Evan Bayh launches comeback bid for Senate seat in Indiana
Evan Bayh announced Wednesday that he is running for the open Indiana Senate seat that will be vacated early next year when Republican Sen. Dan Coats retires.
Bayh, 60, previously held the Senate seat from 1999 until 2011 and also served as the governor of Indiana from 1986 until 1989.
"With the challenges facing Indiana and our country, I can no longer sit on the sidelines and watch as partisan bickering grinds Washington to a halt. Hoosier families deserve more and I've decided to run to take their cause to the U.S. Senate," Bayh said in a statement.
His announcement comes only two days after former Rep. Baron Hill, D-Indiana, withdrew from the Democratic race. Bayh will face GOP candidate Rep. Todd Young in November, which could boost Democrats' chances of retaking control of the Senate.
Since he left the Senate in 2010, he has served as a partner at law and lobbying firm McGuire Woods and has served as a senior adviser at Apollo Global Management in New York.
Bayh is the son of Birch Bayh, who represented Indiana in the Senate from 1963 until 1981.