Evan Bayh to run for Senate

Evan Bayh to run for Senate
By Ben Kamisar - 07-11-16 10:19 AM EDT

Former Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh is jumping into the Indiana Senate race, a move that upends the battle for the Senate majority in 2016.

The former senator will announce his plan to run for the Senate, while the party's Democratic nominee, former Rep. Baron Hill, will step aside, a source familiar with the plan confirmed to The Hill.

It's the Democratic Party's answer to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), whose surprise announcement to run for reelection last month made him the instant favorite in a seat Democrats had hoped to flip.

Bayh's similar move upends the race for a seat that many saw as an easy win for Republicans.

Democrats need to gain four seats to retake the Senate majority if they retain the White House, and five if they do not.

They are favored to win seats in Illinois and Wisconsin, and Republicans are embattled in three other states won by President Obama in the last two presidential cycles: New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

With Bayh's entry into the Indiana Senate race, Democrats are gaining another big target.

Bayh has not publicly announced a bid, but he issued a statement through a spokesperson that confirmed he spoke with Hill surrounding Hill's decision to step down.

Hill officially announced his withdrawal from the Senate race on Monday morning in an email to supporters that did not mention Bayh. It only specified that he announced the decision to the Indiana Democratic Party, which will now "undertake a process to fill the vacancy with a nominee who will win in November."

 The Senate Democrats' campaign arm and the Indiana Democratic Party lauded Hill in statements that also made no reference to Bayh.

"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. I do not want to stand in the way of Democrats winning Indiana and the U.S. Senate," Hill said.

"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."

CNN first reported Bayh's decision.

The move represents a major recruiting win for Democrats as they seek to defeat GOP Rep. Todd Young in the general election. The University of Virginia's Center for Politics moved its rating of the race to a "toss up" from "likely Republican" on the news of Bayh's impending candidacy.

Democrats had hoped Bayh would run to replace retiring Republican Sen. Dan Coats - the man who replaced him in 2010 after Bayh surprisingly stepped aside before the general election - but Bayh had refused to enter the primary.

Despite entering the race just months before the general election, Bayh has a sizable cash advantage over Hill. Through mid-April, Hill's last fundraising report, he had just $387,000 in the bank. Bayh, on the other hand, has almost $9.3 million on hand despite not running for federal office since 2010.

- Last updated at 12:44 p.m.