Former Sen. Dan Coats tells Republican primary voters he was a reliable conservative vote in a commercial planned to run from now until the May 4 primary.

“As a conservative Senator, I fought against higher taxes and big spending, and I stood up for life and the Second Amendment,” a casually dressed Coats says in the ad.

Coats is the first Senate candidate on the air in the GOP primary, where he is battling former Rep. John Hostettler and state Sen. Marlin Stutzman. Hostettler has criticized Coats’ votes nearly two decades ago for the Brady bill and a ban on certain semiautomatic assault-style weapons.

The Democratic nominee in the contest to succeed retiring Sen. Evan Bayh (D) is all but certain to be Rep. Brad Ellsworth.