Portal:Indianapolis/Selected biography/15
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Evan Bayh (born December 26, 1955) is the junior United States Senator from Indiana. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Bayh was born in Shirkieville, Indiana to Marvella Belle Hern and Birch Bayh. Bayh attended the prestigious St. Albans School in Washington, D.C. for high school. He then went on to graduate with honors in business economics and public policy from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business in 1978, where he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi, and received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from the University of Virginia in 1981. He clerked for a federal court judge and entered a private law practice in Indianapolis. He has an honorary J.D. degree from Golden Gate University School of Law.
Bayh was elected Indiana's Secretary of State in 1986, where he served from 1987 to 1989. Bayh was first elected Governor of Indiana in 1988, defeating Frank O'Bannon in the primary, and defeating John Mutz in the general election. He was re-elected governor in 1992 with the highest percentage of the vote in a statewide election in modern Indiana history. Bayh was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1998 to the seat that was once held by his father. He won with 64% of the vote, the largest victory margin ever by a Democrat in a U.S. Senate race in Indiana, defeating former Fort Wayne Mayor Paul Helmke. He easily won reelection in 2004 defeating Prof. Marvin Scott, receiving 62% of the vote. He currently serves on five Senate committees: Banking Housing and Urban Affairs, on which he is the Chairman of the Subcommittee on International Trade and Finance; Armed Services; the Select Committee on Intelligence; the Special Committee on Aging; and the Small Business Committee.
