Free Republic

Former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) said on Tuesday he would not run for Indiana Senate, clearing the path for Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) to become the frontrunner to replace the outgoing Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN). “After what I hope was adequate reflection, I’ve decided not to become a candidate for the U.S. Senate,” Daniels explained in a statement to Politico. “With full credit and respect for the institution and those serving in it, I conclude that it’s just not the job for me, not the town for me, and not the life I want to live at this point.”...

Former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R), who Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) said would make a “terrific candidate” for U.S. Senate, is now receiving praise from Democrats like Sen. John Hickenlooper (CO) as he decides whether to enter the U.S. Senate race in Indiana. Daniels is considering joining the race to replace outgoing Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN), who is running for Indiana governor in 2024. In anticipation of the decision, Daniels traveled to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to meet with senators to discuss the “life of a senator,” he told reporters.

Tuesday on FNC’s “Fox & Friends,” Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) revealed he would be seeking a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2024. Partial transcript as follows: KILMEADE: Meanwhile, Congressman, you are Congressman Jim Banks, but you feel as though you want a career change. Mike Braun is going to run for governor for Indiana. What has that prompted you to say – to say today? BANKS: Well, Brian, it’s not about me, it’s about the great state of Indiana. And I’ve had the incredible opportunity to serve in the House of Representatives for northeast Indiana the past six years....

Indiana politics is probably, maybe, very important to...Indianans (Indians? Warrrenses?), but this sturdy Midwest flyover state is rarely the battlefield for an important fight for the direction of the GOP and the country. Today is an exception. With its current senator, Republican Mike Somebody, going home to be governor, the Senate seat will be open in 2024, and folks are gearing up to run. The race is important because who gets nominated and wins will help define the direction of the Republican Party. Will it be someone who knows what time it is or someone whose watch stopped about the...

A conservative group is trying to stop former Indiana governor Mitch Daniels from running for a U.S. Senate seat. Daniels has been considering a 2024 run to replace Senator Mike Braun, who is giving up the position to run for governor of Indiana. Club for Growth Action is now airing TV commercials that say Daniels is “wrong for Senate”. It is unclear when Daniels will publicly announce whether or not he will pursue the seat.

Official White House Photo by Shealah CraigheadFormer Surgeon General Jerome Adams and his wife, Lacey, have coined a term they call the Trump Effect. The term is used in relationship to difficulties the couple experiences due to Adams’ time serving in the Trump administration. He said he isn’t speaking out to complain about his inability to find work but “it is context.” Adams found a new job after about eight months. Adams was looking for a spot in academia after his time at the White House was finished. He said he was rejected because universities were concerned about reactions...

University presidents make a difference. The best of them can steer a university to new heights of greatness, while the worst of them can bring costly mediocrity or even extinction. A few weeks ago, Mitch Daniels of Purdue, arguably the primus inter pares of American university presidents, announced that he was stepping down at the end of 2022 after a decade of extraordinary service. Usually when a president announces his pending resignation, the governing board takes a few months to appoint a huge search committee and hires a firm specializing in placing prospective leaders. This leads to a year or...

While American higher education often is rightly condemned for being inefficient, non-innovative, and resistant to change, there are exceptions, and there are some collegiate entrepreneurs whose success is worthy of commendation and emulation. To me, the top award for American higher education innovation must go to Mitch Daniels, who is just beginning his tenth year as the president of Purdue University. I had a nice chat with President Daniels the other day. At the beginning, I reminded him how we first met: I visited him in his office as Governor of Indiana in late 2012, shortly before beginning his tenure...

“The past 18 months have taught me that while you cannot control the world around you, you can control how you live within those circumstances. That is what defines who you are and what builds resilience and character,” he said of how he approached his responsibilities as a university president, requiring him to keep his students safe while providing a worthy education.

'Even a phenomenon as menacing as COVID-19 is one of the inevitable risks of life,' writes Purdue President and former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels. While other education leaders are waiting for politicians to release their students from the lockdowns suspending their futures, former Indiana governor Mitch Daniels, now head of Purdue University, is making plans to reopen his campus for fall.“We have every intention of being on campus this fall,” he told the faculty senate on April 20, according to USA Today. “We are sober about the challenges that will bring. We believe in the value of the on-campus experience,...

Sorry to be so obvious, but isn’t it clear that what the United States needs is a Democratic Richard M. Nixon? No, not that one. We’ve had plenty of truth-bending, political dirty tricks and abuse of authority from both political parties over recent years. I’m thinking of the “other” Nixon, the one who longed for a place in history and whose shrewd instinct for the political center produced: the Environmental Protection Agency; arms talks with the same Soviet Union he had built a career on denouncing; wage and price controls that violated every canon of his party’s philosophy; and, of...

Tuition freezes are gaining popularity across the country. Earlier this year, university systems in Virginia and Pennsylvania announced that tuition would not rise in the next academic year, saving students and parents millions of dollars. Purdue University started the tuition-freeze trend in 2013. Under the leadership of its president, Mitch Daniels, Purdue instituted a freeze on all tuition and fees at its flagship campus in West Lafayette, Indiana. Tuition has stayed flat ever since—more than half a decade. Since then, enrollment has increased, students have a more affordable education, and Purdue continues to thrive. University administrators, governing boards, and state...

In the spring of 2011, then-Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana announced he would not seek the Republican presidential nomination, ending months of excitement among conservatives around his possible run. His family's reservations under the spotlight far outweighed any political pressure he may have been feeling, and he gracefully bowed out. His decision was a low point for conservatives hungry for that Midwestern sensibility and sharp wit that he embodied. As former senior political adviser to President Ronald Reagan and head of President George W. Bush's Office of Management and Budget, Daniels was a rock star in the conservative movement. But...

Investors are hoping to seize upon the $1 trillion infrastructure plan proposed by President Donald Trump to transform the nation’s highways, bridges, and tunnels into assets they can monetize by adding tolls and other user fees.The Trump infrastructure plan, which the administration plans to roll out this week, is centered on the idea of “asset recycling,” which refers to the process of securing new infrastructure spending by leasing the operations of existing public property to private operators.The privatization-centered scheme has the nation’s largest toll operators salivating. Transurban, Cintra, and TransCore, three major toll operators, have retained federal lobbyists to influence...

The controversial 2006 lease of the Indiana Toll Road paved the way for highway projects funded by public-private partnerships in Indiana — including the relatively smooth and nearly finished building of a bridge over the Ohio River at Louisville and the beleaguered construction of a 21-mile stretch of Interstate 69 from Bloomington to Martinsville. Indiana’s next governor — whose road-funding agenda will likely shape discussions at next year’s budget session of the Indiana General Assembly — will have a major role in crafting future deals to fund projects and maintain the state’s infrastructure. The question is whether the state will...

Influential GOP consultant and policy adviser Karl Rove says former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels would be the perfect running mate for whoever wins the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. And at the very least, Rove adds in an exclusive interview with Newsmax TV, the GOP's vice presidential pick should be a Midwesterner to maximize the Republican ticket's drawing power. "It would be good to have somebody from the Midwest. I've got an out-of-the-box idea for you, how about the former governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels," Rove said Wednesday on "Newsmax Prime" with J.D. Hayworth. "[He's] done an exemplary job serving in...

Former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, upon passing on a run for the Republican nomination in 2012, took an interesting career turn. The famously fiscally conservative executive, who devised savings for the Hoosier state on everything from ??? to paper clips, became the head of Purdue University. Since then, Daniels has endured the predictable run-ins with his liberal faculty—over criticism of Howard Zinn’s American history— but also made real progress in the fight against rising college costs by harnessing some free-market incentives for academia.The university is now in its fourth year of a tuition freeze after more than 30 yearly...

I think this analysis by Christine Matthews, a Republican pollster, who did survey work for former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, hits the nail on the head: Some think Trump’s latest attack on highly regarded Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly spells the end. Most likely it does not. Trump’s supporters don’t want his run to end. His loud, angry voice amplifies feelings they have, but don’t feel are heard. That is NOT to say they are in complete agreement with what he says. He is the middle finger. He is the fist on the table. And that is what his supporters...

The final lineup for Thursday’s debate is nearly set, as well as the five o’clock &#F8220;pregame show” with the poorly performing candidates, and Mark Everson is objecting to the fact that he doesn’t seem to be included at all. In fact, he has written a letter to Fox News to complain about it. Wait a minute… Mark who?Yes, he’s a declared candidate for the presidency who has filed all the required paperwork. But just to be fully honest here, I do this for a living and I had to Google the guy. He declared back in March and has...

You might recall the name Mark Salter for the role he played as a speechwriter for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) when he ran for president in 2008. In the years that followed his involvement on that failed presidential bid, Salter eventually evolved into a commentator and political analyst. Following McCainÂ’s failed campaign, Slater spent much of his time attempting to rehabilitate the image of his friend and former employer. In 2011, Salter wrote a meandering, discursive essay on how George W. Bush had failed to meet the expectations of posterity when he chose Dick Cheney as his running mate....