A financial adviser for 13 years, Don Bates Jr. seems determined to find a place for himself in Congress
A financial adviser for 13 years, Don Bates Jr. seems determined to find a place for himself in Congress.
The resident of Richmond, Ind., is vying with at least three other contenders for the Republican nomination in Indiana's 6th District, to be decided in a primary next May. The House seat is currently held by Mike Pence, a Republican who is vacating the position to run for governor.
In 2010, Mr. Bates sought the Senate seat vacated by Democrat Evan Bayh, but finished a distant fourth in the Republican primary (with less than 5% of the vote) behind the seat's eventual winner, Dan Coats, who earlier served a decade in the Senate.
“I don't aspire to be a career politician,” said Mr. Bates, who is registered with Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network LLC. “But a couple years ago, I grew weary of being an armchair quarterback watching the nation I love go down the drain.”
A self-described Reagan Republican, he is a strong advocate for making the Bush tax cuts permanent and abolishing the federal estate tax.
“For a person to have to face the tax at the end of life when those assets should be transferring to the next generation is not only wrong, it's immoral in my opinion,” said Mr. Bates, who is married with two sons.
“I've never forgotten that it's not my money that I'm advising, as opposed to many in Washington who have forgotten whose money they're spending,” he said in a phone interview.
Providing financial advice is about relationships and listening to clients, two of his skills that will benefit the people of Indiana if he is elected, Mr. Bates said.
