US Senator Jim Banks’ "My Sisters and Me" Era Ends: Multiple Banks Endorsed Candidates In Indiana Lost On Election Night

Every Candidate in Indiana endorsed by US Senator Jim Banks lost YUGE!!

11/14/2026 - INDIANAPOLIS, IN — Break out the tissues on Capitol Hill, Hoosiers! If there were a trophy for political face-plants, U.S. Senator Jim Banks would need a bigger mantle after Tuesday night’s November 3 midterm catastrophe turned his prized political machine into a smoking crater!

For months, the junior Senator acted like the undisputed kingmaker of the Indiana GOP, hand-picking candidates, cutting deals, and promising a red wave across the Crossroads of America. Instead? Voters handed Banks and his inner circle a historic, humbling defeat that ended a 32-year Republican streak in the Secretary of State's office and shattered the Statehouse supermajority!

THE HAND-PICKED PROTÉGÉ WHO TANKED

First on the chopping block: Max Engling, Banks’ very own former Senate staffer whom the Senator aggressively recruited to oust incumbent Diego Morales at the June state convention. Banks promised Hoosiers that Engling was the "stronger candidate who can win in November". 

WRONG! Engling got steamrolled by Democrat Beau Bayh, handing the Secretary of State’s office to the Democrats for the first time since 1994! 

And let's talk about the cash! Engling’s campaign was dogged for months by campaign finance complaints—including an eyebrow-raising $60,000 dark-money wire from a mysterious group called Hoosier Leadership for America. Engling’s team claimed they caught the sketchy wire during an "internal review" and sent it back two weeks later, insisting they couldn't stop a wire once it hit. Voters clearly weren't buying what Banks' protégé was selling! 

THE POWER COUPLE’S DOUBLE DISASTER

The plot thickens inside Engling’s own war room! Campaign spokeswoman Chloe Anagnos Pierce—who raked in over $31,000 from Engling’s campaign while spinning the $60,000 wire fiasco to the press—wasn't the only Pierce taking a bruising this cycle. 

Her husband, Banks-backed State Representative Kyle Pierce, got shown the exit door by voters in House District 36, losing his seat to Democrat Kimberly Townsend by a whopping 9 points (54.6% to 45.4%)! Between spinning campaign finance headaches by day and watching a two-term Statehouse seat evaporate by night, Tuesday was a nightmare the Pierce household won't soon forget.

"LIARLAND" PACKS HIS BAGS!

And let’s not forget the self-proclaimed "America First" sidekick who chaired Engling’s convention campaign: State Representative Andrew Ireland—affectionately known around these parts as "Liarland."

After spending the summer cheerleading for Engling and surviving prediction-market drama, Ireland found out the hard way that swagger doesn't win ballots. Voters in House District 90 sent him packing, electing Democrat David Boyd (51.1% to 48.9%) and cutting Ireland’s Statehouse career short after just one term.

WHAT NOW, SENATOR?

With his former staffer defeated, his allies ousted from the Statehouse, and Democrats celebrating their biggest Indiana night in over a decade, Senator Jim Banks is now scrambling to hit the pause button on Senate leadership votes and launching a "rebuilding tour".

One thing is crystal clear to Hoosiers from Lake Michigan to the Ohio River: when Jim Banks picks the horses, you might want to bet on the other stable!

Stay tuned to the Hoosier Enquirer—we’ll keep bringing you the unfiltered truth the establishment wants buried!