(The Lion) — Indiana Republicans handed President Donald Trump a decisive primary victory Tuesday, ousting five GOP state senators who defied him on congressional redistricting.
Meanwhile, Ohio locked in two high-stakes general election matchups that will help determine control of the U.S. Senate and the future of one of the country’s most competitive swing states.
In Indiana, the results were not close.
Five Republican state senators who voted against Trump’s redistricting plan in December lost their primaries Tuesday.
The message from Trump was blunt.
“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 said as voting continued. “There are eight Great Patriots running against long seated RINOS – Let’s see how those RINOS do tonight!”
State Sens. Travis Holdman, of Markle; Jim Buck, of Kokomo; Linda Rogers, of Granger; Dan Dernulc, of Highland; and Greg Walker, of Columbus, were sent home.
Their replacements – backed by Trump, Gov. Mike Braun and Sen. Jim Banks – won with large margins, most exceeding 60%.
One incumbent opposed by Trump won, while another race was too close to call overnight, according to the Associated Press (AP).
“Big night for MAGA in Indiana,” Banks posted after the results came in. “Proud to have helped elect more conservative Republicans to the Indiana State Senate.”
Braun called it a “historic” win for “some great America First conservatives.”
The spending reflected the stakes.
Groups aligned with Trump poured more than $8 million into races that normally see almost nothing, the AP noted.
Turnout told the same story.
Early voting in Marion County nearly doubled compared to recent primaries, while Hamilton County was up 10,000 voters from four years ago, according to Indiana’s official election site.
Statewide, Republican congressional primary totals came in around 378,000 against roughly 306,000 on the Democrat side.
That’s a 72,000-vote advantage in a state with no competitive congressional map.
The pro-Trump results came even as Indiana’s open primary rules incentivize Democrats and independents to participate in GOP primaries to vote for anti-Trump Republicans.
David Keller, 65, who described himself as an independent, told the Indiana Capitol Chronicle he voted a Republican primary ballot to vote against Trump.
Keller said he voted “because his opponent was heartily endorsed by President Trump, and I’m not a Trumper.”
The practical significance of the Trump win extends beyond the Senate chamber and Indiana.
The Hoosier redistricting plan that died in December has a clearer path now, although it almost certainly won’t be affected before the 2026 midterms.
The AP called the message “a signal to Republicans everywhere that they can still get thrown out of office if they distance themselves from” the president.
In Ohio, the primary set the table for the general election in November.
Vivek Ramaswamy won the Republican gubernatorial primary 82% to 18%, defeating Casey Putsch, according to local WLWT News 5.
He will face Amy Acton, the former state public health director who ran Ohio’s COVID-19 pandemic response.
Acton won the Democratic nomination unopposed.
That pairing could be a gift to Republicans.
Acton is the face of school closures, business shutdowns and mask mandates in a state where those memories remain fresh and the resentment runs deep, notes local WKYC 3.
Ramaswamy built his national profile in part by attacking the public health establishment, and the general election likely will follow the same theme.
In his victory speech, Ramaswamy accused Acton of “chasing the front of a camera with a white coat” and subsequently “quitting” when decisions got tough, reported WKYC.
The Senate race in Ohio is more complicated.
Sherrod Brown, who lost his seat to Bernie Moreno in 2024, won the Democrat nomination and will face appointed Republican Sen. Jon Husted in a special election for the remaining two years of Vice President JD Vance’s senatorial term.
“It’s going to be epically expensive,” University of Cincinnati politics professor David Niven told Cleveland.com of the general election race. “It’s a serious contender to become the most expensive Senate race ever.”
The incumbent Husted is a newcomer who can campaign as an outsider, while Brown will likely characterize the Trump vote in 2024 as a mistake for Ohio.
That might not be enough to get Brown over the finish line, after serving in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate since 1993.
In April, congressional disapproval reached an all-time high of 86%, a negative for someone who served 31 years in Congress.
Voter turnout for Democrats has been declining in Ohio, fueling Trump victories in the state, said Cleveland.com.
“Democrats have not been able to excite those people,” Republican strategist Terry Casey told the website.
Recent polling shows the Ohio governor’s race and the U.S. Senate race in a statistical dead heat.
