President Donald Trump’s revenge push in Indiana is off to a rough start.
Despite a flood of cash and backing from Turning Point USA, his bid to punish state senators who defied him on a redistricting vote is struggling to gain traction.
At a Wednesday rally for Republican challenger Brenda Wilson against state Sen. Greg Goode, organizers set out signs, passed around flyers and blasted a “Trump rally” playlist—for a crowd of four.
Three were from the same family, NOTUS reported.
Trump, pushing 80, was furious when 21 Indiana Republicans voted against a redistricting map for U.S. Congress in the state senate last year.
On Truth Social he railed against them, saying they “should be ashamed of themselves.” Tellingly, he said the Republicans had voted “against a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, and said ‘every one of these people should be ‘primaried,’' and I will be there to help!”
Trump has not visited Indiana once since making the claim, but six of his backed candidates did visit Washington D.C. in March.
At an earlier rally, also organized by Turning Point, just a few dozen people turned up, a report by Politico said.
One candidate challenging a Trump foe, State Rep. Michelle Davis, told Politico that when out talking to voters, “not one person was talking to me about redistricting.”
Never the less, Trump-aligned candidates are benefitting from a huge influx of MAGA money into their campaigns, with nearly $8 million spent on advertising by mid-April, a massive increase on a typical primary race in a non-presidential election year.
But the Indiana senate republican caucus is fighting back, spending almost $2 million supporting the incumbent state senators.
“Altogether, the Senate Majority Campaign Committee has spent more than $2.4 million in 2026 — already eclipsing 2022 spending for the entire campaign season," the Indiana Capitol Chronicle reported in April.
Politico reported that internal Republican polling suggests that Trump’s picks are potentially on track to unseat their targets.
“I’ve been reminded of a lesson I learned in business a long time ago: Revenge is not a strategy,” Former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said in March.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
