Trump-backed challengers oust incumbents in Indiana Senate after president’s threats of retribution
Donald Trump secured significant victories in a deeply conservative state on Tuesday, as a majority of Republican state senators who opposed his redistricting plan lost their primary races to challengers he endorsed.
This outcome, just four months after the state’s lawmakers rejected his proposed redistricting, saw at least four of the seven Trump-backed challengers emerge victorious.
Twenty-one Republican senators had voted against redistricting in December, with eight running for reelection. Trump endorsed primary opponents against seven of these, and his allies spent millions on these typically low-profile contests.
The costly and unprecedented intraparty battle has exacerbated tensions among Republicans ahead of the November midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress.
Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith said the state Senate primary races are pitting “the Republicans who tend to want to avoid the fight and the Republicans who feel like we need to fight.”
“So the only question is, ‘Will you fight or will you get trampled by the other side?’” Beckwith said.
Trump began leaning on Republican-led states last year to redraw their congressional maps to make it easier for his party to hold its thin majority in the U.S. House. Although redistricting is normally done once a decade, after a new census, Trump wanted to abandon tradition to gain a political edge.
Texas was the first to follow through, and the White House pressured Indiana to go along too. Vice President JD Vance met with state politicians in Washington and Indianapolis, and Trump weighed in by conference call.
However, Indiana senators rebuffed the effort, one of the president’s first significant political defeats of his second term.
The redistricting fight divided Republicans in Indiana, a state Trump won three times by no less than 16 points. Republican Gov. Mike Braun, U.S. Sen. Jim Banks and organizations such as Turning Point Action have worked alongside Trump to unseat the incumbents.
“Big night for MAGA in Indiana,” Banks posted on social media.
Jim Bopp, a prominent Indiana attorney who leads a political action committee aligned with Braun, predicted that Trump’s support will carry the day for the challengers.
“Republican voters overwhelmingly support Trump and when they find out Trump has endorsed a particular Senate candidate, they swing their support behind them,” he said.
Opposition to the effort came from anti-Trump Republicans and those wary of the president reaching so deeply into state decision-making. Former Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, who had stepped away from politics after leaving the governorship in 2015, reemerged to help raise money for targeted incumbents.
