Indiana’s Third Congressional District is open for the first time in seven years with Republican Jim Banks (R-Columbia City) leaving the post to run for Senate. The race to succeed Banks now has three candidates. Thursday Huntington Republican State Senator Andy Zay declared his candidacy.
Zay has been Huntington’s representative in the Indiana Senate since 2016, serving on the Senate Commerce and Technology, Pensions and Labor, Utilities and Environmental Affairs committees. In a statement Zay said he shares the views of many Republican candidates like the desire for a national abortion ban, creating a better process for immigrants to go through in order to live and work here and balancing the federal budget.
“Hoosier fiscal common sense would go a long way in D.C.” Zay said. “They don’t seem to want to balance the checkbook, and I will be a huge advocate and supporter with my colleagues and friends out there, should I serve, to balance the country’s checkbook.”
Zay said he plans to balance the budget by “cutting wasteful spending and programs that leave Indiana out.”
He took a page out of Former Republican Senator and Vice President Dan Quayle’s playbook by kicking off his campaign at Nick’s kitchen in Huntington. Quayle did the same thing with his Vice Presidential campaign in 1988.
Zay joins Warsaw veteran and maintenance technician Michael Felter and Auburn lawyer Chandler Likes as the only three candidates who have declared their runs for he Third Congressional District.