Evan Bayh, born in 1955, Democratic member of the United States Senate from Indiana (1999- ). Bayh was born in Sharkieville, Indiana, to a politically prominent family. His parents were active in the Democratic Party, and his father, Birch Evans Bayh, Jr., was a U.S. senator from Indiana from 1962 to 1980. Evan Bayh earned a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University in 1978 and a law degree from the University of Virginia in 1981. He clerked for a judge and worked for a law firm in Washington, D.C., before returning to Indiana to practice law.

Bayh was elected Indiana secretary of state in 1986. In 1988, at the age of 33, he became the youngest governor of Indiana in the 20th century. Bayh’s stint as governor was characterized by a fiscally conservative approach. He easily won reelection in 1992 and left office in 1997 with a 79 percent approval rating. Bayh has been a member of the United States Senate since 1999.