Jim Banks is a native Hoosier and one of President Trump’s closest allies in the United States Senate, representing all of Indiana. Jim believes that to get America back on track we must reverse Biden’s destructive policies by securing our border, protecting the sanctity of life, defending religious freedom, and putting an end to reckless spending in Washington. Jim has demonstrated his commitment to common-sense, conservative Hoosier values throughout his career of service – from being deployed to Afghanistan to his time in the U.S. House of Representatives– and those conservative values remain with him in the U.S. Senate.
Born to a working class family in Columbia City, Jim was instilled with a strong work ethic from a young age. His father worked at Dana Incorporated in Fort Wayne, and Jim saw firsthand the importance of manufacturing jobs to Indiana’s economy. Jim was the first in his family to attend college, earning his bachelor’s degree from Indiana University in Bloomington and a Master of Business Administration from Grace College.
During his time as the elected representative for Indiana’s 3rd congressional district, Congressman Jim Banks quickly solidified his position as a conservative champion and fierce opponent of Joe Biden’s radical agenda. Jim was a conservative member of the House Armed Services Committee as well as the House Committees on Education and Workforce and was appointed to the newly created House Select Committee on China. In these roles, Banks worked closely with the Trump Administration and kept his promises to strengthen the economy, rebuild our military, care for our nation’s heroes, and roll back some of the most egregious and burdensome Obama-era rules and regulations. Then, Jim fought for Hoosiers’ conservative values by opposing Joe Biden’s reckless government spending, an America Last foreign policy, and runaway federal spending on Democrats’ socialist priorities. On the Education and Workforce Committee, Jim fought against the radical Left’s push for Critical Race Theory in schools and Biden’s illegal student loan giveaway.
In 2023, Jim was appointed to the newly created House Select Committee on China, which has the sole focus on meeting the threat to American national security posed by the Chinese Communist Party. In the 118th Congress, Jim served as the chairman of the Military Personnel Subcommittee on House Armed Services, where he was focused on reorienting military training towards war-fighting and away from radical ideologies. Jim also started the very first Anti-Woke Caucus in Congress to combat the radical and divisive “woke” ideology that is pushed in schools, businesses, and institutions by the radical Left.
As the father of three young children, Jim also knows what it takes to balance a budget and live within one’s means. He believes our government in Washington ought to do the same, and that is why in 2020 he was tapped to serve as Chairman of the Republican Study Committee, Congress’s largest conservative caucus. In this role he and his colleagues produced the only budget proposal in the House that would get our nation’s finances in order by beginning to pay down the national debt and balancing the budget within five years.
In 2024, Jim was elected by his fellow Hoosiers to represent Indiana in the United States Senate. Now, he is determined to work closely with President Trump in his second term as President in order to uphold the America-First Mandate given to Republicans in the 2024 Election. He serves as a Vice Chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) alongside Senators Scott, Rickets, Blackburn, Britt, and Budd in order to cultivate new conservative leaders and assist in their Senate campaigns. As a United States Senator, Jim is devoted to fighting for secure borders,
Jim is an Afghanistan veteran and took a leave of absence from the Indiana State Senate to deploy during Operations Enduring Freedom and Freedom’s Sentinel. During his deployment, his wife, Amanda, stepped up to serve in his place. Respectively, Amanda and Jim fought for Hoosiers by advancing many significant pro-growth, pro-family, and pro-veteran reforms on the state level.
In addition to his service in the State Senate, Jim is also a past president of the Columbia City Rotary Club, former chairman of the Whitley County Republican Party, and has served on the Whitley County Council and Northeast Indiana Workforce Development Board.
His conservative accomplishments in Congress have earned recognition from many of our nation’s top advocacy groups and associations including: the Family Research Council for his 100% pro-life, pro-family voting record; NFIB for championing small businesses; FreedomWorks for his dedication to economic freedom and personal liberty; and he has continually earned an A rating from the National Rifle Association for his unwavering defense of the Second Amendment.
Jim and his wife Amanda are the proud parents to three daughters, Lillian, Elizabeth, and Joann. Amanda currently works for Family Policy Foundation, a pro-family ministry that educates and trains leaders. They attend First Church of God in Columbia City and are honored to serve Northeast Indiana in Washington.