Republican Mike Braun has outspent his Republican rivals and won a contested race to challenge current Democrat Senator Joe Donnelly.
As of 8:52 p.m. Politico and the Associated Press had declared Braun the winner. He was leading in the Republican primary with 41.1 percent of the vote or 170,344 votes out of a total number of 414,501 votes cast.
Rep. Todd Rokita, R-4th District, had 29.5 percent as of 8:54 p.m., according to Politico, and Rep. Luke Messer, R-6th District, came in with 29.4 percent of the vote.
Braun will now prepare to tackle Donnelly for his U.S. Senate seat. Donnelly has been vulnerable ever since Trump took Indiana in 2016 by around 20 points.
The Center for Responsive Politics, a non-profit, nonpartisan research group based in Washington, D.C., says Braun has outspent his opponents by almost double with $5,841,425.
Here’s what you need to know about Braun before he challenges Donnelly.
Mike Braun
Braun, originally from Jasper, Ind., earned an undergraduate degree from Wabash College, just like his opponents. He also has a master’s degree in economics from the Harvard Business School before serving three years in the Indiana House of Representatives from 2013 to 2017.
He wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act, according to his campaign website. Braun wants to allow individuals to purchase insurance across state lines and allowing businesses to come together to purchase insurance for a lower cost.
Braun supports building a wall on the U.S.’s southern border. He also wants to require every business to verify the immigration status of its workers.
One of the most important issues to Braun, and the first issue listed on Braun’s campaign website, is protecting the Second Amendment.
The website says he is a hunter, National Rifle Association member and “100 percent pro-Second Amendment.”
It remains to see if Braun can outspend and out-campaign Joe Donnelly the same way he did his Republican rivals come Nov. 6 and the general election.
