CONGRESSMAN MIKE SODREL

Mike Sodrel was sworn in as the Congressman from Indiana’s ninth district on January 3, 2005.

A licensed truck driver, Sodrel built, owned and operated several companies in Southern Indiana before his coming to the House of Representatives.

Veteran Indiana political reporter Brian Howey has called Sodrel “as close to a ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington’ figure as you’ll find in Congress.”

In the House, Sodrel serves on the Agriculture, Transportation and Infrastructure, Small Business and Science committees.

For more than twenty years, both as a private citizen and as a Member of Congress, Mike Sodrel has worked toward building the Ohio River Bridges. To date, he has been able to secure $22 million in federal funding for the project.

David Hawpe, editorial director at the Louisville Courier-Journal, says Sodrel is “a smart man…a sophisticated man…a student of history and philosophy.”

In June of 1976, Congressman Sodrel established a passenger transportation business with three 1949 GMC transit buses and five employees and named it The Free Enterprise System. In 1987, Mike purchased Sodrel Truck Lines from his family. Under Mike’s stewardship the company grew from 150 employees to a 500-person operation with offices in Jeffersonville, Ind. and Indianapolis and trucks and motor coaches on highways across the Midwest.

From 1966 to1973 Sodrel served in the Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 151st Mechanized Infantry, formerly part of the 38th Infantry Division. He was discharged with the rank of Staff Sergeant.

Mike and his wife Keta have been married for thirty-eight years. They reside in New Albany, and have two grown children and seven granddaughters.