Last year, seven of Indiana’s GOP state senators refused Donald Trump’s demand that they re-do state voting districts to help their party. This week, five of them paid the price: Losing to Trump-backed opponents in closely watched primary races. (One challenger lost and another race remains too close to call.)
“Trump strikes back,” reported Fox News, which called Trump “the big winner” in the primaries and said, “His immense grip on the Republican Party remains rock solid.”
“Trump successfully exacted revenge on Indiana Republicans who defied him,” reported The New York Times. The Indianapolis Star called the wins “a multimillion-dollar revenge effort by President Donald Trump and his allies,” including Turning Point USA, which backed Trump’s picks.
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Other Midwestern states saw mixed results Tuesday. In Ohio, former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy won the GOP governor’s primary and advances to the November election. Sherrod Brown won the Democratic nomination to run for the U.S. Senate seat he held from 2007 to 2025.
In a Michigan special election, Democrats maintained control of the state Senate. This special election victory was just the latest in “a long string of Democratic overperformances in elections since President Donald Trump took office last year,” Politico reported.
Two other GOP veterans will face Trump’s revenge in primary races in Kentucky and Louisiana. Rep. Thomas Massie, perhaps Trump’s harshest Republican critic in the U.S. House of Representatives, faces a Trump-backed opponent May 17.
Louisiana’s House primary was scheduled for May 16, and early voting already had started. But after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the state’s voting map unconstitutional last week, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry suspended the House primaries and asked the Legislature to redistrict the state favoring the GOP.
The rescheduled July 15 House primary will show whether Trump can oust Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician who has consistently opposed efforts by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to reverse decades of health policy on vaccines and more.
While some red states have gone along with Trump’s redistricting demands, GOP officials in other states refused. Last year BNG reported on Brett Fairchild, a Republican Kansas state representative and lifelong Baptist, who rejected Trump’s redistricting plan as immoral and unethical.
Trump may still control the GOP, but he’s losing independent voters six months before the November election. A recent poll shows only 37% of U.S adults approve of his performance as president, a new low. He’s deeper under water on “cost of living in the U.S.” (23% approve) and inflation (27% approve).
Meanwhile, polls show while there’s plenty of religion in the second Trump administration, it’s a form of religion many Americans find offensive.
Trump’s attacks on Pope Leo are hurting his support among Catholics while posts depicting himself as Jesus have alienated religious supporters (87% of Americans had a negative reaction to the Jesus posts). Also, 69% of Americans had a negative reaction to Defense Secretary Hegseth’s public prayers for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”