By the broadest count, President Donald Trump endorsed dozens of candidates who appeared on primary ballots Tuesday, and the overwhelming majority won.
The biggest wins came in Indiana, where six of the seven state Senate challengers he endorsed defeated the GOP incumbents who had opposed the president's congressional redistricting plan aimed at eliminating two Democratic seats.
Two races remain too close to call and could face recounts, but Micah Clark, executive director of the American Family Association of Indiana, says some of the vote margins to these incumbent challengers are "astonishing."
Trevor De Vries won District 1 with 75% of the vote over Sen. Dan Dernulc. In District 6, Jay Starkey won with 56% over Sen. Rick Niemeyer. Brian Schmutzler won District 11 with 59% over Sen. Linda Rogers. Bluffton City Councilman Blake Fiechter won District 19 with 61% over Sen. Travis Holdman, and Tipton County Commissioner Tracey Powell won District 21 with 65% over Sen. Jim Buck. In District 41, state Rep. Michelle Davis won with 59% over Sen. Greg Walker.
"There're people who've been in there since 2008 who lost 70 to 30, some 60 to 40," Clark relays. "They were pretty strong margins of losses for these incumbents, a couple in leadership. Most of the Republicans that Trump endorsed won hugely. This is unprecedented, to see this many incumbents lose."
Clark says half of the Indiana Senate is reelected every two years, and the future of the legislative body could determine whether the other senators up for reelection in two years face primary challenges.
Noting that Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray (R) has taken "a lot of the blame" for the redistricting maps not passing, Clark thinks Bray could lose his leadership on Organization Day in November.
"If leadership remains the same, I would predict that you'll see more targeted senators in two years who voted against redistricting in an effort to replace them with others who would change leadership," he adds.
GOP expected to hold Ohio
In Ohio, where term-limited Republican Gov. Mike DeWine cannot seek re-election, Trump-endorsed Vivek Ramaswamy won the Republican primary for governor.
The high-profile entrepreneur garnered 82.5% of the vote over Casey Putsch to become the GOP nominee in the November election against Democrat Amy Acton, who ran unopposed.
Ramaswamy briefly opposed Trump as a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. He's been a solid supporter of Trump since exiting that race.
In the Ohio primary, Ramaswamy was strongly backed by Trump, who endorsed him multiple times. The endorsement was a central theme in Ramaswamy's campaign and a $3 million ad blitz by a supporting super PAC.
"Ramaswamy won by a larger margin than I expected," We the People Convention President Tom Zawistowski tells AFN. "There was a turnout of about 22.5% statewide, and I thought because of that low turnout, that his opponent, Casey Putsch, might get into the 30% range, but he only got to 17.5%."
Acton is the former state health director who led a COVID-19 response with mixed results. She was criticized by those who opposed public health restrictions, leading to a deeply divided public opinion.
Acton was the target of an unsuccessful effort by Ohio's Republican-majority House of Representatives to curb her powers. The Senate rejected it. Protesters gathered outside her home demanding an end to the state’s stay-at-home measures.
She resigned in the middle of June 2020 with much of the nation's COVID response still to play out.
The general election will match Ramaswamy's well-spoken and provocative style against Acton's established profile.
Zawistowski believes Ramaswamy's "very strong win" in the primary bodes well for the general election in November.
"I expect to win," he says. "For once, we have equal money. And with equal money, we just need to turn out in a regular fashion."
He says he would be "shocked" if Republicans do not hold Ohio.
