Former Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh Enters Indiana Senate Race

Former Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh has decided to run for the open U.S. Senate in Indiana, pitting him against Republican nominee Rep. Todd Young. Democrats are hoping the development will dramatically improve the party’s chances to win back the Hoosier State seat now held by Republican Sen. Dan Coats, who is retiring, and wrest back control from the U.S. Senate.

However, former Sen. Bayh, who the party has been courting for months, forfeited his seat to avoid drowning in the 2010 tea party wave after serving just two terms. He is sitting on around $10 million in left-over campaign funds.

Until now, Bayh sat on the sidelines and former Democratic Rep. Baron Hill won the party’s nomination on May 3. The party is pushing our Rep. Hill, who was not a strong candidate to take on the GOP establishment favorite Rep. Young, in the Republican-leaning state. On Monday, Hill announced he had filed papers to withdraw from the nomination. In a statement, Hill alluded to Bayh’s likely candidacy without mentioning him by name.

“Democrats have a very real chance at winning this Senate seat, especially with a strong nominee who has the money, name identification and resources to win,” Hill said. “I do not want to stand in the way of Democrats winning Indiana and the U.S. Senate. That would not be fair to my party or my state. And, the stakes are far too high in this election not to put my country above my own political ambitions. In accordance with Indiana law, I have filed the necessary paperwork to withdraw from the race.”

Still, Hoosier State voters have moved decidedly to the right under President Barack Obama, which again is why Bayh left the U.S. Senate in the first place. The Republican Party ran a weak candidate in 2012, who was drug down by his comments and the so-called “war on women” that was successfully created by Democrats during the cycle. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Richard Lugar ran for re-election to a seventh term in 2012, but was defeated in the primary by Richard Mourdock.

Rep. Joe Donnelly painted himself as a moderate Democrat from Indiana’s 2nd Congressional District and Murdock’s remarks regarding rape pushed Donnelly to victory. But Rep. Young is not Murdock, as PPD’s senior political analyst said in a reaction on Twitter.