ROANOKE, Ind. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Marlin Stutzman has entered Indiana’s U.S. Senate race to replace retiring Republican Sen. Dan Coats.

The three-term congressman from northeast Indiana’s 3rd District announced his Senate bid Saturday in the small Huntington County town of Roanoke.

His entry into the race pits him against former Indiana Republican Party Chairman Eric Holcomb, who announced his candidacy last month after the 71-year-old Coats announced he wouldn’t seek re-election in 2016.

Coats defeated Stutzman, a tea party favorite, in the 2010 Republican U.S. Senate primary election.

Possible Democratic candidates include former Rep. Baron Hill and former Sen. Evan Bayh, who didn’t seek a third term in 2010.

Stutzman was first elected to Congress after GOP Rep. Mark Souder abruptly resigned in 2010 after admitting an extramarital affair with a staffer.