Anti-redistricting Republicans face primary challengers in closing days

WESTFIELD, Ind. (WISH) — A longtime state senator on Wednesday said primary challenges aren’t unheard of, but the scale of this year’s primary is very unusual.

Sen. Jim Buck, R-Kokomo, has represented north-central Indiana in the state Senate since 2009 and spent 14 years before that in the House. He spent Wednesday afternoon knocking on the doors of Westfield voters who have not yet cast a primary ballot

“Normally, in a primary, we have what’s kindly referred to as a family food fight,” he said. “But we’ve never had a primary like this where somebody outside the family is determining how that food fight should occur.”

Buck is one of eight Republican state senators running for reelection this year who voted against a proposal to redraw Indiana’s congressional maps just before the 2026 election. President Donald Trump and Gov. Mike Braun both vowed at the time to support primary challengers to any anti-redistricting Republicans, and both have made good on that threat. Earlier this year, Trump met with several primary challengers in the Oval Office, took pictures with them, and endorsed all of them. Braun endorsed all of the primary challengers earlier this month. In Buck’s case, he faces Tipton County Commissioner Tracey Powell. Powell did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

“I was kind of surprised, candidly, when we had a president, a vice president, a governor, a lieutenant governor, a sitting U.S. senator and a number of sitting Congresspeople coming against us,” Buck said. “It’s just unheard of.”

A former state senator, Jim Merritt, a Republican who represented Marion County for three decades, said he nearly always faced a primary challenger, but the governor’s decision to support so many insurgent candidates is extremely unusual. He said primary voters often don’t pay attention to candidates until late in the process, so Trump and Braun could sway some opinions.

“If the governor and his team and the president play it right toward the end of the primary election, it could have massive impact,” he said. “It just all depends, really, if the incumbent senators who are opposed run really good campaigns, and I think that’s the key to what’s really going on.”

Merritt said he thinks most of the Republicans facing primary challenges will survive. Besides Buck, the other anti-redistricting Republicans facing primary challenges this year are Sens. Spencer Deery, Dan Dernulc, Greg Goode, Travis Holdman, Rick Niemeyer, Linda Rogers and Greg Walker.

Hamilton County Republican Party Chair Mario Massillamany isn’t so sure. He said he thinks as many as four or five of those senators could lose their primaries, in particular Buck and Walker. He said outside groups are spending well north of half a million dollars in each of the primaries. Massillamany said national groups such as Turning Point USA and Americans for Prosperity have turned out to support the challengers.

“I think some of these state senators didn’t realize the kind of time and effort and energy that the Trump team and these Super PACs were going to put into these races, and they’re in dogfights right now,” he said.

A group called Hoosier Leadership for America has aired ads targeting senators like Buck who voted against redistricting. The group is registered to an address in Fort Wayne under the name of Abdy Surabian, a national Republican operative. News 8 checked the address of record and found it is a single-family home owned by Austin Ochoa. Surabian has never owned the home. Ochoa refused to comment when News 8 contacted him.

Massillamany said there’s a serious risk primary upsets could jeopardize the Republican supermajority in the General Assembly. He said some of the primary challengers, if successful on Tuesday, might be unable to attract the cross-party voters necessary to win in November. Moreover, he said an expensive primary will deplete campaign money candidates might need in the general election.

“Is the Trump team and the super PACs going to help support them in the November general election? Because if they help them win in the primary but don’t give them the tools and resources, then Republicans just lost a number of seats that they are not going to be able to recover from,” he said.

Buck said he always runs his campaigns as if he’s behind and his colleagues take the same attitude.

“We’re looking forward to each day and what it brings on the campaign and we will all gather at campaign headquarters and see what happens Tuesday night,” he said.

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