Trump-Aligned Groups Pour Nearly $7 Million Into Indiana Senate Primaries to Oust Redistricting Opponents
Why It Matters
Indiana’s Republican state senate primaries on Tuesday are shaping up as a high-stakes test of President Trump’s ability to punish members of his own party who defied him on a key political priority. The outcome could signal how much political risk congressional and state lawmakers face when breaking with the White House on partisan redistricting efforts.
Nearly $7 million in television ad spending has flooded Indiana state senate races in 2026 — an extraordinary sum for state legislative contests — with the bulk targeting seven incumbent Republican senators who voted against a Trump-backed mid-decade congressional redistricting plan late last year.
What Happened
Late in 2025, seven Republican state senators voted against President Trump’s push to redraw Indiana’s congressional maps mid-decade. Trump responded publicly on Truth Social, writing that those Republicans “should be ashamed of themselves” and that “every one of these people should be primaried.” The threat quickly became action.
A Trump-aligned dark money group channeled $1.5 million to an organization running television ads against the incumbent senators. The Club for Growth, led by former Indiana congressman David McIntosh, contributed an additional roughly $2 million, largely through mailers. In total, according to ad tracking firm AdImpact, nearly $7 million has been spent on TV advertising in Indiana state senate races this cycle.
Trump’s political operation went further than spending money. According to reporting from NPR, several outside groups aligned with the president worked with Trump’s political team to recruit challengers for all seven incumbents. By early March, those seven challengers were invited to the White House for a meeting and photo opportunity with the president.
Paula Copenhaver, the Trump-backed challenger to state Sen. Spencer Deery in West Lafayette, said she received a call from one of the president’s political advisors in January. “To meet him, to shake his hand, to have a conversation with him,” Copenhaver said in remarks reported by WFYI, “it is truly humbling.”
By the Numbers
- $7 million — Total TV ad spending in Indiana state senate races in 2026, per AdImpact
- $1.5 million — Amount funneled by a Trump-aligned dark money group to run ads against the incumbent senators
- ~$2 million — Club for Growth spending in Indiana, primarily on mailers
- 7 — Number of incumbent Republican state senators facing Trump-backed primary challengers
- 18 years — Length of service of state Sen. Jim Buck, one of the targeted incumbents, who says he now faces more than $1 million in opposition spending in his race alone
The Incumbents’ Case
The targeted senators argue that mid-decade redistricting was not in Indiana’s interest and that the level of outside spending in state legislative races is unprecedented. Sen. Jim Buck, an 18-year incumbent, noted that $150,000 was once considered significant money in his district. “Now I’ve got over $1,000,000 against me in one race,” Buck said in remarks reported by NPR.
Buck said members of Indiana’s congressional delegation warned him what was coming. “They said, ‘Jim, they’re going to come at you with everything possible, they’re going to try to destroy your name, destroy your reputation and they’re going to bring money you wouldn’t imagine,'” Buck recalled. “Well, they were right.”
Deery, campaigning door to door in West Lafayette on an electric scooter, told NPR the race will come down to whether voters believe the television ads portraying him as a Republican in name only. “It’s really going to come down to one issue, and that is how many people just believe the ads,” he said. For more on related candidate disputes in Indiana, see the Indiana Judge Returns Same-Last-Name Candidate Dispute to State Election Commission.
Zoom Out
The Indiana primaries are part of a broader national pattern of mid-decade redistricting efforts by Republican-controlled legislatures. Florida lawmakers recently passed a revised voting map that backers say could help Republicans gain additional U.S. House seats. Similar redistricting debates are playing out in Jacksonville and other jurisdictions across the country, reflecting an intensified focus on map-drawing as a tool of political competition ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
The scale of outside spending in Indiana state legislative races also reflects a wider trend of national political money flowing into down-ballot contests previously insulated from such attention.
What’s Next
Indiana holds its primary election Tuesday. The results will offer a concrete measure of Trump’s influence over intraparty discipline at the state level — and could shape how Republican legislators in other states weigh future conflicts with the White House on redistricting and other priorities.