Indiana’s MAGA Voters Get Revenge

By Royal A. Brown III

Establishment RINO state Senators in Indiana get what they deserve — e.g. voted out by MAGA voters.

Playing for Keeps: Indiana’s MAGA Voters Get Revenge, Obliterate GOP Lawmakers Who Stood in Way of Redistricting

When it comes to the top flashpoint in American politics at the moment, Republican voters understand the stakes, even if Republican politicians don’t.

That was the lesson out of Indiana’s primary elections on Tuesday that saw state lawmakers targeted by President Donald Trump go down in defeat to challengers.

And it’s a lesson to which the establishments of both parties should be paying attention.

According to the Indianapolis Star, at least five of the seven Republicans on the ballot who’d opposed a Trump-backed plan to redraw the Hoosier State’s congressional map had been turned out by their party’s voters.

“It’s rare for a state senator to lose in a primary,” the Indianapolis Star reported Tuesday. “Before today, it’s only happened to Indiana Republican senators six times since 2002: three of which occurred in the same districts where incumbents were ousted this year.”

That’s because this year is different.

At a time when Republican legislatures are pulling out all the stops to keep a GOP majority in the U.S. House in the November elections, 21 Indiana Republican state senators scuttled a plan in December to redistrict the state in a way designed to pick up two more House seats while shutting Democrats out completely.

With state Senate elections staggered, and the retirement of one of those Republicans from office, seven of those lawmakers faced GOP voters on Tuesday.

The results weren’t even close.

“Republican Blake Fiechter defeated incumbent state Sen. Travis Holdman (R) in the 19th state Senate district GOP primary, while Tracey Powell unseated GOP state Sen. James Buck in the 21st district,” The Hill reported Tuesday night. “Republican state Sen. Greg Walker lost to Michelle Davis in the 41st district, and incumbent state Sen. Dan Dernulc (R) lost to Republican Trevor De Vries. Republican Brian Schmutzler defeated incumbent state Sen. Linda Rogers (R) in the 11th district.”

“Incumbent Sen. Greg Goode, who represents the 38th district, is the only incumbent, so far, that fended off a challenger supported by the president.”

In a race pitting incumbent Republican Spencer Deery against challenger Paula Copenhaver, the candidates were separated by only three votes as of 8 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, according to NBC News.

The takeaway is obvious.

Congressional redistricting has gone from a dusty, once-a-decade discussion into the hottest topic in domestic politics these days because voters understand what the November midterms are going to mean to the future of the Trump presidency — and the future of the country.

If Democrats take the House — and out-of-power parties rally historically in midterm election years — Trump’s closing years in the White House are likely to look similar to his first term when Democrats dogged him with fabulist conspiracies like “Russia collusion” and an impeachment effort so farcical even most Democrats probably don’t remember what it was about.

(Hint: Biden family corruption in Ukraine had a lot to do with it.)

If Republicans hold, there’s a good chance Trump will have a chance in his final two years to continue the domestic and foreign policies that are aimed at restoring the national economy and American leadership in the world.

Playing for Keeps: Indiana’s MAGA Voters Get Revenge, Obliterate GOP Lawmakers Who Stood in Way of Redistricting

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