Hoosier Housecleaning—Indiana Voters Send a Message Legacy RINOs Can't Ignore

Gov. Braun and Sen. Banks help Trump prove that in redistricting wars, principled losers are still losers.

The mainstream media spent weeks telling us that challenging Republican State Senators who defied President Donald Trump's push to redistrict Indiana would backfire. The pundits crowed that spending millions to defeat them over a single vote was doomed and predicted Indiana voters would resent outside money and D.C. interference.

In the end, the voters disagreed. On May 5, Hoosier Republicans delivered a message that unilaterally disarming on principles will not be rewarded and sent these Republican fossils of congeniality packing.

Trump-endorsed challengers went five-for-seven against incumbent State Senators Travis Holdman, Jim Buck, Linda Rogers, Dan Dernulc, and Rick Niemeyer. Holdman had held his seat since 2008, served as the Senate majority caucus chair, and sat as leader of the Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee.

Only Sen. Greg Goode of Terre Haute has held on against his challenger, a Vigo County Council Member. Another State Senator, Spencer Deery, leads by only four votes in a race too close to call.

Republican Squishes Get Squashed

Although 21 Republicans joined Democrats to kill the redistricting bill 31–19 last December, two are not running for reelection. Another anti-redistricting Republican, Sen. Greg Walker, changed his mind about retiring and lost his primary in a landslide. That means defeating four would be enough if those four challengers go on to win their general elections.

While former Govs. Mitch Daniels and Mike Pence endorsed the incumbents, Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) and Gov. Mike Braun deserve credit for helping send these squishes packing.

Two political groups affiliated with Banks poured several million dollars into television, digital, and radio advertising against these senators. The Banks-aligned groups—Hoosier Leadership for America and American Leadership PAC—were the state's top political advertisers, spending a combined $9 million.

Gov. Mike Braun supported the challengers but acknowledged on May 6 that it is too late to retry redistricting before the 2026 elections. However, with this new slate of senators taking their seats, redistricting supporters will have a clear path to passing new maps in time for the 2028 congressional races.

Why These Republicans Deserved to Lose

Redistricting mid-decade is not an enjoyable exercise. It’s expensive, politically draining, and requires lawmakers to make difficult decisions about communities with genuine geographic and cultural coherence. But these incumbents suffered from myopia, clinging to a political model from years past in which both parties coexisted in an environment of patriotic commonality.

Harmony will not keep the Republican House majority. Only wielding power will do that. In an age in which the Democratic Party poses an unconventional threat to the country’s values, Republican officials unaccustomed or unwilling to do that must make way for fighters who will defend our way of life.

Democrats came to understand the power dynamic long ago and have acted accordingly. They do not agonize over fractured community ties, precedents, or norms. They count votes and seats. If they need more, they find more.

California Democrats redrew their congressional map so thoroughly that Republican representation will become negligible. California Democrats and their donor allies spent roughly $100 million on it—over double what Republicans and their allies spent opposing it.

Likewise, Virginia Democrats recently violated their state’s constitution to ram through a redistricting referendum they barely won after out-of-state donors dumped nearly tens of millions of dollars on it.

Virginia’s vote could not have come at a worse time for these squishy Indiana incumbents. It reminded voters why Braun and Banks’ deep-pocketed allies were waging an incessant ad war against these establishment Republicans. It reminded these voters of what Democrats were willing to do to gain and hold power, in contrast to their own weak elected officials living in a congenial fantasy land.

Neville Chamberlain Republicans

By unilaterally disarming in the face of scorched-earth gerrymandering in blue states, these Republican State Senators gained nothing for the country or state. They do, however, win commendation from the mainstream media and the respect of liberal coastal elites.

The question was never whether redistricting is a positive outcome. Partisan gerrymandering is, in fact, a necessary evil to protect a Republican House majority. The question was always whether Indiana’s State Senators had the political willpower to retaliate in self-defense. These senators did not and have thankfully been thrown out.

The battle for Indiana redistricting is not yet over. With these six senators losing their primaries and two others departing voluntarily, victories for the Republican challengers on Nov. 3 could provide redistricting supporters with the 26-vote threshold to pass new maps before 2028. But these candidates must win their general elections. Republicans can rest assured that Democrats and Never-Trump Republicans In Name Only (RINOs) will spare no expense to keep that from happening. 

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