Ex-Reps. Marlin Stutzman and John Hostettler are being outspent as they try for comebacks in Indiana’s Republican primaries Tuesday.
They’re among more than a dozen former House members who are testing — and perhaps finding out the hard way — whether they retain much goodwill with voters years or even decades after leaving Capitol Hill.
Hostettler, a House member from 1995 to 2007, may have the tallest climb.
The most recent reports to the Federal Election Commission show that his campaign had spent just over $11,000 heading into the home stretch of the primary, while three of his rivals for the nomination had spent, respectively, $286,000, $433,000, and $638,000. On top of that, outside PACs have been airing ads criticizing votes he took while in office, especially votes related to Israel.
He’s getting help from a PAC affiliated with Sen. Rand Paul (R) of neighboring Kentucky. It has has run more than $270,000 worth of ads on Hostettler’s behalf.
Hostettler was last on the ballot in 2010, when he lost a Senate run in 2010.
“That’s a long time for a lot of voters who may have moved into the district or who have short memories or who are younger,” said Robert Dion, a political scientist at the University of Evansville, which is in the 8th District that Hostettler wants to represent again.
“A lot of that residual name recognition that he had is probably less potent than it would’ve been even 10 years ago,” Dion said.
Dion said Hostettler is “taking a beating on the air right now” from rival candidate state Sen. Mark Messmer and from the super-PAC aligned with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Also on Tuesday’s ballot: Stutzman, who’s trying to regain the Fort Wayne-area 3rd District seat he held from 2010 to 2017, when he left following an unsuccessful Senate bid.
His rivals have outspent him, though by a narrower edge: businessman Tim Smith has spent about $1 million, almost all of it his own money. Compare that to $750,000 spent by the campaign of former judge Wendy Davis and $708,000 in disbursements reported by Stutzman’s campaign.
Open seats lured both of the Indiana ex-incumbents back into the fray; Stutzman is seeking to succeed Rep. Jim Banks (R), who’s running for the Senate, and Hostettler wants to replace retiring Rep. Larry Bucshon (R).
They each have seven primary opponents, so it might not take many votes to decide the two nominations. Another thing they have in common: both districts are solidly Republican, so whoever wins the primaries will be shoo-ins in November.
Speaking of Shoo-Ins
So far in this primary season, one former House member has achieved what the Hoosiers are attempting. Ex-Rep. Gil Cisneros (D) is on a glide path to returning to Congress in a Los Angeles County district where Rep. Grace Napolitano (D) isn’t seeking re-election.
That district is more Democratic-friendly than the one Cisneros held for one term (2019-2021) before losing to Young Kim (R). Cisneros self-funded his comeback campaign with more than $5.4 million, overwhelming his opponents.
Two other former House members terminated comeback tries. Mark Walker (R-N.C.), who served from 2015 to 2021, qualified for a primary runoff, then withdrew to accept a job with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. And Peter Meijer (R-Mich.), who was the only House GOP freshman who voted to impeach Trump in January 2021, ended his longshot Senate campaign last week.
More former members are in the hunt for their parties’ US House or Senate nominations:
Arizona
Trent Franks (R) is seeking to succeed Rep. Debbie Lesko (R), who’s running instead for a county office. Franks served in the House for 15 years until December 2017, when he resigned amid an investigation into sexual harassment allegations. Franks said the House Ethics Committee was investigating him for discussing surrogate motherhood with two female staff members.
A crowded Republican field includes 2022 Senate nominee Blake Masters, state House Speaker Ben Toma, and Trump-endorsed lawyer Abe Hamadeh, who was the 2022 nominee for Arizona attorney general.
Florida
Debbie Mucarsel Powell, who represented south Florida for one term (2019-2021), is the Democratic Party’s preferred candidate to oppose Sen. Rick Scott (R).
Other Democrats seeking the seat include Alan Grayson, who’s lost a string of elections since serving three House terms over two tenures.
Guam
Michael San Nicolas (D), who was one of the House’s six delegates from 2019 to 2023, is seeking to reclaim the post representing the US island territory in Washington.
Delegates sit on committees and receive the same salaries as House members but have very limited floor voting privileges.
Louisiana
State Sen. Cleo Fields (D) was the front-runner in a new Black-majority district that a three-judge federal panel invalidated this week. The US Supreme Court will be asked to stay the federal judges’ decision, allowing the congressional map to be used for the 2024 election.
If Fields wins in November, he would return to the House 28 years after he left in 1997 following two terms in office.
Michigan
Mike Rogers and Justin Amash are seeking the Republican nomination for the Senate seat of Debbie Stabenow (D), who’s retiring.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee is backing Rogers, a former Intelligence Committee Chair who last appeared on a ballot in 2012. He and Amash, who has libertarian views, have clashed over government surveillance policies and in 2014, Rogers donated to Amash’s Republican primary opponent. Amash left the Republican Party and became an independent and then a libertarian at the end of his House tenure.
Montana
Denny Rehberg (R), who held the state’s statewide district from 2001 to 2013, is seeking the 2nd District, which is more strongly conservative of the two districts Montana now has.
Rehberg is running against seven other Republicans including state auditor Troy Downing and state schools superintendent Elsie Arntzen.
New Mexico
Yvette Herrell (R) is seeking a rematch with Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D), who ousted Herrell in the 2022 election after Democrats redrew congressional lines in their favor.
New York
Mondaire Jones (D) is opposing one-term Rep. Mike Lawler (R) in a swing district in the lower Hudson Valley that will be among the most expensive and closely-watched House races. Jones represented much of the area for one term but was boxed out by redistricting in 2022, when he sought re-election in a New York City district and lost in the primary.
Ohio
Dennis Kucinich, a vocal critic of US wars who twice sought the Democratic presidential nomination, is running as an independent against Rep. Max Miller (R) in a Republican-leaning district south of Cleveland, the city Kucinich served as mayor in the 1970s and then in the House from 1997 to 2013.
Texas
Mayra Flores (R) is opposing Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D) in a rematch of a November 2022 race that Gonzales won by 8.5 points.
Before new congressional lines went into effect, Flores won a special election in June 2022 that called national attention to Republican gains in heavily Hispanic south Texas near the US-Mexico border. She then challenged Gonzales in the reconfigured 34th District, which is more Democratic than the district she represented.
Wisconsin
Peter Barca (D), a former state House minority leader, would return to Congress after a 30-year absence if he upsets Rep. Bryan Steil (R) in a mildly Republican district in the southeastern corner of the state.
Barca won a special House election in May 1993 to replace Les Aspin (D), who had become defense secretary, and then lost in the November 1994 Republican wave.
Been There, Done That
In the current 118th Congress, there are 13 House members serving non-consecutive tenures including Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.), who returned to the House in February after just 13 months away.
After the House expelled George Santos (R-N.Y.) last December, Democratic leaders in his Long Island district immediately turned to Suozzi as their strongest candidate to reclaim the swing seat on a truncated special-election schedule. Suozzi raised more than $6 million and won by eight percentage points.
“I never thought I’d be back here, but the Lord works in mysterious ways,” Suozzi said on the House floor after his swearing-in.