Republicans Take Election Night Shellacking From Trump Candidates After Helping Dems Kill Redistricting Bid

At least five of the seven Republican Indiana state senators whom President Donald Trump targeted for defeat lost their reelection bids Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.

The president had endorsed primary challengers against seven of the 21 Republicans in the Indiana state Senate who voted in December 2025 to block a redistricting effort backed by Trump and Gov. Mike Braun that would have likely flipped both of the state’s Democratic-held seats to the GOP in the midterms. Of the Trump-backed outsiders, five were able to pull of victories in a state the president carried by 19 points in 2024, with one race too close to call as of Wednesday morning — a positive early sign of Trump’s influence over his party’s electorate as November approaches.

The Trump-backed map blocked by the GOP-dominated Indiana State Senate would have likely resulted in Republicans winning all nine of the Hoosier State’s House seats, a net gain of two seats. The map would have given the GOP only half of the four seats they are projected to lose in Virginia due to the state’s aggressive voter-approved Democratic gerrymander, given it passes judicial muster.

Between January and April, Trump sent a series of Truth Social posts announcing his “Complete and Total” endorsements of the seven challengers and variously referring to the anti-redistricting incumbents he was targeting as Republicans in name only (RINOs) and “America last.” A total of $13.5 million — a virtually unprecedented sum for state legislative races — was spent on the competitive races with the lion’s share of this money going to the slate of candidates backed by the president, Politico reported.

“We could have easily picked up two seats in Indiana,” the president said in several of his posts, referring to the failure of the restricting vote. (RELATED: Soros-Linked Dark Money Puts Lopsided Democrat Gerrymander Of Virginia Across Finish Line)

State Sen. Greg Goode, who the president called “‘No Goode’ Greg Goode (BAD FOR THE U.S.A.!)” in a Feb. 25 Truth Social post, was able to buck the trend of the night, beating his Trump-backed opponent Brenda Wilson by a wide margin of 54% to 36%, according to the AP.

Trump added in his social media post that Goode’s decision to join 20 of his state senate colleagues in blocking the state’s proposed 9-0 Republican map “has made him a hero to Hakeem Jeffries, Ilhan Omar, and every other Radical Left Member of the U.S. House of Representatives.”

However, state Sen. Dan Dernulc was ousted by Trump-backed challenger Trevor De Vries by a landslide margin of over 50 percentage points, state Sen. Linda Rodgers fell to Trump-endorsed Brian Schmutzler by an 18-point margin and state Sen. Travis Holdman lost his GOP primary against the president’s pick Blake Fietcher by over 23 points, according to the AP.

Meanwhile, state Sen. Jim Buck, who Trump called “an America Last politician,” lost by nearly 30 points against businessman, chiropractor, and farmer Tracey Powell, whom the president endorsed, the outlet reported.

Buck notably received the support of former Vice President Mike Pence, who had served one term as Indiana’s governor from 2013 to 2017.

“Tonight, we learned that President Trump’s endorsement has more weight than former Vice President Pence’s in his home state of Indiana,” conservative activist Scott Presler, a prominent Trump ally, wrote on X shortly after Tuesday night’s results came in.

Tonight, we learned that President Trump’s endorsement

has more weight than former Vice President Pence’s in his home state of Indiana.

— ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) May 6, 2026

State Sen. Greg Walker, who reversed his initial decision to not seek reelection, lost to Trump-backed opponent Michelle Davis, 58.8% to 41.2%, according to the AP.

In the 23rd State Senate district, incumbent state Sen. Spencer Deery was locked in a neck-and-neck primary against Trump-backed Fountain County GOP Chair Paula Copenhaver that remained too close to call Wednesday morning, the AP  reported. Deery led by just three votes out of 12,000 cast with 99% of ballots counted.

Many of the Republican State Senators whom Trump endorsed against due to their redistricting vote otherwise carried reliably conservative records on other issues such as Second Amendment rights, The New York Times reported.

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