Exclusive — Rep. Jim Banks: GOP Must 'Lean into' Cultural Issues Ahead of the Election

Republican Study Committee (RSC) Chairman Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) said it is important for the Republican Party to “lean into” cultural issues as they gear up to take back the House and Senate from Democrat control in November.

When asked by Breitbart News what the RSC is focusing on to help Republicans take back the House this year, Banks pointed to a memo he wrote to his RSC colleagues one year ago, where he “told them to lean into these culture issues.”

“Don’t back away from them. Lean into them. And in hindsight, we couldn’t have been more right,” Banks said.

“Our voters expect us to fight back against Critical Race Theory, anti-American ideologies being taught in schools, radical gender theories being taught in schools, and pushed on our institutions, stopping biological boys and men from competing in girls and women’s sports,” he continued. And indeed, this has worked, as seen in November with Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) victory in Virginia.

“So these are big issues that the vast majority of Americans are on our side, so lean into it. Lean into these big fights that are important to our voters and we’ll be rewarded for it, and I think we’re seeing that very much come true,” he added, using Florida. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) as a prime example of a leader who stands up to bullies.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during a campaign event on October 23, 2020 in The Villages, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

“The Florida bill is a really good bill and I strongly applaud Gov. DeSantis and the state legislatures in Florida for passing it,” he said of the Parental Rights in Education act, which DeSantis signed this week. It prohibits classroom discussions on sexual orientation and gender identity for children in kindergarten through third grade.

“Parents don’t want their elementary-school age kids going to school and having a radical gender theory ideology pushed on them or other left-wing ideologies pushed on them when they’re in first, second and third grades,” Banks said, noting that “woke corporate CEOs and the ACLU and others” are “trying to push their agenda and influence governors and state legislatures to back down.”

“But the biggest lesson we learn over and over again that nobody teaches us more than Gov. DeSantis is that when you don’t back down to bullies, voters reward you for it,” he said