Todd Young

On January 26, 2009, Young announced that he would run for the United States congressional seat in Indiana's 9th district as a Republican.[10][11][12]

Young competed with fellow Republicans Mike Sodrel and Travis Hankins for the party's nomination for Congress and won, challenging incumbent Democrat Baron Hill in the general election. Young received endorsements from former Vice President Dan Quayle[13] as well as Lieutenant Governor Becky Skillman, Attorney General Greg Zoeller, Secretary of State Todd Rokita, Auditor Tim Berry, and Treasurer Richard Mourdock.[12]

Young won the primary and general elections, defeating incumbent Baron Hill on November 2, 2010, and was seated in the 112th Congress in January 2011.[14]

Young defeated Shelli Yoder, winning 55% of the vote in the newly redrawn 9th district.[15]

Young is a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership along with three other Republican senators.[16] The Main Street Partnership is considered to be an association of moderate Republicans.[17] In 2013 the National Journal gave Young an overall composite rating of 69% conservative and 31% liberal, an economic rating of 69% conservative and 30% liberal, a social rating of 57% conservative and 42% liberal, and a foreign policy rating of 77% conservative and 15% liberal.[18]

2010s

In the 112th Congress, Young voted with the Republican Party 95% of the time.[19] During the 113th Congress, the Human Rights Campaign, which rates politicians' support for LGBT issues, rated Young 30%, indicating a mixed record.[20] In July 2012, Young took over as the lead sponsor of the REINS Act, a bill that passed the House in 2011 and would require congressional approval for rules with greater than $100 million in economic impact.[21]

In the 112th Congress, Young was a member of the House Budget Committee and the House Armed Services Committee. On the latter, he focused on seapower, electronic warfare, and military grand strategy of the United States. During the first session of the 112th Congress, he employed one of the German Marshall Fund's Congressional Fellows as military legislative aide.[22]

In 2010, Young stated that he was uncertain what was causing the observed heating of the planet, that it could be sunspots or normal cycles of nature, and that "the science is not settled."[23] That same year he signed a pledge sponsored by Americans for Prosperity promising to vote against any global warming legislation that would raise taxes.[24]

In 2011, he voted for the Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011.[25] In 2014, he said that it is "not necessarily the case" that there is a scientific consensus on climate change.[26]

• Fairness for American Families Act (H.R. 2668) – Introduced by Young on July 11, 2013, this bill would "amend the Internal Revenue Code, as amended by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, to delay until 2015 the requirement that individuals maintain minimal essential health care coverage."[27] The bill was proposed in response to a July 2, 2013 decision by the Obama Administration to delay the employer mandate found in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but do nothing to the individual mandate requirement.[28]

When he introduced the Fairness for American Families Act, Young argued that "rather than driving healthcare costs down, the individual mandate is imposing a new tax and burdensome costs on middle class families" and therefore "hardworking Americans deserve the same exemptions that President Obama is unilaterally granting to businesses and labor unions."[28]

• Save American Workers Act of 2013 – a bill to amend the way in which the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (popularly known as Obamacare) defines full-time worker by raising the 30-hour threshold to 40 hours a week, in an effort to remove the incentive some companies may have to reduce their employees' hours in order to avoid the employer healthcare mandate.[29][30][31] Young introduced it into the House on June 28, 2013.[31]

• Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
  • Chair, Subcommittee on Multilateral International Development, Multilateral Institutions, and International Economic, Energy, and Environmental Policy
  • Member, Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy
  • Member, Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism
• Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
  • Member, Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet
  • Member, Subcommittee on Manufacturing, Trade, and Consumer Protection
  • Member, Subcommittee on Transportation and Safety
• Senate Committee on Finance
  • Member, Subcommittee on Health Care
  • Member, Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness
  • Member, Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy
• Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship

Caucus Memberships

• • Congressional Cement Caucus
  • Congressional German-American Caucus

Rather than run for reelection to the House, Young announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination in the 2016 election to fill the Senate seat of the retiring Dan Coats.[32] Also filing for the Republican primary was U.S. Representative Marlin Stutzman. Although Young was certified as having submitted enough signatures to qualify for the primary ballot, that official certification was challenged, and a tally by the Associated Press concluded that Young had fallen short.[33] The state Election Commission scheduled a hearing on the challenge for February 19, 2016.[33] The commission voted down the challenge with a 2–2 vote and Young remained on the ballot.[34]

Young easily defeated Stutzman in the May 3 primary, taking 67% of approximately one million votes cast.[35] He was initially slated to face former U.S. Representative Baron Hill, whom Young had defeated in 2010 to win his congressional seat, but on July 11, Hill announced he was dropping out of the Senate race.[36] Hill was replaced by Evan Bayh, who had held the seat from 1999 to 2011.[37] Young defeated Bayh in the November 8 general election, winning 52% of the vote to Bayh's 42%.[38][39][40]

On January 3, 2017, Young was sworn into the United States Senate in the 115th Congress by Vice President Joe Biden. Young was ranked the ninth most bipartisan Senator in the first session of the 115th Congress by the Bipartisan Index, a metric created by the Lugar Center and Georgetown's McCourt School of Public Policy to assess congressional bipartisanship.[41][42] GovTrack noted that during the same period, Young joined more bipartisan bills than any other freshman Senator.[43]

Young planned to vote in support of certifying the Electoral College count on January 6, 2021. Young also said he supported efforts to create a bipartisan "Election Integrity Committee" to review the 2020 presidential election.[44] While entering the US Capitol to participate in the certification on January 6, 2021, Young was accosted by pro-Trump protestors.[45] He was questioned as to why he would vote to support the count, claiming voter fraud.[45] Young explained that “When it comes to the law, our opinions don’t matter — the law matters."[45] The South Bend Tribune's editorial board wrote "Young was right to reject the move that Braun had embraced — but his words should have come two months earlier, not at the last minute. That would have been upholding his duty and fulfilling his oath of office."[46] He was participating in the count when the storming of the Capitol happened. Upon the storming, Todd tweeted "This is not a peaceful protest - it is violence and reprehensible. It must stop."[47] Todd voted in support of certifying the count when Congress was able to return to session.[45] In the wake of the attack, Young would not comment on if he supported using the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution to remove Trump, stating that he trusted the Vice President and Trump cabinet members to "conscientiously and legally carry out their duties until Jan. 20."[48]

• Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
  • Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet
  • Subcommittee on Manufacturing, Trade and Consumer Protection
  • Subcommittee on Security
  • Subcommittee on Transportation and Safety
• Committee on Foreign Relations
  • Subcommittee on State Department and USAID Management, International Operations, and Bilateral International Development
  • Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy
  • Subcommittee on Multilateral International Development, Multilateral Institutions, and International Economic, Energy and Environmental Policy (Chair)
• Committee on Finance
  • Subcommittee on Health Care
  • Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness
  • Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy
• Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship[49]

• Senate Republican Conference

Young describes himself as pro-life and is against legal abortion. He was endorsed by the pro-life National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), which gave him a 100% rating in 2018; he has a 0% rating from the pro-abortion rights groups NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood.[54] Young also believes that employers with religious objections should not be required to provide birth control to their female employees.[55] He was a co-sponsor of legislation to defund Planned Parenthood and voted to prohibit federal funding for Planned Parenthood.[56]

The National Rifle Association (NRA) endorsed Young for Senate in 2016 and has given him an "A+" rating.[57] In 2018, Gun Owners of America, a gun rights organization, gave Young a 50% score while the NRA gave him a much higher 100% rating.[52]

Young opposes the DREAM Act and a pathway to citizenship for the nearly 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.[55] NumbersUSA, which wants to restrict and reduce immigration, has given him a lifetime 80% rating while the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which also seeks to restrict immigration, gave him a 100% score; the American Immigration Lawyers Association, which supports immigration reform, gave Young a 33% rating.[54] UnidosUS, formerly La Raza, which supports immigration reform, gave Young a 59% rating in 2014.[54] Young has said he wants an immigration system based on merit and job skills.[58] In 2018, he introduced a bill cosponsored with Senator Ted Cruz to end family separations at the border that resulted from President Trump's "zero tolerance" policy.[59]

The organization On the Issues considers Young to be neutral on the issue of same-sex marriage; he was given a 30% rating by Human Rights Campaign (HRC), which supports same-sex marriage and gay rights, indicating a mixed record.[60] In 2016, the HRC gave him a 2% rating.[52] Young believes same-sex marriage should be left to the states to decide.[61] He said that he supports the current policy allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military.[62] In 2016, Young was among the Republicans who voted with Democrats in favor of a spending amendment to uphold President Obama's executive order prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation for federal contractors.[63] He was one of 30 Republicans who voted for an amendment to prohibit discrimination by federal contractors, but voted against a similar amendment in a military spending bill.[64]

In March 2019, Young was one of twelve senators to cosponsor a resolution that would impose a constitutional amendment limiting the Supreme Court to nine justices. The resolution was introduced following multiple Democratic presidential candidates expressing openness to the idea of expanding the seats on the Supreme Court.[65]

In July 2017, Young voted in favor of the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act that placed sanctions against Russia together with Iran and North Korea.[66]

Young supported an Anti-Boycott Act,[67] which would make it illegal for U.S. companies to engage in boycotts against Israel and Israeli settlements in the West Bank.[68]

Young condemned the genocide of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar and called for a stronger response to the crisis.[69][70]

In February 2019, Young was one of seven senators to reintroduce legislation requiring sanctions on Saudi officials involved in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi and seeking to address support for the Yemen civil war through prohibiting some weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and U.S. military refueling of Saudi coalition planes.[71] In May 2019, he was also one of seven Republicans who attempted to override President Trump's veto of the resolution regarding Yemen.[72] In June 2019, Young was one of seven Republicans to vote to block President Trump's Saudi arms deal providing weapons to Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Jordan, and was one of six Republicans to vote against an additional 20 arms sales.[73] In 2020, he was one of eight Republicans who voted with Democrats for a resolution limiting the president's ability to strike Iran.[74]