A Seymour Republican hoping to become the next U.S. senator from Indiana admits he has a tough row to hoe when it comes to beating the party’s chosen candidate — Indiana Third District Congressman Jim Banks of Columbia City — but that doesn’t bother him.

“I have never run for office — not for dog catcher or anything,” John Rust said Thursday afternoon.

The Senate seat is presently held by Republican Mike Braun of Jasper, who is giving up the seat at the end of 2024 to run for Indiana governor.

“I’ve always been a farmer,” he said. “I got into this last fall. I got on Twitter (now known as X) and I started following some social issues on the gay issues that affect people like me. I’m married to a guy. I just don’t want everybody typecasting that’s who I am. That’s not me. I’m an American first. I’m a chicken farmer.”

Rust is chairman of Rose Acre Farms and has spent his life with the company founded by his father, Dave Rust, in the early 1950s. The Seymour-based company now has facilities in seven states and employs 2,000 people.

He started working at the company in the blizzard years of 1977 and 1978.

“We could not go to school, so Dad or my older brother, Marcus, would put us in a car and go to P1 or P2 and gather eggs,” Rust said of his other siblings. “When you’re 11 years old … back then, I did not like it, but looking back, it was the best experience of my life absolutely. It was good, honest, hard work, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

He went on to work at about every job with the company, but that doesn’t have anything to do with why he is running for the Senate in a race also includes two Democratic candidates. They are former Indianapolis City-County Councilman Keith Potts and Marc Carmichael, a state representative from Muncie from 1986 to 1991 and the longtime president and lobbyist for the Indiana Beverage Alliance, a group of beer distributors.

“I got into the race because I am concerned about what’s happening in society on transgender issue for kids especially,” Rust said. “…and for pornography in front of the kids because I don’t believe that’s a gay right. I think that’s taking away the rights of children. I think young people like me can find our own way. We don’t need someone to say you need to do this or that. That’s where I’m at. It’s a pretty conservative position.”

He said he believes people don’t care what goes on behind closed doors.

“It’s real simple, but what I have found is this is a huge issue,” Rust said. “It’s a growing issue. A lot of people think I agree with that because I happen to be gay. They’re scared to talk to me about it.”

He said he feels he needs to speak out because the support for gay marriage is going down right now because the left is so hard on an agenda of pushing transgenderism especially. He also said he disagrees with transgender men competing against females.

Rust said he questions why a gay person as a drag queen can go in and perform in front of a young kid and a heterosexual male can’t do the same.

“That’s a special right and not an equal right,” he said. “I believe in equal rights under the law.”

That includes equal rights for gay men and women.

Rust said he views the U.S. Senate as a way to get his views about the issues out there.

“If I’m successful, I want to be able to look at Supreme Court justice nominees in the eye and say that’s not a gay right for someone to go into a school and do this stuff,” he said.

Rust said now that he has announced his candidacy, he plans to hit the road and visit each of the state’s 92 counties to gather signatures so he can have ballot access.

There are some other issues he plans to tackle if elected, including inflation, which is clobbering everyone, especially retirees, who are finding they cannot afford what they thought they could.

“That’s not right,” he said. “The problem is I think politicians just keep kicking the can down the road. They pass these continuing resolutions to fund the government with X amount of increases without looking at it. I want to actually get into it and say, ‘No. You’ve got to have department by department budget resolutions.’”

Rust said politicians in Washington, D.C., just can’t keep doing what they are doing, especially since they keep claiming they are going to change it every time.

“They never do it,” he said. “The debt is increasing as I understand it at $250 per person per week. That’s why we are having this massive inflation.”

Banks already has the endorsement of national and state Indiana Republican committees and the Senate Republican committee.

“The fix is in, and frankly, I think they are scared of me because they can’t control me,” Rust said. “I’m a chicken farmer. I’m an outsider.”

Rust said he hopes that gives him an advantage along with his stance on term limits.

“I absolutely believe in term limits,” he said. “I’m 56 years old. I would hope to serve two terms and get out. I don’t want to get in politics as a career. I just want to go in there and work really hard as I have done at Rose Acre.”

He said there was a day when the Democratic Party was the party of the working man and woman.

“It used to be the party of the farmer,” Rust said. “It has gone so far left there is just no way you can support.”

He also said he doesn’t think politicians should stay in Washington.

“You have to be back here,” Rust said. “You have to understand where you are from. I was born in Seymour right across from my campaign office. It’s just important.”

Other issues on Rust’s plate include not allowing cuts to Social Security and watching out for Hoosiers, especially those in Jackson County and surrounding counties. That includes those who have worked for Rose Acre Farms.

“Everyone who has worked at Rose Acre has made Rose Acre what it is today,” he said.

Rust opened his campaign headquarters at 312 W. Tipton St. in downtown Seymour earlier this week.