There were some interesting results from the Indiana Republican primaries last week. Normally, elections for state legislatures do not attract any notice outside their state. Still, Indiana’s Republican primaries were viewed nationwide as a test of Donald Trump’s continued control over the Republican Party. As reported by WRTV in Indianapolis:
A majority of Republican Indiana state senators whose opponents were endorsed by President Donald Trump lost on Tuesday, a display of the president’s enduring influence over his party after lawmakers rejected his redistricting plan five months ago.
Of the seven challengers endorsed by Trump, at least five won.
“Big night for MAGA in Indiana,” U.S. Sen. Jim Banks wrote on social media, adding that he was “proud to have helped elect more conservative Republicans to the Indiana State Senate.”
The president’s allies spent at least $8.3 million on races that rarely get much attention from Washington. It’s been a costly and unprecedented intraparty battle that has exacerbated tensions among Republicans ahead of the November midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.
The losing incumbents were among the Republican State Senators who rejected Trump’s call for Indiana to redistrict its Congressional seats to give the Republicans an advantage in the upcoming midterms.
Trump began leaning on Republican-led states last year to redraw their congressional maps, making it easier for his party to hold its thin majority in the U.S. House. Although redistricting is normally done once a decade, after a new census, Trump wanted to abandon tradition to gain a political edge.
Texas was the first to follow through, and the White House pressured Indiana to go along too. Vice President JD Vance met with state politicians in Washington and Indianapolis, and Trump weighed in by conference call.
However, Indiana senators rebuffed the effort, one of the president’s first significant political defeats of his second term.
The Democrats have been abandoning tradition to gain a political edge for years. It is about time the Republicans followed suit. Personally, I would rather neither party engage in gerrymandering. Congressional districts ought to be compact geographically and not overtly favor either party. The weird shapes that make elections less competitive than totalitarian single-party regimes hardly seem democratic. Both sides play the gerrymandering game, however, and I suspect the Democrats have been more successful, or ruthless at it. It would be foolish for the Republicans not to play by the same rules. But, then, all too often, the Republicans have been the foolish or stupid party.
As it happens, Indiana is fairly good about the shape of its Congressional districts. They are all rectangular. No districts are shaped like ear muffs or attached to opposite sides of the state along a highway. Of Indiana’s nine districts, seven are red, and two are blue. This reflects the partisan divide in the state. Indiana is solidly red except for blue dots at Indianapolis, Bloomington, and Gary. I am not sure how any degree of gerrymandering could change that, except by splitting Indianapolis. The Trump-supported map did split Marion County and introduced some odd shapes. To be honest, I didn’t care for the new districting.
Still, I am happy that the Trump-backed candidates won. I much prefer the new populist GOP that fights to win over the old Republican Party of crony capitalism and spineless jellyfish who prefer losing gracefully over doing the hard fighting necessary to win. I want a party that’s willing to fight, fight, fight for the country’s future, and last week’s victories are a step in the right direction.
David's Commonplace Book 