GOP Voters Don't Want Mike Pence's Republican Party

Indiana Republican primary voters netted dramatic changes up and down ballots Tuesday, kicking out a wave of establishment-allied incumbents while reinforcing many incumbent conservatives against party-backed challengers from their left. The headlines focused on eight Republican state senators who faced primary challengers backed by President Donald Trump for failing to redistrict the state to combat Democrat-run states’ rampant gerrymandering of congressional districts.

At this writing, by large margins six of the eight Senate challengers have kicked out the anti-redistricting incumbents, including members of senior GOP state leadership...

The Indiana primaries were not solely about Trump as a figure, as corporate media in and out of state are framing the story, but about the kind of Republican Party its voters want...

You can see that down ballot. In other races that did not include the Trump factor, more conservative candidates also scored wins in the primaries, often while fighting against their own local and state Republican parties...

South Bend-area County Councilwoman Amy Drake won her primary against a Republican challenger who had access to huge amounts of money for a local race, spending what Drake says is some $200,000 to fly in out-of-state door-knockers and airplane banner ads... Drake sparked her challenger by not only voting against the unpopular expansion of taxpayer-subsidized data centers in her greater Chicagoland locale, but also by governing as a prudent conservative rather than a patsy for the usual corporate interests...

She first took office in the purple area opposing stringent Covid lockdown measures pushed by local health officials...

It’s about what Trump delivers for voters...

In short, the Indiana primaries were a wipeout for the Mike Pence wing of the Indiana Republican Party...