Mike Braun

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Mike Braun
File:Mike Braun, Official Portrait, 116th Congress.jpg
United States Senator
from Indiana
Assumed office
January 3, 2019
Serving with Todd Young
Preceded by Joe Donnelly
Member of the Indiana House of Representatives
from the 63rd district
In office
November 5, 2014 – November 1, 2017
Preceded by Mark Messmer
Succeeded by Shane Lindauer
Personal details
Born (1954-03-24) March 24, 1954 (age 70)
Jasper, Indiana, U.S.
Political party Republican (2012–present)
Other political
affiliations		 Democratic (before 2012)[1]
Spouse(s) Maureen
Children 4
Education Wabash College (BA)
Harvard University (MBA)
Website Senate website

Michael K. Braun[2] (born March 24, 1954) is an American businessman and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Indiana. Previously, he represented the 63rd district in the Indiana House of Representatives from 2014 to 2017. A member of the Republican Party, Braun was elected to the United States Senate in 2018, defeating Democratic incumbent Joe Donnelly.[3]

Early life, education and business career

Braun was born in Jasper, Indiana, on March 24, 1954.[4] He graduated from Jasper High School. Braun was a three-sport star athlete; he married his high school sweetheart, Maureen,[5] who was a cheerleader.[6] He attended the all-male Wabash College, where he was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity and graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in economics, and Harvard Business School, where he earned a master's degree.[5]

After graduating from Harvard, Braun moved back to Indiana and joined his father’s business manufacturing truck bodies for farmers. When the economy of the mid-1980s hit farmers hard and his father's business nearly went under, Braun steered the business in the more lucrative direction of selling truck accessories. The business subsequently grew from 15 employees to more than 300.[6] In 1986 Braun and Daryl Rauscher acquired Meyer Body Inc., a manufacturer of truck bodies and distributor of truck parts and equipment.[7] In 1995 Braun fully acquired the company. Meyer Body was renamed Meyer Distributing in 1999. Braun is its president and CEO.[8] In 2018 Braun's personal finance disclosure listed assets worth between $35 million and $96 million.[9]

Early political career

Braun was a member of the Jasper School Board from 2004 to 2014.[10]

He served in the Indiana House of Representatives for Indiana District 63 from 2014 to 2017.[5] Braun resigned from the state House on November 1, 2017, to focus on his U.S. Senate campaign.[11] In 2017, the American Conservative Union gave him a lifetime score of 82%.

In July 2018, Braun called for the Indiana attorney general, Republican Curtis Hill, to resign amid allegations that Hill had drunkenly groped a lawmaker and three legislative staffers.[12]

U.S. Senate

2018 Senate election

File:Mike Braun campaigning in Greenfield, Indiana.jpg
Braun campaigning in Greenfield, Indiana

Braun won the Republican primary for the United States Senate in the 2018 election, defeating U.S. Representatives Todd Rokita and Luke Messer[13][14] by over 56,000 votes. He received 208,520 votes, or roughly 41% of the total.[3] Braun ran as an outsider, emphasizing his career in business.[15] He defeated Democratic incumbent Joe Donnelly in the November general election[16] with 52% of the vote to Donnelly's 44%; the Libertarian candidate, Lucy Brenton, tallied 4%.[17]

Tenure

On January 3, 2019, Braun was sworn in as the junior United States senator from Indiana by Vice President Mike Pence.[18]

On May 24, 2019, Braun was one of eight senators who voted against a $19.1 billion emergency aid package, saying that the disaster assistance process was "just another path for runaway spending on unrelated projects." The relief had bipartisan support and President Trump's approval.[19]

After President Trump announced that American troops would pull out of northern Syria in early October 2019, Braun supported the move, saying, "I don’t think we can be the policeman of the world. We should lead, but we should do it in a way that is sustainable."[20] On December 10, 2019, Braun said that the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump had been a "disaster for Democrats." He added that Democrats had wanted to impeach Trump ever since he won in 2016, "when they didn't have any idea of what their reason would be."[21]

Committee assignments

For the 116th United States Congress Braun was named to five Senate committees.[22] They are

Political positions

Braun opposes the Affordable Care Act, supported efforts at the congressional level to repeal it, and supports a lawsuit to roll it back.[23][24] Braun has called for "free-market competition" and "market-driven" solutions on health care.[25] During his 2018 Senate campaign, he criticized incumbent Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly as a "defender of Obamacare."[23] He expressed support for keeping in place protections for individuals with preexisting conditions; Politico and PolitiFact noted that both the House efforts and the lawsuit to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which Braun supported, would weaken protections for preexisting conditions.[23][24]

Braun has said, "building the wall must be the first step to any solution" on illegal immigration.[26][25] He opposes a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as minors, known as DREAMers.[26]

Braun supported the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the Republican Party's tax reform bill.[25] He said the tax reform bill was "revenue-neutral"; the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bill would increase U.S. debt.[25] Braun has called for cuts to the U.S. budget, saying that the U.S. "has a spending problem."[25]

In 2018, Braun supported President Trump's trade and tariff policies, saying that they have "yielded phenomenal results."[25][27] Previously, he supported free trade policies.[27]

Braun opposes abortion.[25] Asked for his view on the legalization of same-sex marriage, Braun said, "I believe in traditional marriage."[25][28] Braun fought to keep marriage defined as "between a man and a woman" in the Indiana Republican Party platform.[28] In the Indiana state legislature, he supported the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act and opposed amendments to the bill that would have banned discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.[28]

Electoral history

Republican Primary Indiana House of Representatives, 63rd District, 2014 [29]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Republican Mike Braun 4,611 66.8%
Republican Richard Moss 2,292 33.59%
Turnout 6,903
Indiana House of Representatives, 63rd District, 2014 [30]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Republican Mike Braun 13,329 100%
Turnout 13,329
Indiana House of Representatives, 63rd District, 2016 [31]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Republican Mike Braun 19,228 71.75%
Democratic Andrea Hulsman 7,570 28.25%
Turnout 26,798
Republican Primary US Senate, Indiana, 2018 [32]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Republican Mike Braun 208,497 41.18%
Republican Todd Rokita 151,904 30.00%
Republican Luke Messer 145,936 28.82%
Turnout 506,337
United States Senate election in Indiana, 2018[33]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Republican Mike Braun 1,158,000 50.73% +6.45%
Democratic Joe Donnelly (incumbent) 1,023,553 44.84% -5.20%
Libertarian Lucy Brenton 100,942 4.42% -1.26%
Write-in 70 <0.01% N/A
Total votes 2,282,565 100% N/A
Republican gain from Democratic

Personal life

Braun and his wife, Maureen, have four children.[5] He is Roman Catholic.[34] Braun's brother, Steve Braun, is also a politician in Indiana.[35]

References

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  2. ↑ Indiana Candidate's Statement of Organization
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ https://www.senate.gov/general/committee_assignments/assignments.htm#BraunIN
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 25.4 25.5 25.6 25.7 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Indiana House of Representatives
Preceded by Member of the Indiana House of Representatives
from the 63rd district
2014–2017		 Succeeded by
Shane Lindauer
Party political offices
Preceded by Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from Indiana
(Class 1)
2018		 Most recent
United States Senate
Preceded by U.S. Senator (Class 1) from Indiana
2019–present
Served alongside: Todd Young		 Incumbent
United States order of precedence (ceremonial)
Preceded by United States Senators by seniority
97th		 Succeeded by
Josh Hawley

Template:U.S. Senators

  1. REDIRECT Template:United States senators from Indiana


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116th
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