Todd Christopher Young (born August 24, 1972) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator for Indiana, a seat he has held since 2017. From 2011 to 2017, he was the U.S. representative for Indiana's 9th congressional district. Young is a member of the Republican Party. He was elected to the United States Senate in the November 8, 2016, general election, succeeding retiring Republican Dan Coats. From 2019 to 2021, he served as the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.


== Early life and education ==
Young was born August 24, 1972, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the second of three children of Nancy R. (née Pierce) and Bruce H. Young. He lived in Marion County, Indiana, for several years before settling in Hamilton County, Indiana, where he attended public schools and won a state soccer championship. In 1990, Young graduated from Carmel High School in Carmel, Indiana.


== Military career ==
After graduating from high school, Young enlisted in the United States Navy and reported for duty in Newport, Rhode Island. In May 1991, he received an appointment from the Secretary of the Navy to attend the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where his classmates elected him a class officer and he earned a varsity letter as a member of Navy's NCAA Division I soccer team. He graduated cum laude in 1995, earning a B.S. in political science, and accepted a commission in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Upon graduating from Annapolis, Young trained for six months at the Basic School in Quantico, Virginia. In 1996, he completed the Naval Intelligence Officer Basic Course in Dam Neck, Virginia. Young then led the intelligence department of VMU-2, an unmanned aerial vehicle squadron based in Cherry Point, North Carolina. In 2000 while stationed in the Chicago area, Young earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.


== Post-military career ==
Young was honorably discharged from active duty in 2000 as a U.S. Marine Captain. After leaving active duty, Young spent a year in London, attending the University of London's Institute of United States Studies. After writing a thesis on the economic history of Midwestern agriculture, in 2001 Young received his MA in American politics.In the summer of 2001, Young traveled to former Communist countries in Eastern Europe where he studied the transition from centrally planned economies to free markets through an executive education program with the Leipzig Graduate School of Management, the first private business school in eastern Germany. He worked as an adjunct professor of public affairs at Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs and attended law school at night. In 2004, he joined Indiana-based Crowe Chizek and Company as a management consultant, helping state and local government clients improve service delivery to Indiana citizens.In 2006, Young earned his J.D. from the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, where he was President of the school's Federalist Society chapter. Upon graduation he joined the Paoli, Indiana-based firm Tucker and Tucker, P.C. Young is a member of the 2007 class of the Indiana Leadership Forum.


== Early political career ==
In 2001, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he briefly worked at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Then he became a staffer for U.S. senator Richard Lugar. In 2003, Young volunteered for Mitch Daniels's campaign for governor of Indiana. He was a delegate to the Indiana Republican state convention. From 2007 to 2010, Young served as Assistant Deputy Prosecutor for Orange County, Indiana. In 2007, Young founded a fiscal responsibility advocacy group, the National Organization for People vs. Irresponsible Government Spending.


== U.S. House of Representatives ==


=== Elections ===
2010
On January 26, 2009, Young announced that he would run for the United States congressional seat in Indiana's 9th district as a Republican.Young competed with fellow Republicans Mike Sodrel and Travis Hankins for the party's nomination for Congress and won, challenging incumbent Democrat Baron Hill in the general election. Young received endorsements from former Vice President Dan Quayle as well as Lieutenant Governor Becky Skillman, Attorney General Greg Zoeller, Secretary of State Todd Rokita, Auditor Tim Berry, and Treasurer Richard Mourdock.Young won the primary and general elections, defeating incumbent Baron Hill on November 2, 2010, and was seated in the 112th Congress in January 2011.
2012
Young defeated Shelli Yoder, winning 55% of the vote in the newly redrawn 9th district.
2014
Young defeated Bill Bailey, winning 62% of the vote.


=== Tenure ===
Young is a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership along with three other Republican senators. The Main Street Partnership is considered to be an association of moderate Republicans. In 2013 the National Journal gave Young an overall composite rating of 69%