ROANOKE – Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-3rd, announced Saturday that he will run for an open Senate seat in next year's election.
Stutzman, 38, seeks the seat held by Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind. Coats, who turns 72 this month, announced March 24 that he will not run for a second consecutive term in 2016.
Stutzman and Eric Holcomb, a former Indiana Republican Party chairman, are the only announced candidates for the seat. Reps. Todd Young, R-9th, and Todd Rokita, R-4th, are considering running in the Republican primary, and former Rep. Baron Hill, who lost to Young in the 2010 election, has said he might seek the Democratic nomination.
Stutzman announced his run about 45 minutes into an event in Roanoke Saturday afternoon to a crowd of more than 500 attendees, saying he will never apologize for "being a God-fearing, gun-packing" conservative.
"If you're a conservative, be a conservative: Be consistent," he said.
Stutzman, who took office in 2011, is Indiana's most conservative congressman, according to various special-interest groups. He has been an advocate for gun rights and federal spending cuts and a vocal opponent of abortion rights and the Obama administration's health care law, immigration policies and business regulations.