Trump's GOP clout? Ask the Indiana state senators he just ousted
The president has troubles, with gas prices up and approval ratings down. But in Indiana's primary, he showed his continued power among Republicans.
Susan PageHe's still the boss.
President Donald Trump is beset by rising gas prices, falling approval ratings and an unpopular war in Iran. But in the Indiana primary May 5 he demonstrated his continued grip on the Republican Party by delivering a thumping to a half-dozen state senators who defied his demands to redraw congressional lines.
Of seven GOP senators who earned his ire, five lost their party's nominations to challengers the president had endorsed, with one race still too close to call.
It was an unlikely test, and an expensive one, in contests that typically attract little attention.
"Trump is perhaps not as popular in my district as he once was," Spencer Deery, one of the incumbent senators, told CNN while the votes were being counted, "but he is still overwhelmingly popular."
"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 posted on Truth Social earlier in the day. "Let's see how those RINOs do tonight," a reference to so-called Republicans in name only.
The primary's stakes for the Indiana state Legislature − solidly red no matter what − were relatively low. The campaigns turned less on policy differences than on fealty to Trump.
That means Tuesday's returns are likely to reinforce the reluctance of most Republican officials to publicly split with Trump, whatever his travails. His command of his own party, especially over Republican members of a compliant Congress, has been the main source of his ability to levy tariffs, wage war and redesign Washington's landscape with little challenge or oversight.
That said, things could change in the midterm elections in November, when Democrats are considered likely to gain control of the House of Representatives and score gains in the U.S. Senate.
Next up: Efforts to oust Massie and Cassidy
Over the next two weeks, Trump will face more challenges in other Republican primaries.
In Louisiana's primary May 16, the U.S. Senate candidate Trump endorsed, Julia Letlow, was boosted by his backing but remains locked in a three-way race. Trump's target, Republican incumbent Bill Cassidy, still could make a runoff.
In polls for Kentucky's May 19 primary, the House challenger Trump endorsed, Navy SEAL veteran Ed Gallrein, trails incumbent Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, one of the few congressional Republicans willing to openly challenge Trump.
In Georgia's primary, also May 19, the gubernatorial candidate Trump endorsed, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, trails health care CEO Rick Jackson in statewide polls with support from just 24% of Republican primary voters.
By any measure, though, Trump remains the loudest voice in the GOP.
Republican officeholders and hopefuls are still more likely to fret about the president in private than criticize him in public. An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll April 24-28 found that 85% of Republican voters approved of the job he was doing − down by a bit but still healthy.
What's more, Republicans by 2-1, 65%-34%, said the GOP should follow Trump's lead, not head in a different direction.
But just 25% of the independent voters who usually swing competitive elections approve of Trump. Overall, his approval rating was a dismal 37%, with a 62% disapproval rating that is the highest of either of his presidential terms.
In Indiana, a friendly landscape
With Indiana, Trump couldn't have chosen a friendlier field for a fight.
In the 2024 presidential election, he carried six of the seven contested state Senate districts over Democrat Kamala Harris in double-digit landslides, including three of them by more than 30 percentage points. He won the seventh district by 7 percentage points.
In Tuesday's primary, only incumbent Greg Goode managed to defeat a Trump-backed challenger, Brenda Wilson. Five of his colleagues lost: Dan Dernulc to Trevor De Vries; Linda Rogers to Brian Schmutzler; Travis Holdman to Blake Fiechter; Jim Buck to Tracey Powell; and Greg Walker to Michelle Davis.
In the seventh race, the votes for incumbent Deery and challenger Paula Copenhaver were still being counted.
It was an expensive exercise. Adimpact, which tracks spending on campaign ads, estimated that $13.5 million was spent on the Indiana state Senate races this year. That's unfathomably more than in the past election, when spending on the races totaled less than $1 million.
"Money's the mother's milk of campaigns, and so, when you're up against, like in my race right now, $1.3 million, issues weren't the topic, and that's what it should been about," Buck told the Indianapolis Star, part of the USA TODAY Network. "Instead, it's retribution for December 11."
That's the date the Indiana state Senate rejected Trump's redistricting push.