President Trump’s record of helping MAGA challengers dispense with RINOs this election cycle remains stellar, the latest example occurring in the Hoosier state.
The Indiana state Senate race that went to a recount has a winner: Paula Copenhaver, Trump-endorsed challenger to incumbent Spencer Deery, won by three votes. The same margin Deery thought he had before the recount. A six-vote swing on a single recount determined the outcome. This is how accountability works in Republican primaries.
Deery was one of a slate of Indiana state senators who blocked Trump’s push to redraw Indiana’s congressional map ahead of the midterms. He paid for that decision the way Republicans who cross Trump on his signature legislative priorities tend to pay — with a primary challenger, a presidential endorsement going to that challenger, and a loss to the Trump-backed challenger.
? IT'S OFFICIAL: Indiana RINOs are in a state of SHOCK after a recount flips the State Senate race and UNSEATS anti-MAGA redistricting Sen. Spencer Deery
This election was decided by 3 VOTES!
"Deery was initially declared the victor by a margin of just 3 VOTES, but technical… pic.twitter.com/eDvlsHaVyB
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 10, 2026
The redistricting fight mattered for a specific reason beyond Indiana’s borders. Republicans need every structural advantage they can build before November, and a favorable congressional map in a reliably red state is exactly that kind of advantage. The senators who blocked it weren’t protecting some noble institutional principle. They were protecting their personal relationships with the incumbents who would have lost districts under the new map. Trump noticed. He sent in the cavalry. The cavalry won.
Deery’s response to losing the recount is instructive — and a little ironic. He accused the Indiana Recount Commission of trying to “undermine the will of voters” by treating ballots differently based on “whether they furthered the president’s political goals.” He said the commission “does not get the last word” and refused to concede.
Let’s note what we’re looking at here. The man who blocked a redistricting effort that his own party’s president supported is now refusing to accept a recount result and claiming the process is rigged. The media spent years telling us that challenging election results was the most dangerous threat to American democracy. It will be interesting to see how many of those same outlets rush to cover Spencer Deery’s refusal to accept his recount loss. Don’t hold your breath.
The Indiana Senate President Pro Tem — who also blocked redistricting — chose not to seek reelection as leader after watching what happened to his colleagues. He saw which way the wind was blowing. Deery apparently did not.
The broader lesson is the one that makes Republican legislators in every state nervous right now: Trump is willing to come into your primary, put his name on a challenger, and fight it out vote by vote if you cross him on something he considers essential. Three votes. A six-vote swing on a recount. It doesn’t get more personal than that.
The Hoosier bloodbath is now complete. Except for Deery’s appeal, apparently. Because some Republicans still haven’t learned what happens when you fight the recount after losing one.
