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<\/p>\nFRANKLIN, Ind. \u2013 President Donald Trump’s retaliation campaign here isn’t going as well as he’d like.<\/p>\n
The effort to oust him was considered a major show of force after eight Indiana Republican state senators refused to bow to him on redistricting. But after spending millions of dollars and weeks of intense campaigning, his aides are still struggling to send a clear, consistent message to voters about why they should remove the lawmakers.<\/p>\n
Only a few dozen people attended a rally last weekend organized by Turning Point USA with conservative activist Scott Pressler that featured a cardboard cutout of Trump holding his hands triumphantly in the air. And when POLITICO asked one of the president-elect’s candidates what the defining issue of his campaign was, state Rep. Michelle Davis paused.<\/p>\n
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“Good question, umm. God, okay, defining issue<\/i>. What’s this about?” he said, searching for an answer. “Well, what I say is that we need real, true conservatives out there. We need someone who stands up on things like common sense with the GOP Party and conservative people, primary voters, things like making sure boys aren’t in girls’ locker rooms, boys not playing in girls’ sports, making sure we stand up for parents’ rights, yes, I think those are some defining things.<\/p>\n
What is being reported is that Davis did not mention state Senator Greg Walker, whom she is challenging, was a vocal opponent of Trump’s assigned map. \u201cWhen I was knocking on doors, not a single person was talking to me about redistricting,\u201d she confessed.<\/p>\n
This is not a surprise.<\/p>\n
According to AdImpact, Indiana’s May 5 primary is being driven almost entirely by Trump’s need for revenge, a rage that has drawn nearly $8 million and counting in ads alone \u2014 not to mention copious amounts of mail \u2014 combined spending on the normally sleepy and often uncontested race. But the contests represent the challenge of turning out MAGA’s low-propensity voting coalition in the midterm elections, when Trump isn’t on the ballot \u2014 let alone attempting to unify its voters around an arcane issue like redrawing political maps.<\/p>\n
“My guess is it’s going to be a mixed situation,” said a national GOP operative working on the race. “Everyone will get their turn.”<\/p>\n
It’s been proven that Trump’s MAGA base is rallying behind him in large numbers because they think he’ll help them \u2014 but they may not be as eager to punish his enemies.<\/p>\n
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Former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, a prominent GOP figure who opposed gerrymandering and has worked to re-elect senators whom Trump is targeting, said, “I’ve been reminded of a lesson I learned a long time ago in business: Revenge is not a strategy.”<\/p>\n
MAGA forces have struggled to find a coherent theory of the case, and their messaging has largely avoided talking about redistricting. In one Senate district, Hoosier Leadership for America, Sen. Jim Banks’s political nonprofit, run by longtime Team Trump operative Andrew Surabian, is under fire for being too old \u2014 even though he’s less than a year younger than Trump.<\/p>\n
“State Senator Jim Buck. 80 years old. Decades in politics have changed him,” the narrator begins. Advertisement<\/a>Which also attacks him for allegedly “letting China own our agricultural land” and voting to “raise our gas tax.”<\/p>\n At least two of the White House-backed candidates are struggling with reports<\/a> about their complex personal background<\/a>Dirtying their messages. “There are probably some candidates they wish they could come back to,” said one Indiana Republican strategist, who spoke on condition of anonymity to assess the White House’s strategy. “The question for the White House is who do you believe won? They’re sticking to what the data tells them in each of these races. We’ll see.”<\/p>\n The White House did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n According to people familiar with his thinking, some in power have in recent days upset allies that they are losing in internal elections.<\/p>\n An Indiana Trump aide estimated that five of the challengers were in races that were as vulnerable or safe as Trump’s victory. Three races were tossups or safe.<\/p>\n Still, some of Trump’s closest allies in the state argue that the race is not really about the president.<\/p>\n “I think some people think this is just about loyalty to Trump,” Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith told Politico. “I don’t think it is at all. I actually think it’s more about the future direction in the Republican Party,” referring to whether the party eventually becomes more Trumpian, even if Trump is not on the ballot.<\/p>\n Republicans suffered a narrow defeat in Virginia on Tuesday after voters approved Democrats’ plan to gerrymander that state, setting off a controversy. latest round<\/a> Of venting on Hoosier holdouts. However, Trump’s GOP critics say the party spent too much in Virginia’s close contest \u2014 and they could have used some of the millions of dollars MAGA is spending on reelection in Indiana.<\/p>\n
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