President Trump proved to be a kingmaker in the Indiana and Ohio Republican primaries Tuesday night, where his seal of approval propelled several GOP candidates to landslide victories.
In Indiana, Trump’s revenge campaign against incumbent state senators who torpedoed his push last year to redraw the Hoosier state’s congressional boundaries was largely successful – with the president’s preferred candidates winning five of six contests.
A potential sixth victory for a Trump-endorsed candidate was still too close to call late Tuesday.
“Everyone in Indiana politics should have learned an important lesson today: President Trump is the single most popular Republican among Hoosier voters,” Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) said in a statement.
“Indiana is a conservative state, and we deserve conservatives in our State Senate who have a pulse on Republican voters,” he added.
Indiana Republican Gov. Mike Braun, who staunchly supported the failed redistricting effort, called it a “historic night for Indiana.”
“[R]epublicans stood with me and President Trump to nominate some great America First conservatives,” Braun wrote on X. “I look forward to winning big in November and serving Hoosiers with this team in the statehouse!”
The victories by Trump-backed candidates were decisive.
Trevor De Vries topped Indiana state Sen. Dan Dernulc by a 75%-24% margin; Tracey Powell beat state Sen. Jim Buck in a 65%-35% race; and Brian Schmutzler and Michelle Davis defeated state Sens. Linda Rogers and Greg Walker, respectively, by 18-point margins.
The first incumbent taken out by Trump was longtime Indiana state Sen. Travis Holdman, who has been in office since 2008 and is a member of Indiana Senate leadership.
Holdman was bested by Blake Fiechter by a 61%-39% margin.
At press time, Indiana state Sen. Greg Goode was the only incumbent opposed to redistricting who was able to fend off a Trump-backed primary challenge.
Goode defeated Brenda Wilson in the state’s District 38 primary, where a third Republican candidate in the race, Alexandra Wilson, received about 10% of the vote.
The White House had pressured Alexandra Wilson to get out of the race ahead of Tuesday’s primary, reportedly over concerns her candidacy would confuse voters attempting to cast ballots for Brenda Wilson.
“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 wrote on Truth Social before the results rolled in, decrying the incumbents opposed to redistricting as “Long seated RINOS,” or Republicans in name only.
Trump-backed challengers spent over $10 million as part of the effort to remake the Indiana statehouse.
Meanwhile, in Ohio, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy easily waltzed to victory over business owner Casey Putsch in the GOP primary for governor.
Ramaswamy entered the gubernatorial race in his home state as the frontrunner after securing endorsements from Trump and Vice President JD Vance, a former Ohio senator.
Vance had trekked to the Buckeye State earlier Tuesday to cast his ballot for Ramaswamy and give him a last-minute boost before polls closed.
“We’re going to revive that American Dream in Ohio once again, with lower costs, bigger paychecks and better schools for all Ohioans,” Ramaswamy said Tuesday night.
The former 2024 GOP presidential primary candidate will take on Democrat Dr. Amy Acton in the November general election, which polls show could be a close race.
Down ballot, Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio), who ran unopposed in the special election Senate race, is now set to square off against former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who marks one of the Democrats’ best hopes of flipping a seat in the upper chamber.
An anti-Trump Democratic attorney general candidate – who vowed to “kill” Trump if elected – was also rejected by Ohio voters.
Former state lawmaker Elliot Forhan lost his Democratic primary bid months after causing a stir for threatening that he was “going to kill Donald Trump” by securing a legal conviction against the president, “resulting in a sentence, duly executed, of capital punishment.”
Columbus attorney John Kulewicz defeated Forhan in a 66%-33% contest and will face Republican Keith Faber in November. Kulewicz had condemned Forhan’s comments as “disgraceful.”
Over in Michigan, Democrat Chedrick Green comfortably won a special election to fill Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet’s former state seat, securing the party’s majority in the Michigan Senate.
