittany.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Winner of Indiana's Democratic U.S. Senate primary will face Jim Banks