Trump-backed candidates win majority of Republican primary races for
Indiana Senate
[May 06, 2026]
By SCOTT BAUER, OBED LAMY and THOMAS BEAUMONT
COLUMBUS, Ind. (AP) — A majority of Republican Indiana state senators
whose opponents were endorsed by President Donald Trump lost on Tuesday,
a display of the president's enduring influence over his party after
lawmakers rejected his redistricting plan five months ago.
Of the seven challengers endorsed by Trump, at least five won. One
incumbent prevailed and the seventh race was too close to call.
“Big night for MAGA in Indiana,” U.S. Sen. Jim Banks wrote on social
media, adding that he was “proud to have helped elect more conservative
Republicans to the Indiana State Senate.”
The president’s allies spent at least $8.3 million on races that rarely
get much attention from Washington. It’s been a costly and unprecedented
intraparty battle that has exacerbated tensions among Republicans ahead
of the November midterm elections that will determine control of
Congress.
State Sen. Travis Holdman, one of the incumbents to lose his primary,
said he was at peace with his defeat. He voted against redistricting and
faced more than $1.3 million in attack advertising funded by
organizations tied to Banks and Gov. Mike Braun.
“I did what my constituents asked me to do and it cost me my job,” he
says. “But that’s OK.”
Holdman warned that a more aggressive style of campaigning was arriving
in his state.
“Welcome to D.C. politics in Indiana because this means that’s what’s
coming,” he said.
The race that was too close to call was the most expensive of the seven
primaries.
The superpacs led by Banks and Braun combined to spend more than $2.2
million on advertising attacking Sen. Spencer Deery, according to the
ad-tracking firm AdImpact. Deery spent roughly $815,000 on advertising,
according to AdImpact, having only spent a combined $142,000 on the 2022
primary and general election when he was first elected.
Indiana rejected Trump on redistricting
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. Braun, Banks and
organizations such as Turning Point Action have worked alongside Trump
to unseat the incumbents.
Jim Bopp, a prominent Indiana attorney who leads a political action
committee aligned with Braun, predicted that Trump’s support would carry
the day for the challengers.
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A general exterior view of the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis,
April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/AJ Mast, File)
“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.
Voters had mixed views on Trump’s involvement
In Columbus, Ronda Millig voted for Trump-backed Michelle Davis over
redistricting opponent Sen. Greg Walker. Davis won.
“I really believed some of the things I had heard about him,” said
Millig, a retiree. “It didn’t seem like he was someone I wanted in
office.”
But Milling did not say that Trump’s endorsement was the deciding
factor.
“That doesn’t always mean anything,” she said.
Madison Long, who is 28 and a lawyer, who also voted for Walker,
criticizing Davis for her ties to Trump.
“She doesn’t have any promises of her own or any agenda of her own. Her
goal is to just follow Trump,” Long said. “I find that extremely
concerning given the nature of the nationwide politics.”
Indiana opposition came from constituents, former governor
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.
The state senators who broke with Trump said they were listening to
their constituents who were overwhelmingly against his redistricting
proposal. Some said they didn’t like Trump’s aggressive tone in pushing
the plan.
“We hate to be told what to do,” said Mike Murphy, a former Republican
state representative. “We’re very independent thinking people. So when
Donald Trump and his goons come in and try to tell us that we need to
redistrict to help his political future, that’s the worst thing you can
do.”
Bopp, who supported the Trump-backed challengers, said the primary was a
chance for Indiana Republicans to express how important it is to redraw
the congressional lines there.
“It’s not a matter of Trump’s power,” Bopp said. “It’s about Republican
primary voters who support his agenda and don’t want a Democratic House
that will be hugely destructive to the Trump presidency and the
country.”
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An earlier version of this story was corrected to show a candidate’s
last name is Fiechter, not Fletcher.
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