Trump-backed primary challengers defeat several Republicans after redistricting fight

Trump’s threat to punish Republicans who blocked his redistricting drive turned Indiana’s May 5 primaries into a blunt test of discipline inside the GOP. At least four of his endorsed challengers won, showing that a presidential endorsement can still reach deep into state politics and turn a local Senate ballot into a referendum on loyalty.

Blake Fiechter defeated state Sen. Travis Holdman in District 19, Tracey Powell beat state Sen. Jim Buck in District 21, and Michelle Davis ousted state Sen. Greg Walker in District 41. In the open District 39 race, Trump-backed Jeff Ellington won the Republican nomination. Greg Goode, another Trump target in District 38, held off Brenda Wilson, leaving the president with a mix of victories and one clear setback among the headline contests.

The stakes were created months earlier, when 21 Republican state senators joined 10 Democrats to sink a Trump-backed congressional map that would have aimed for a 9-0 GOP advantage in Indiana’s U.S. House delegation. Trump had vowed a MAGA primary against lawmakers who voted no, and the targeted senators represented districts he carried in 2024, often by wide margins. That made the primaries less about ideology in the abstract than about whether local Republicans could resist a president who treats party loyalty as a test of obedience.

The numbers also showed how much national money and attention can be poured into a state contest that would normally draw little notice. More than $12 million went into advertising in the Indiana Senate primaries, according to live election tracking, a spending surge that helped transform a handful of legislative races into a broader fight over whether Republican lawmakers answer first to their districts or to Trump himself.

The Indiana results point to a broader pattern Republicans now face nationally: Trump can impose real costs on dissenters, especially when allied groups flood low-turnout primaries with money and attention. But Goode’s survival suggests local identity and incumbency can still blunt presidential pressure, even in a state Trump won easily and where many of the targeted districts favored him by roughly 20 points or more.