Senator Braun Completes 4^th Annual 92 County Tour

JASPER, Ind. — This week, Senator Braun completed his 4th annual 92 County Tour.

The final stop of the 2022 tour was at Lakeview Orchards in Spencer County.

This is the fourth consecutive year that Senator Braun has fulfilled his promise to visit every county in Indiana.

“There is no better way to hear directly from Hoosiers than visiting every corner of the Hoosier state. Many Hoosiers don’t recall the last time a sitting U.S. Senator visited their county, so when I was elected I pledged to visit every county, every year.

“I’m proud to announce that I’ve completed the 92 County Tour for the fourth year in a row. As I travel the state, I hear from people who are rightfully frustrated to see their concerns ignored by career politicians in Washington. For the past year, families have been paying more and getting less. Inflation isn’t just pinching families, it’s hurting the small businesses that employ nearly half of Hoosiers in Indiana. 

“I’m one of the few Senators in D.C. who has actually run a business. For the first 20 years I built my business in my hometown, we only had 15 employees. I know that every dollar counts. That is why I recently introduced The Braun Budget, a balanced federal budget designed to fight inflation and curb excessive government spending.

“The federal government should not be burdening Americans with insurmountable debt and high living costs, it should be making it easier for people to prosper and achieve the American Dream.” – Senator Mike Braun

Read more about the highlights from his visits to family farms, small businesses and community roundtables below.

Senator Braun’s Video Message on Completing 92 County Tour 2022:

Watch on YouTube | Download here

HIGHLIGHTS FROM SENATOR BRAUN’S 2022 92 COUNTY TOUR

JULY 7 — Senator Braun visited with local veterans in Bedford on Wednesday afternoon. 

“If we don’t know the issues veterans are facing, we won’t know how to help,” Senator Braun said. 

APRIL 20 — United States Senator Mike Braun (R-Ind.) visited the Waelz Sustainable Products facility in Cass County on April 20 as part of his tour of all 92 Indiana counties.

The freshman senator, who hails from Jasper, Indiana and has heralded numerous bills through Congress since his term began in 2019, said he is unsure where his political aspirations will lead him next. He did not, however, rule out another term or a future run for Indiana governor.

Braun took time to answer five questions about his goals and plans for the remainder of his term.

MARCH 7 — BROWNSTOWN — Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., paid Jackson County a visit on Friday as part of a pledge when he was elected in 2018 that he would visit all 92 Hoosier counties.

Braun met with seven members of the community at Kay’s Kafe in Brownstown.

He is a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for the U.S. Senate and is Indiana’s junior U.S. senator. Todd Young serves as the state’s senior U.S. senator.

Braun said he hasn’t been working on a lot of legislation lately due to other issues in the country.

“Sadly, there hasn’t been a lot of legislation other than trying to do things to rein in the government that has gotten so out of hand in my mind in terms of how it’s wanting to tax and spend and grow the government … a lot of it is based on fighting COVID,” Braun said.

Regarding the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Braun felt federal efforts were lackluster.

“We found that a lot of what we did do didn’t have as much impact as it should have,” he said. “We now know a lot more about the disease, and it doesn’t, I think, mean the federal government should be solely in charge of what we do, and we need to turn our attention otherwise.”

U.S. Senator Mike Braun, R-Indiana, made an appearance with state Senator Stacey Donato, R-Logansport, in Cass County on Wednesday to tour Waelz Sustainable Products ahead of the upcoming primary elections.

“It was fantastic,” WSP Plant Manager Mike Englert said. “Any time we get to have folks come visit and learn about our facility, I think that’s a great thing. We were excited to have them.”

Braun toured the factory and discussed rural America and industry’s role in farming communities with WSP employees.

Englert said Braun’s team was interested in visiting new facilities in the area when planning the tour, and it made sense to visit WSP since it is one of the newest industries in Cass County.

“For us, it’s a sense of pride,” Englert said. “Everybody here is working very hard, and any chance we get to show off what we have, that’s a really good thing.”

The event was a brief stop on Braun’s tour of all 92 Indiana counties. He said it takes careful planning to visit every county, but it is important to see his constituents and get out into the community.

APRIL 26 — AUBURN — Before returning to Washington, Sen. Mike Braun, R-Indiana, made a swing through Northeast Indiana to cap off his trip home to the Hoosier State.

Braun was in Angola on April 21 for the GOP’s Lincoln Day dinner before stopping in Ashley on April 22 to tour the Brightmark facility. After a brief tour of the plastics recycling facility, it was off to Noble County and a stop at Airframe Components in Kendallville, before a roundtable discussion with Whitley County government and business leaders. The senator ended his day in Wabash.

Braun visited the plant on an off-day for employees as the plastics’ recycler celebrated Earth Day.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) – Indiana Sen. Mike Braun made a stop in South Bend on Thursday as part of his annual “92 County Tour” across the Hoosier state.

Braun met with the Notre Dame College Republicans to discuss his work in the Senate and answer their questions.

Afterwards, he took questions on several different topics from the media. One of those topics was the ongoing the war in Ukraine.

“I think they are gathering to maybe make sure they control the eastern part of Ukraine and down around Crimea,” Braun said. “And I’m a believer now that stay out of getting entangled with any of our own soldiers on the ground. But between us and NATO, the resources are almost 20-to-1, if not closer to 25-to-1, over the Russian resources.”

He also commented on student loan relief as federal student loan debt passed $1.6 trillion dollars.

“I think there’s a lot schools can do to lower costs, to keep debt lower. When it comes to forgiving, uh I think that’s a slippery slope because it may help those that are thinking they may not need it. A lot of debt is probably held by families that have fairly decent incomes. That’s complicated,” Braun said. “We need to solve the root source of the problem and that is get colleges to run a more efficient enterprise and do the hard things in life that probably don’t need the federal government, it needs institutions to get together.”

At the end of this week, Braun will be close to visiting half of the 92 counties in Indiana.

FOUNTAIN CITY, Ind. — Sen. Mike Braun plans 2022 visits to all 92 Indiana counties.

Tuesday was Wayne County’s turn.

Braun, a Republican from Greenwood, met with teachers and school administrators at Northeastern Wayne Schools. The stop was one of 17 he’ll make this week to southeastern and East Central Indiana counties.

“I always learn a lot when I visit Hoosier schools on my 92 County Tour,” Braun said in a news release. “Today I spoke with teachers and administrators at Northeastern Wayne Schools in Wayne County to hear about the challenges rural schools face and how they’re dealing with them.”

GREENSBURG — U.S. Senator Mike Braun (R-Indiana) made a stop by KOVA Fertilizer Tuesday morning to meet with a small group of constituents and get their feedback on various issues.

AUGUST 17 — 26 miles of double railroad tracks are being installed between Michigan City and Gary.

It’s a project designed to not only speed up but increase the amount of travel passenger travel by South Shore.

Senator Mike Braun (R) said he helped with the original planning of the project, so he wanted to see what it looked like in person.

As part of his tour of every county in Indiana, Senator Braun spent an hour asking project managers questions about the double track’s future.

“I wanted to learn what they expect to get marginally after this big investment. To me it sounds like it makes sense because there is so many jobs in Chicago. The hardest thing about getting to take advantage of it is how you get there and how much time it takes,” said Braun.

But Braun also says seeing it in person, he can envision the economic promise the double tracks could provide.

In Indianapolis during his 92 County Tour, Senator Braun stopped in to WIBC’s Hammer & Nigel Show to discuss what he’s learned on this year’s tour, why he’s against President Biden’s student debt transfer to Americans without college degrees, and to see how many Indiana counties he can name in 30 seconds.