Birch Evans "Evan" Bayh III ( ; born December 26, 1955) is an American politician who served as the 46th governor of Indiana from 1989 to 1997 and as a United States senator representing Indiana from 1999 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he served on the President's Intelligence Advisory Board under President Joe Biden.
Bayh is the son of Senator Birch Bayh and the grandson of basketball coach Birch Bayh Sr.. He was first elected to public office as the Secretary of State of Indiana in 1986. He held the position for two years before being elected governor. He left his office after completing two terms and briefly took a job lecturing at Indiana University Bloomington. He was elected to Congress as a senator in 1998 and reelected in 2004.
On February 15, 2010, Bayh unexpectedly announced he would not seek reelection to the Senate in 2010. After leaving the Senate, he was replaced by his predecessor, Dan Coats, and became a partner with the law and consulting firm McGuireWoods in the firm's Washington, D.C. office, and also became a senior adviser with Apollo Global Management. He was a part-time contributor for Fox News from March 2011 to July 2016. In June 2011 he became a messaging adviser for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. On October 27, 2011, it was announced that Berry Plastics Corp. had appointed Bayh to its board of directors.
Following the withdrawal of 2016 Democratic primary winner Baron Hill, Bayh announced that he would be running to take back his old Senate seat from retiring Republican incumbent Dan Coats. He was defeated by Todd Young in the general election by a nearly 10-point margin (52.1% to 42.4%).Associated Press, Todd Young wins Indiana U.S. Senate seat, defeating Evan Bayh , WNDU-TV, November 8, 2016. On June 15, 2022, President Joe Biden named Bayh to serve as a member of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board.
Early life and education
Birch Evans Bayh III was born on December 26, 1955, in Shirkieville, Indiana, to Marvella Bayh (née Hern; 1933–1979) and Birch E. Bayh Jr. (1928–2019), who was a U.S. Senator from 1963 until 1981, following his electoral defeat by then-Representative and future Vice President Dan Quayle.
Evan Bayh attended St. Albans School in Washington, D.C., and graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Science in business administration from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University Bloomington in 1978. At Indiana, he became a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity's Indiana Beta chapter.
Bayh received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1981, and in 1982, he was a law clerk for U.S. District Judge James Ellsworth Noland.
Political career
Secretary of State of Indiana (1986–1989) After a debate over whether he met the state's five-year residency requirement to be on the ballot, Bayh was elected secretary of state of Indiana in 1986 with 53% of the vote.1986 Secretary of State General Election Results – Indiana
Governorship (1989–1997)
Bayh defeated former Kokomo Mayor Steve Daily in the Democratic primary of the 1988 Indiana gubernatorial election. He went on to defeat the incumbent lieutenant governor (Republican John Mutz) in the general election, becoming the first Democrat to serve as governor of Indiana in 20 years. Only 32 years old upon his election and 33 when he took office, Bayh became the youngest governor in the nation at the time. He was re-elected as governor in 1992, defeating State Attorney General Linley E. Pearson with 63% of the vote.By the end of his second term, Bayh had an approval rating of nearly 80 percent. He was ineligible to seek a third consecutive term in 1996 due to term limits.
When his second term as governor ended in 1997, he accepted a lecturing position at his alma mater, the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University Bloomington. From 1997 to 1998, while he was campaigning for U.S. Senate, Bayh was also hired as a partner at Indianapolis law firm Baker & Daniels. In 1998, his Baker & Daniels salary was $265,000, according to Senate financial records. Indiana University paid him an additional $51,000 that year."1998 Financial Disclosure ." Open Secrets, 1999. Retrieved December 12, 2008.
U.S. Senate Bayh was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1998 to the seat that was once held by his father. He won with 64% of the vote, the largest margin ever recorded for a Democrat in a U.S. Senate race in Indiana, defeating former Fort Wayne Mayor Paul Helmke. He easily won reelection in 2004, defeating Prof. Marvin Scott, receiving 62% of the vote—in the process, becoming only the fifth Indiana Democrat to be popularly elected to a second term in the Senate.
Bayh released an autobiography in 2003 entitled From Father to Son: A Private Life in the Public Eye.
From 2001 to 2005, Bayh served as Chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). He is also a member of the Senate Centrist Coalition, helped establish the New Democrat Coalition, and founded the Moderate Dems Working Group. Bayh also served on the board of directors of the National Endowment for Democracy.
Bayh was an early supporter of the Bush administration's policies on Iraq. On October 2, 2002, Bayh joined President George W. Bush and Congressional leaders in a Rose Garden ceremony announcing their agreement on the joint resolution authorizing the Iraq War, and was thanked by Bush and Senator John McCain for co-sponsoring the resolution. He voted yes on reauthorizing the Patriot Act in 2006.
After the 2008 financial crisis, Bayh joined with his fellow senators in hurrying to bail out U.S. financial institutions. Addressing the launch of the No Labels political organization, he "described a scene from 2008 where Ben Bernanke warned senators that the sky would collapse if the banks weren't rescued. 'We looked at each other,' said Bayh, 'and said, okay, what do we need.'"Weigel, David (2010-12-13) Why Glenn Beck is Like Evan Bayh, Slate.com; accessed July 13, 2017.
Retirement
On February 15, 2010, Bayh announced he would not seek reelection to a third Senate term in the November 2, 2010, midterm election. Bayh's announcement came very shortly after former Senator Dan Coats declared his own candidacy for Bayh's Senate seat. Because he made his announcement the day before the deadline for filing for the primary, no Democrat was able to gather a sufficient number of signatures to qualify for the primary ballot, so the state party committee chose Congressman Brad Ellsworth as the nominee.
According to the Associated Press, Bayh spent a significant portion of his last year in office searching for a job, holding over four dozen meetings with potential corporate employers between February and December 2010. He also cast votes on issues of interest to his future corporate employers. A CNN analysis of Bayh's internal 2009 schedule found that he "maneuvered behind the scenes" and "privately engaged with fundraisers, lobbyists and donors who had a keen interest on the issues dominating Capitol Hill," raising potential conflict-of-interest concerns. His meetings included sessions with lobbyists for the health insurance industry prior to his announcement that he would support the Affordable Care Act.
Committee assignments Committee on Armed Services Subcommittee on Airland Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support (Chair) Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Financial Institutions Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance, and Investment Subcommittee on Security and International Trade and Finance (Chair) Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy Subcommittee on National Parks Subcommittee on Water and Power Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Select Committee on Intelligence Special Committee on Aging
2008 U.S. presidential election
On December 1, 2006, news sources revealed that Bayh was creating a presidential exploratory committee.6abc.com: Bayh Signals White House Run , Abclocal.go.com, December 1, 2016; accessed July 13, 2017. Bayh confirmed these reports on December 3. On December 15, 2006, Bayh announced that he would not run for president in 2008. He later endorsed Hillary Clinton.
During the 2008 United States Presidential campaign, Bayh stated that he would accept an offer to be Barack Obama's running mate. According to David Plouffe, it was a "coin toss" between Bayh and Joe Biden for Obama's pick for vice president, with Tim Kaine being a contender before deciding to focus on the DNC chairmanship. However, in his 2020 memoir A Promised Land Barack Obama does not mention that Bayh was considered a possible running mate, and indicated that when making the final decision as to who would be the second name on the ticket it was a straight choice between Biden and Kaine.
Post-Senate career After his retirement from the U.S. Senate, Bayh campaigned for Senator Joe Donnelly's two-day, five-city "main street tour," among other visits, and introduced Donnelly before his victory speech in Indiana's 2012 U.S. Senate election.
As of the end of 2015, Bayh had just over $9 million in unspent campaign cash.
Bayh's net worth soared to between $13.9 million and $48 million after he left office and began a post-Congress career with lobbying firms and corporate boards. This was a significant increase over the $6.8–$8.0 million in assets he reported during his last year in Congress. Bayh received over $6 million in compensation from salary, compensation from corporate boards, and speaking fees from January 2015 through October 2016.Bayh net worth soared since leaving Senate, Politico.com; accessed July 13, 2017.
2016 U.S. Senate campaign
On July 11, 2016, CNN reported that Bayh was preparing to enter the 2016 U.S. Senate election in Indiana to run for the seat being vacated by Dan Coats, who was retiring. Baron Hill, who won an uncontested primary to become the Democratic nominee on May 3, formally withdrew from the race on the same day to make way for Bayh's candidacy.
Bayh ran into criticism in August 2016 over his residency status in Indiana. WFLI-TV reported that he was listed twice as an "inactive voter" in Indiana records."Bayh addresses Indiana voting status controversy" , WISHtv.com, August 20, 2016; accessed July 13, 2017. CNN reported that Bayh repeatedly listed his two multimillion-dollar houses in Washington, D.C., as his primary residences, not his $53,000 condo in Indianapolis. When asked by a local television reporter to state his Indiana address, he stated the wrong address.Bayh screws up Indiana address during local interview, Politico.com; accessed July 13, 2017.Evan Bayh gets his own address wrong (Washington Examiner) In response, Bayh stated that he "voted in every primary and every general election for the last 25 to 30 years" and is "an active voter in Indiana," and when asked how often he is in Indiana, he stated, "all the time, frequently."
Bayh was defeated by Republican Representative Todd Young 52% to 42% in the November election. This was Bayh's first ever defeat in his home state, where he was once considered "unbeatable".
Political positions
Abortion Evan Bayh has a 100% rating by NARAL. He voted in favor of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in 2003. He voted against the Unborn Victims of Violence Act in 2004. He voted in favor of the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act in 2006.Evan Bayh's Voting Records on Issue: Abortion , VoteSmart.org; accessed July 13, 2017. He voted against an amendment to prohibit federal funds from going to groups that support coerced abortion. He repeatedly voted against amendments to prohibit federal funds from being used for abortions.
Agriculture