Mitch Daniels decides not to run for U.S. Senate

Former Gov. Mitch Daniels, who just completed a 10-year stint as Purdue University president, said Tuesday he will not run for the U.S. Senate, ending speculation that he would jump into the race after sitting Sen. Mike Braun decided to run for governor.

Daniels, a Republican who worked in the Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush administrations, said in a statement that he made the decision after “what I hope was adequate reflection.”

“With full credit and respect for the institution and those serving in it, I conclude that it’s just not the job for me, not the town for me, and not the life I want to live at this point,” he said.

CLICK to read Mitch Daniels’ full statement.

Daniels released the statement after a trip to Washington, D.C., in which he reportedly discussed the possibility with party leaders and the job with other senators. It also comes after the conservative group Club for Growth, which supports U.S. Rep. Jim Banks, a Republican who has already announced his candidacy, launched a preemptive attack of Daniels, calling him an “old guard Republican.”

But Daniels said his decision was based in part on the fact that he “never imagined that I would be well-suited to legislative office, particularly where seniority remains a significant factor in one’s effectiveness, and I saw nothing in my recent explorations that altered that view.”

“Maybe I can find ways to contribute that do not involve holding elective office,” he said. “If not, there is so much more to life. People obsessed with politics or driven by personal ambition sometimes have difficulty understanding those who are neither. I hope to be understood as a citizen and patriot who thought seriously, but not tediously, about how to be deserving of those labels and simply decided the U.S. Senate was not the only way.”