http://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/2017/03/03/pulliam-fast-rise-jim-banks/98492474/
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What turned U.S. Rep. Jim Banks into a conservative?
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Conventional wisdom used to be that young people should be idealistic and liberal. Then they would move to the conservative side after paying enough taxes and raising children.
U.S. Rep. Jim Banks missed that memo.
He grew up in a blue-collar family in Columbia City near Fort Wayne. His father worked in the auto parts business and was a union leader. Mom cooked in a nursing home. They voted Democratic. Jim would take lunch to his Dad on the picket line.
Now Banks, who represents northeast Indiana, has been tapped as a leading young conservative in the U.S. House by National Review magazine.
The first in his family to attend college, Banks majored in political science at Indiana University in Bloomington. Banks didn't learn about free market economics in class, but he joined the IU Republicans and heard plenty of left-right debates. "It was stimulating and fascinating and awakened my political curiosity," he said.
An MBA program at Grace College in northern Indiana opened his eyes to the philosophy behind conservative ideas, through books by Friedrich Hayek, Russell Kirk and others. More help came from conservative Fort Wayne friends such as Byron Lamm and Craig Ladwig of the Indiana Policy Review.
He can identify with some of the themes in J.D. Vance's popular book, "Hillbilly Elegy." "I grew up around this attitude that the deck is stacked against us," he said. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be a congressman."
The political future looks good for Banks. He's a former state senator who represents a strongly Republican district and is riding a national conservative wave. He's not interested in running for the U.S. Senate against Democrat Joe Donnelly next year. He wants to stay in the House, where he appreciates the serious policy leadership of Speaker Paul Ryan.
But down the road watch for his name on a statewide ballot.
Pulliam is associate editor of The Star. Follow him on twitter at RBPulliam@twitter.com. Email him at
Russell.Pulliam@indystar.com.
XRussell.Pulliam@indystar.com.
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