Mike Sodrel

For more than 30 years, Mike Sodrel has been getting things done for us in Southern Indiana as a community leader, a job creator, and as a Congressman.

Mike grew up along the Ohio River and graduated from New Albany High School in 1963. He married Marquita Dean of Jeffersonville in 1967. Like many newlyweds, they struggled to make ends meet.

Together they started their first business with just two employees and a dream for something more.  The Free Enterprise System began in June of 1976 with three 1949 GMC transit buses.  In 1987, Mike purchased Sodrel Truck Lines from his family. Under Mike’s stewardship the company grew from 150 employees to a 600-person operation with offices in Jeffersonville, Ind. and Indianapolis and trucks and motor coaches on highways across the Midwest.

From 1966 to 1973 Sodrel served in the Indiana 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.
In 2004, Mike was elected to Congress and fought for Hoosier values, lower taxes, a secure homeland and important Indiana transportation needs.

In the House, Mike Served on the Agriculture Committee, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Small Business Committee, and Science Committee.

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

For more then twenty five years, both as a member of Congress and as a private citizen, Mike Sodrel has worked toward building the Ohio River Bridges. He was able to secure $22 million in federal funding for the project.

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