03/30/18
Sibling Revelry: Brothers in Thick of GOP Primaries for Senate, U.S. House seat
(ZIONSVILLE, Ind.) – While former State Representative Mike Braun pursues a Republican Senate nomination, his brother Steve is running for the U.S. House seat left open by one of Mike’s opponents.
Like his brother, Steve Braun is a Harvard-educated former state representative. He actually started his campaign first — he says Congressman Todd Rokita encouraged him to run for his Fourth District seat. A few months later, Braun’s brother Mike jumped into the Senate race against Rokita and Congressman Luke Messer for the U.S. Senate.
Mike Braun says both campaigns may benefit from some synergy, with two separate sets of Braun signs plastered across yards in west-central Indiana, but both Brauns say each campaign’s effect on the other has been minimal. Steve Braun says especially in the early days of the campaign, he’d be talking to prospective supporters and have to backtrack after being asked to distinguish himself from Messer and Rokita. And he says potential donors occasionally perk up or recoil because they assume Braun shares the criticisms Mike Braun has leveled at his opponents.