Trump-Backed Challengers Oust Five Indiana GOP Senators in Redistricting Revenge Primaries

President Trump's push to remove Indiana Republicans who blocked his redistricting plan mostly worked on Tuesday.

The Associated Press projected that five state senators who voted against redrawing the state's House maps last year lost their Republican primaries to Trump-endorsed challengers. A sixth candidate backed by Trump won the GOP primary in an open seat where a Republican who rejected redistricting chose not to seek reelection.

One senator beat a primary challenge supported by the president on Tuesday. Another race between an anti-redistricting Republican and a Trump endorsee lacked a projected winner late Tuesday, with the candidates separated by a slim margin.

The Statehouse effort tested Trump's hold on his party in races that rarely draw Oval Office attention. It showed his strong focus on redistricting battles nationwide.

Trump drove a redistricting plan in Texas that boosted Republicans in more U.S. House seats. The moves sparked fights between Democrats and Republicans in statehouses across the country, including Indiana, where Trump won by 19 points in 2024.

The White House pressed Indiana Republicans, and GOP Gov. Mike Braun backed a map that would give Republicans an edge in all nine congressional districts, displacing two Democrats. The map cleared the state House.

State Senate President Rodric Bray said the measure lacked votes to pass, even with Republicans' 40-10 supermajority. It failed on a floor vote, with 21 Republicans, including Bray, opposed.

The dissenters cited moral concerns, like setting a bad precedent, and practical ones, such as doubts about winning all nine seats in a hard year. Bray told CNN on Tuesday that the GOP caucus split fairly evenly but concluded it was not the right path for Indiana.

Ball State University professor Chad Kinsella told CBS News before the primaries that Hoosiers dislike gerrymandering. "Ultimately, I think that gerrymandering just doesn't play well in Indiana," he said. "I think those people were also concerned that they couldn't go back home and that their constituents would be OK with that."

Trump attacked the defiant Republicans and promised payback. He endorsed candidates in eight contested races Tuesday, calling the incumbents "pathetic," "incompetent" and RINOs, or Republicans In Name Only, in Truth Social posts. He skipped endorsement in one seat held by a redistricting supporter and backed 11 incumbents who voted for the map.

Groups allied with Trump funneled money to the challengers. Bray estimated Tuesday that $9 million came from out of state. The Indiana Senate Republican Caucus responded by spending more than in all of 2022.

AdImpact tracked $13.5 million in ad spending for the Indiana State Senate primaries this cycle, up from under $300,000 two years ago.

Some senators who opposed redistricting faced doxxing and harassment even before the vote.

Trump vowed in January: "We're after you Bray, like no one has ever come after you before!" Indiana's staggered elections mean Bray faces no reelection until 2028, but his leadership role may suffer from Tuesday's outcomes.

"It is what it is," Bray told CNN about Trump's threat. He expressed no regrets over the vote. "Indiana's going to do things the way Indiana needs to do them," Bray said.