President Trump is still the dominant force in GOP primaries.
He woke up Wednesday with fresh bragging rights after helping knock out several Indiana Republican state senators who defied his push to redraw the state’s congressional map.
In the seven primaries where he endorsed challengers against lawmakers who voted down his preferred map last year, Mr. Trump got his revenge in five. One incumbent survived, and another race was still too close to call.
“Big night for MAGA in Indiana,” Indiana Sen. Jim Banks said, arguing it shows it is still Mr. Trump’s Republican Party.
The results also raise the stakes in Kentucky, where Rep. Thomas Massie faces a May 19 primary challenge from Trump‑backed Ed Gallrein in the 4th Congressional District.
Mr. Trump’s political clout took some hits last year. He ran into a string of election setbacks in Virginia, New Jersey, Georgia and other states. At the same time, his poll numbers slipped following the fight over releasing the Epstein files — a clash that exposed divisions inside the MAGA movement — along with rising gas prices and the ongoing war in Iran.
Still, he scored a win a month ago in Georgia, where his endorsement helped Clay Fuller prevail in the special election runoff to replace former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
She resigned after a dramatic break with Mr. Trump over the Epstein files and the direction of his movement. Even so, that race ended up tighter than many Republicans expected, adding to jitters heading into the midterms this fall, where the House GOP is defending a slim majority, and Democrats are even dreaming of flipping the Senate.
In Indiana, Trump’s preferred candidates were winning between 60% and 75% of the vote as of Tuesday night.
State Sen. Greg Goode — so far the only incumbent to survive a Trump‑backed challenge — won with 54%. Mr. Goode had urged colleagues to reject the maps, focus on affordability issues and avoid the vitriol he said has “infiltrated” Indiana through “cruel social media posts, threats of primaries, and threats of violence.”
Mr. Trump’s revenge in the state races came about five months after his national redistricting push hit a wall in Indianapolis. Twenty‑one Republicans in the state Senate voted against his plan for a new congressional map that would likely give the GOP full control of Indiana’s nine‑member delegation.
