Indiana state senators who drew the ire of President Donald Trump after foiling a Republican-led mid-decade congressional redistricting effort lost to Trump-backed candidates on Tuesday night. A total of eight Republican state senators who opposed redistricting faced primary challengers, including seven backed by Trump. Multiple analysts have called the races for five of those challengers: Trevor De Vries in District 1, Brian Schmutzler in District 11, Blake Fiechter in District 19, Tracey Powell in District 21, and Michelle Davis in District 41.
One incumbent, Sen. Greg Goode in District 38, advanced to November’s general election. The race between incumbent Sen. Spencer Deery and challenger Paula Copenhaver in District 23 was too close to call. In District 6, James Starkey, who was not endorsed by Trump, defeated incumbent Sen. Rick Niemeyer with 55.6% of the vote.
Fiechter defeated Sen. Travis Holdman with 61.5% of the vote. Holdman, seeking to retain a seat he had held since 2008, was the highest-ranking member of the Senate’s GOP leadership to face a Trump-endorsed challenger after voting against the redistricting bill in December.
That made him a proxy for Trump’s ire directed at Senate Republican leader Rodric Bray, who is not up for reelection until 2028. Holdman chairs the Senate majority caucus and leads the chamber’s Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee.
Sen. Jim Buck, 80, an Indiana lawmaker since 1994, lost to Powell, a Tipton County commissioner, who finished with 64.7% of the vote. Buck, who was facing his first primary challenge since joining the state Senate in 2008, was backed by Mike Pence, the former vice president and Indiana governor.
Trump’s intervention in state-level races brought a flood of money and national attention to Indiana. Roughly $12 million was spent on advertising across the seven contests with a Trump-endorsed challenger, according to ad-tracking data. Most of the money came from Trump-allied outside groups opposing the incumbents.
“Good luck to those Great Indiana Senate Candidates who are running against people who couldn’t care less about our Country, or about keeping the Majority in Congress,” Trump wrote earlier Tuesday on Truth Social.
The Republican-led state Senate voted down a redrawn congressional map that could have added two GOP House seats. The effort was part of a broader mid-decade redistricting fight ahead of the midterm elections, when control of the narrowly divided House will be up for grabs.
