Dan Coats won the open race for Democrat Evan Bayh’s seat, defeating Democrat Rep. Brad Ellsworth by a 14.6 percentage point margin. After serving in both the US House and Senate for nearly 20 years, Coats worked as the US Ambassador to Germany until 2005. In an election night speech, Coats advocated earmark reform, balancing the budget, and “getting Hoosiers back to work.”
This seat was one of the six Republican pickups in the Senate.