WASHINGTON — Former Rep. Marlin Stutzman says that now that his sons have grown, it’s time to try to return to the House.
Stutzman, an Indiana Republican, used Tuesday’s tax filing deadline as the occasion to formally launch his comeback bid.
“Through the last several years, in being a business owner and experiencing COVID, inflation, the cost of everything going through the roof and watching our federal government operate has frankly just ticked me off,” Stutzman said in an interview with WANE, the CBS affiliate in Fort Wayne.
Stutzman left the House when his term expired at the beginning of 2017, having lost the Republican primary for Senate to current Sen. Todd Young. In that contest, Young managed to appeal to supporters of Donald Trump at the same time he maintained his establishment credentials.
Stutzman was a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus during his first tour in the House.
Stutzman was succeeded by Rep. Jim Banks in the overwhelmingly Republican 3rd District. Banks is now running for Senate, and the primary field to replace him in the House is already crowded.
Wendy Davis, who stepped down from her seat on the Allen County Circuit Court last month, has entered the race, as has the state senator who replaced Banks in that role, Andy Zay.
Stutzman’s wife, Christy, herself a former state legislator, was an unsuccessful primary candidate for Congress in the race to replace the late Rep. Jackie Walorski.
