Holcomb, Hill and Delph vying for Senate candidacy

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The contest to replace Dan Coats in the U.S. Senate begins Thursday with the first campaign announcement of the 2016 race.

Eric Holcomb will announce his candidacy during a noon event at the Westin Hotel. It will come exactly 48 hours after the announcement that Dan Coats is retiring.

Holcomb has been an aide to both Dan Coats and Mitch Daniels. He also served as State GOP Chairman and, in that role, sought to expand the Republican tent.

“We want to engage and invest in the communities that maybe we haven’t spent enough time in in the past,” he said at an event in 2013, “and that includes the African American community, the Latino community.”

The Tuesday announcement by Dan Coats to forgo the 2016 race also prompted a quick response by a key Democrat.

Former Congressman and former Senate candidate Baron Hill is seriously considering a run.

“This decision has to be made quickly,” he said, “and the amount of revenue that has to be raised to put on a competitive race needs to start soon.”

Hill sounds like a candidate.

“Tough races are something that are very familiar to me,” he said, “and so I’m up to the task.”

And right wing state Senator Mike Delph is also considering a run. The Republican issued a statement saying that challenges to faith, freedom, and family need to be confronted in this campaign.

At this point both Republican Mike Pence and Democrat Evan Bayh are staying out of the Senate race but there are others still to be heard from in both parties.

It could take months for this race to sort out completely.