Five Indiana state senators who voted against their party's redistricting plan lost their primaries Tuesday, after facing millions in attack ads and public criticism from Donald Trump. Yet none of them regrets the vote that cost them their jobs.
"I have zero regrets," said Greg Walker, a 20-year veteran who lost to Trump-backed state Rep. Michelle Davis. Jim Buck, 80 and a legislator for more than three decades, was equally firm. "No," he said when asked if he regretted opposing the congressional map. "My district told me overwhelmingly to vote no, and that's what I did."
Linda Rogers, who was defeated by Brian Schmutzler, echoed the same sentiment. "I don't regret it," she said. "I followed the wishes of my district."
Walker, Buck, and Rogers were among seven Republican state senators who faced Trump-endorsed primary challengers after rejecting a mid-decade redistricting proposal designed to give Republicans two additional congressional seats. The plan marked an unusual move by Trump to personally intervene in Indiana's legislative races, an attempt that ultimately backfired on three of the seven incumbents who stood their ground.
Two senators advanced despite the opposition. Greg Goode made it to the general election, while Spencer Deery clung to a razor-thin three-vote lead over Trump-backed Paula Copenhaver. Deery texted his support for the decision, saying: "I will never regret listening to constituents and doing the right thing."
The financial firepower arrayed against the dissident Republicans was staggering. Ad-tracking firm AdImpact tallied roughly $12 million spent across the seven races where Trump endorsed candidates. Buck absorbed the heaviest assault, facing $1.3 million in negative advertising while his own campaign spent less than $150,000.
"No matter how hard you try, perception becomes reality," Buck said, picking up his campaign yard signs after his loss to Tipton County Commission member Tracey Powell. "You tell a lie enough times, and it becomes the truth."
Buck, who served 18 years in the state Senate, identified the flood of outside money as something fundamentally new in his political career. "Dark money has really become an issue to deal with, but it's the people are starting to lose their voice, and that worries me," he said. "It's a rich man's playground, and I just feel sorry for that. I know that I couldn't run again on my own like I did years ago."
Rogers described the advertising blitz as relentless. Despite raising significant funds for her campaign, she said it proved insufficient against the deluge. "When they played the same negative TV ads three, four times in an hour," the sheer volume overwhelmed local fundraising efforts, she explained.
The three senators expressed concern that their defeats would send a chilling message to lawmakers nationwide. They feared the outcome would discourage other legislators from challenging Trump when they believed it served their state's interests.
"This is what our founders feared the most, that Washington would all of a sudden feel like they have the right to dictate what the states do," Buck said. Rogers was more blunt: "One person should not be making all the decisions."
Walker identified mid-decade redistricting as symptomatic of broader political dysfunction. The practice had accelerated across the country, with eight states enacting new congressional maps over the past year. A major U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week could enable additional states to follow suit. Walker traced the root cause to what he called hyper-partisan gerrymandering designed to create safe seats for members who would toe the party line.
"That's how Congress functions or dysfunctions today," Walker said. "It's the threat of primaries. And you can't do that unless you have hyper-partisan gerrymandering districts. You can't accomplish that mission of threat and coercion to bow to whatever the top dog says unless you create the structure for it."
Author Sarah Mitchell: "These Republicans lost their jobs but kept their integrity, and they're right to stand by that choice, even if the rest of the country isn't paying attention."
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