2026-04-26T12:00:51.487Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
印第安纳州罗克维尔——
五个月前，印第安纳州共和党议员顶住了总统唐纳德·特朗普施加的压力，否决了他紧急提出的政治要求。如今，该州当地有迹象显示，共和党选民可能也会做出同样的选择。
特朗普及其盟友正准备在5月5日的印第安纳州初展开报复行动。此前，州参议院共和党超级多数党团否决了特朗普提出的重划印第安纳州国会选区地图的要求，这一要求原本可帮助共和党在11月的中期选举中多拿下两个席位。
特朗普已为七位投票反对重划选区方案的共和党现任州参议员背书了挑战者。这些参议院初选的结果将考验特朗普对共和党的掌控力，选民将决定是给本州共和党议员留出与总统决裂的空间，还是罢免那些他眼中不忠且破坏其第二任期议程的议员。
近期在印第安纳州多场政治活动中，相当一部分共和党选民表示他们愿意与特朗普分道扬镳。
在罗克维尔最近举行的一场候选人论坛上，75岁的退休人员杰克·巴特勒称自己长期以来都是特朗普的支持者，但重划选区之争改变了他对总统的看法。
“现在我只想说‘别来烦我们’，”他在谈及对特朗普的看法时说道，“你去做你自己的事就行，没问题。但别插手印第安纳州的政治。”
特朗普去年游说共和党掌控的州重划国会选区地图，以帮助共和党保住其在众议院的微弱多数席位，如今这一行动反倒给共和党带来了麻烦。去年12月，尽管特朗普进行了数月游说——包括邀请议员前往白宫、副总统JD·万斯两次到访印第安纳州，以及特朗普的政治盟友发起施压运动，州参议院还是否决了相关提案。这早早表明，特朗普的全国重划选区行动并未按计划推进。
最初旨在帮助共和党多拿下五个席位的得克萨斯州新地图方案，也遭遇了民主党方面的一系列反制措施，包括加利福尼亚州通过新地图方案以抵消共和党在得州的 gains，以及弗吉尼亚州选民本周批准了一项可能为民主党赢得多个席位的重划选区提案。
自2011年以来，共和党一直完全掌控印第安纳州政府，在州众议院和参议院都占据超级多数席位——因此该州最重要的政治分歧存在于共和党内部：特朗普从政前就已掌权的老牌派与过去十年当选的新兴激进派，他们在政策议题上大多意见一致，但在政治策略上存在分歧。
随着特朗普即将走完第二任期的最后两年，这场分裂也使该州成为检验特朗普式政治模式持久性的重要试金石。
参与各场选举的选民人数可能少至1万人——这大致相当于印第安纳州州参议院竞争性初选的历史投票人数。而且这些选民未必全是铁杆共和党人：印第安纳州实行开放初选，选民可自由选择参与哪个政党的投票。
多场竞争性初选导致原本关注度较低的竞选活动广告投入激增。截至4月10日初选前 filing 截止日，州参议院共和党竞选团队已在2026年初以来投入了180万美元。据AdImpact数据显示，与特朗普亲密盟友吉姆·班克斯参议员结盟的“美国印第安纳州领导力组织”，已成为支持特朗普势力的领头羊，本选举周期已在电视广告上投入400万美元。其中六场竞争性州参议院竞选的电视广告支出已超过100万美元。
支持特朗普的势力要取得怎样的成功才算达标？
副州长米迦·贝克威思表示，至少要拿下三场胜利。贝克威思是一名牧师兼特朗普支持者，2024年在州党代表大会上以微弱优势险胜，成为共和党副州长候选人。
“那会是个不错的夜晚。我们能发出一个有力信号，”贝克威思说，“拿下五场的话就是绝佳的一晚——我们基本上就能夺回参议院了。如果赢下更多，那就更棒了。”
要了解共和党内部的分裂以及各派系领袖，最清晰的窗口或许是印第安纳州幅员辽阔的第23州参议院选区，该选区从西拉法叶延伸至伊利诺伊州边境，向南向西延伸很远。
现任州参议员斯宾塞·迪里曾为该州一代人中最具影响力的政治人物、前州长米奇·丹尼尔斯在普渡大学工作——当时丹尼尔斯担任校长，迪里是他的副幕僚长。
他的挑战者、获特朗普背书的宝拉·科彭哈弗是方廷县共和党主席，同时也是另一位印第安纳州政治人物贝克威思的幕僚。科彭哈弗拒绝了两次面对面的采访请求。
贝克威思在参议院主要担任礼仪性职务，但经常与参议院共和党领导层发生冲突。他是首位公开支持特朗普重划选区诉求的全州当选官员，还曾为挑战现任参议员的共和党候选人助选。
在一次采访中，贝克威如此描述州参议院初选的重要性：“会是布什家族代表的党派，还是‘让美国再次伟大’、‘美国优先’议程的党派？”
“我确实认为共和党正处于某种身份认同的关键时刻，对吧——我们是谁，我们信仰什么，还有我们会为哪些事战斗？”贝克威思说，“在我看来，特朗普总统最擅长的就是教会我们如何战斗。”
他认为，大多数共和党人——无论属于老牌派还是支持特朗普的新派，无论温和派还是保守派——在大多数原则上都能达成共识。但他表示，共和党内部正在发生的“身份危机”，核心问题在于“你该如何捍卫这个党派”。
“我认为特朗普总统已经向我们证明，你不能回避冲突，”他说，“那不是一个选项。”
而迪里则表示，这场斗争涉及的是一个截然不同的议题：“这关乎我们的联邦制体系，以及……华盛顿将对各州拥有多大的控制权。”
他指出，大量广告资金涌入印第安纳州，包括“美国印第安纳州领导力组织”投放的数字广告，从多个角度攻击迪里。
迪里表示，印第安纳州的初选将考验联邦政府能否在政治上“干预各州”，以及选民是否会拒绝这种施压手段。
“如果我们能证明选民对此存在强烈反弹，那么这种模式就不会奏效，”他说。
近期一个工作日的夜晚，在罗克维尔的候选人论坛上，共和党未来的争夺战正打得火热——罗克维尔是印第安纳州西部帕克县的一个乡村小镇，自称“世界廊桥之都”。
不过，首先上台的迪里、科彭哈弗和其他当地候选人要解决的是到场约30多名选民心中更紧迫的问题：重新分区，为该县引入第二家美元树连锁超市。
重划选区的话题在台上完全没有被提及。
当美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）询问多位出席活动的选民关于州参议院竞选的看法时，大多数人表示他们计划支持迪里。少数人表示尚未决定，没有人主动提起重划选区的问题。
当被问及重划选区辩论的重要性以及特朗普在该州参议院竞选中的角色时，多位出席论坛的共和党初选选民翻起了白眼。
一些人表达了对自身选区构成的担忧。53岁的埃里克·汤普森表示，他担心自己会被划入更具竞争性的国会选区，最终可能被民主党拿下。他说自己的投票“是我自己的事”，但暗示会支持迪里。
“我收到了很多垃圾邮件，主要是科彭哈弗的，大概多了十倍。而且我真的和斯宾塞聊过，”他说。
除了选民感到厌烦之外，还有几人表示他们反感特朗普插手印第安纳州政治的举动。
70岁的退休人员凯瑟琳·马索尔夫表示，她计划参加共和党初选，但还没决定投给谁。
“我不喜欢重划选区，我不赞成这么做，”她说，“它没出问题，就别去瞎改。这就像是拆东墙补西墙。”
至于特朗普，马索尔夫说：“我认为他第一次任期表现得比这次要好。”
在印第安纳州初选前的几乎所有竞选活动中，都存在一个共同模式：尽管特朗普是这些有争议的参议院竞选的核心焦点，但引发这场斗争的议题——重划选区——已经完全退居二线。
支持特朗普的团体投放的电视、数字和邮件广告，往往使用更宽泛的措辞，指责目标现任议员未能支持“保守政策”或“总统的议程”。
就连获特朗普背书的挑战者也不再提及该议题。
重划选区之战在参议院初选中的戏份缩水，这一点在上周末的富兰克林市活动中体现得淋漓尽致。当天，“转向点美国”组织举办了一场集会，保守派活动家斯科特·普雷斯勒出席，约50人到场——这是该组织周六举办的三场活动中人数最多的一场。就在“转向点美国”联合创始人查理·柯克遇刺数月后，支持特朗普在印第安纳州初展开报复行动，已成为该组织的主要工作重点之一，而这批州参议院竞选的结果，也是对其影响力和组织能力的重要考验。
集会在第41选区举行，该选区从印第安纳波利斯以南的郊区一直延伸到前副总统迈克·彭斯的家乡哥伦布。在这里，获特朗普背书的州众议员米歇尔·戴维斯，正在挑战反对重划选区的参议员格雷格·沃克。
住在约翰逊县的特朗普支持者丹尼尔·哈尔弗尔出席了集会，他表示自己前来是为了见普雷斯勒。
“我的意思是，我理解重划选区背后的理念和原因，”他说。但他表示自己“并没有真正研究过”参议院候选人。
布雷特·金特里是一名精算师，他带着年幼的女儿参加了集会，并计划投票给戴维斯。他说，重划选区是“他投票支持她的一部分原因”，但不是唯一的原因。
“她看起来很务实。你知道，女孩不能参加男子体育队，这对我来说很重要。我们的女儿快到年龄了，我希望在她上学前把这些事情都理顺，”他在谈及戴维斯时说道。
戴维斯表示，在竞选活动中，她几乎听不到有人提起重划选区。
“我挨家挨户敲门和选民交谈时，没人提起重划选区，”戴维斯说，“这不是一个热门话题。当然，我知道在全国层面，这是特朗普总统会讨论的话题。但当我上门拜访时，人们和我谈论的是财产税，还有他们的孩子。”
她说，重划选区“根本不是大家会谈论的话题”。
在特雷霍特市第38选区挑战参议员格雷格·古德的特朗普背书共和党候选人布伦达·威尔逊，驱车前往富兰克林参加了集会。她表示，重划选区并非选民首要关注的问题，这一说法“非常公允”。
她说，更受关注的是水电费和财产税方面的担忧，尤其是在印第安纳州议员2025年通过了一项旨在降低财产税的法律却收效甚微之后。
她表示，她也遇到过很多选民知道自己获得了特朗普的背书，并且会对她说类似的话：“这就足够了。如果他支持你，那我也支持你。”
CNN记者大卫·赖特对本文亦有贡献。
Indiana GOP lawmakers defied Trump on redistricting. Now GOP voters may thwart his push for revenge
2026-04-26T12:00:51.487Z / CNN
Rockville, Indiana—
Five months ago, Indiana Republican legislators withstood pressure from President Donald Trump and rejected his urgent political demands. Now there are signs here on the ground that GOP voters may be poised to do the same.
Trump and his allies are out for revenge in the Hoosier state’s May 5 primary after the Republican supermajority in the state Senate voted down his demand to redraw Indiana’s congressional map to help the GOP win two more seats in November’s midterm elections.
The president endorsed challengers to seven incumbent Republican state senators who voted against the redistricting measure. The outcome of those Senate primaries will test Trump’s grip on the Republican Party, as voters decide whether to give their party’s state lawmakers room to break with the president — or opt to oust those he sees as disloyal and damaging to his second-term agenda.
Across several political events in Indiana in recent days, a significant share of Republican voters said they are willing to break with Trump.
At a recent candidate forum in Rockville, 75-year-old retiree Jack Butler said he’d long been a Trump supporter — but the redistricting fight changed his message to the president.
“Now, it’s ‘leave us alone,’” he said of his opinion about Trump. “You go do your thing, that’s fine. But stay out of Hoosier politics.”
Trump’s decision last year to lobby Republican-controlled states to redraw their congressional maps and boost the party’s chances of retaining its narrow House majority has turned into a headache for the GOP. The Indiana Senate’s vote in December — despite months of lobbying from Trump, including an invitation to the White House, two visits to Indiana by Vice President JD Vance and a pressure campaign waged by Trump’s political allies — offered an early indication that the national redistricting effort was not going according to plan for the president.
What started with a new Texas map intended to help the party win five more seats has also been met with a series of Democratic countermoves, including California’s passage of new maps intended to cancel out Republicans’ gains in Texas and Virginia voters’ approval this week of a redistricting effort that could net Democrats multiple seats.
Republicans have had full control of Indiana’s government since 2011, and hold supermajorities in the state House and Senate — so the state’s most important political splits are those within the GOP, where an old guard that was in power long before Trump entered the political scene and an insurgent crop of newer figures elected within the last decade often agree on policy matters but are at odds on political tactics.
That schism has made the state an important test case for the durability of Trump’s brand of politics as he approaches the final two years of his second term.
The electorates deciding each race could be as small as 10,000 voters — about the number that historically votes in competitive state Senate primaries in Indiana. And those voters might not all be die-hard Republicans: Indiana has open primaries, which means voters are free to choose which party’s ballot they want.
The slate of competitive races has resulted in a deluge of advertising spending in ordinarily lower-profile contests, with the state Senate GOP’s campaign arm already spending $1.8 million between the start of 2026 and the April 10 pre-primary filing deadline. Hoosier Leadership for America — which is aligned with Sen. Jim Banks, a close Trump ally — has led the way for the pro-Trump forces, spending $4 million on television advertising this election cycle, per AdImpact data. Six of the competitive state Senate races have eclipsed $1 million in TV ad spending.
What would a successful outcome for the Trump-aligned forces look like?
At least three wins in those state Senate races, said Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, a pastor and Trump supporter who narrowly won an upset victory at a state party convention in 2024 to become the GOP’s nominee for lieutenant governor.
“That’ll be a good night. That would be, we made a good statement,” Beckwith said. “Five will be a great night — we now are taking back the Senate, essentially. If we win more than five, man, that’s just even better.”
Perhaps the clearest window into a divided party, and the figures who lead it, comes in Indiana’s sprawling state Senate District 23, which stretches from West Lafayette to the Illinois border well to its south and west.
First-term state Sen. Spencer Deery worked for the state’s most influential political figure of a generation, former Gov. Mitch Daniels, at Purdue University — where Daniels was president and Deery was his deputy chief of staff.
His challenger, the Trump-endorsed Paula Copenhaver, chairs the Fountain County GOP and is a staffer for another Indiana political figure: Beckwith, the lieutenant governor. Copenhaver declined two in-person requests for an interview.
Beckwith, who presides over the Senate in a largely ceremonial role but often clashes with its GOP leadership, was the first statewide elected official to endorse Trump’s call for redistricting, and has campaigned with the Republicans challenging Senate incumbents.
In an interview, Beckwith described the stakes of the state Senate primaries this way: “Is it going to be the party of the Bushes, or is it the Make America Great Again, America First agenda party?”
“I do think the Republican Party is having sort of an identity moment, right — who are we, what do we believe, and also, what will we fight for?” Beckwith said. “And I think that’s what President Trump has done so well, in my opinion, is he’s taught us how to fight.”
He argued that most Republicans — whether they’re members of its old guard or a pro-Trump new guard, moderate or conservative — agree on most principles. But the “identity crisis that’s going on in the Republican Party,” he said, is over the question of “how do you defend it.”
“I think what President Trump has shown us is that you can’t just avoid conflict,” he said. “That’s not an option.”
Deery, meanwhile, made the case that what’s at stake is a much different issue: “It’s about our federal system and … how much control is Washington going to have over the states.”
He pointed to the deluge of advertising spending that has flooded Indiana, including digital ads by Hoosier Leadership for America attacking Deery on multiple issues.
Deery said Indiana’s primaries will test whether the federal government can “meddle in the states” politically, or whether voters will reject such pressure tactics.
“If we can prove that there’s significant backlash from voters to do that, then it’s not going to be a model that works,” he said.
The battle over the future of the Republican Party was being waged on a recent weeknight at the candidate forum in Rockville — a rural town in western Indiana’s Parke County, the self-proclaimed “Covered Bridge Capital of the World.”
First, though, Deery, Copenhaver and other local candidates lined up to address a far more pressing matter on the minds of the approximately three dozen voters who had gathered at Parke Heritage High School: Rezoning to bring a second Dollar General to the county.
Redistricting never came up at all on stage.
When CNN asked many of the voters who attended the event about the state Senate race, most said they planned to back Deery. A few said they were undecided. And none raised the issue of redistricting on their own.
Asked about the importance of the redistricting debate and Trump’s role in the state’s Senate races, many of the Republican primary voters who attended the forum rolled their eyes.
Some brought up concerns about the makeup of their own districts. Eric Thompson, 53, said he worried he’d be drawn into a more competitive congressional district that Democrats might ultimately win. He said his vote is “for me to know,” but implied he’d back Deery.
“I’ve gotten a lot of junk mail, mainly Copenhaver. Probably 10 times more of that. And I’ve actually talked to Spencer,” he said.
Beyond voters’ fatigue, several said they resented Trump’s efforts to sway Indiana politics.
Katharine Marsolf, a 70-year-old retiree, said she plans to vote in the Republican primary, but hasn’t decided who to vote for.
“I don’t like redistricting. I’m not in favor of it,” she said. “It’s not broke. Don’t fix it. It’s like you’re robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
As for Trump, Marsolf said: “I think he did better the first time than he’s doing this time.”
One pattern across virtually all campaign events in the lead-up to Indiana’s primary: Though Trump is at the forefront of the contested Senate races, the issue that sparked these battles — redistricting — has entirely receded.
Television, digital and mail advertisements by pro-Trump groups have often used much broader language, accusing the targeted incumbents of failing to support “conservative policies” or “the president’s agenda.”
Even Trump-endorsed challengers aren’t mentioning it.
The shrunken role of the redistricting battle in the Senate primaries was on display last weekend in Franklin, where about 50 people attended a Turning Point USA rally featuring conservative activist Scott Presler — the largest crowd of the three events those groups had hosted on Saturday. Months after Turning Point USA’s co-founder, Charlie Kirk, was shot and killed, supporting Trump’s bid for revenge in the Indiana primary has been one of the organization’s major focuses, and the outcome of the slate of state Senate races is a significant test of its influence and organizing abilities.
The rally was held in District 41, which stretches from the suburbs just south of Indianapolis to former Vice President Mike Pence’s hometown of Columbus. There, state Rep. Michelle Davis, a Republican endorsed by Trump, is running against anti-redistricting Sen. Greg Walker.
Daniel Halfacre, a Trump supporter who lives in Johnson County and attended the rally, said he’d come because he wanted to see Presler.
“I mean, I understood the concept behind redistricting and why,” he said. But he said he “hadn’t really researched” the Senate candidates.
Brett Gentry, an actuary who attended the rally with his young daughter and planned to vote for Davis, said redistricting is “a part of” why he’ll vote for her. But it wasn’t the only issue.
“She seems like really common sense. You know, no girls in boy sports, and that’s kind of important to me. We got our daughter who’s coming up, and just want that all sorted out before she gets in school,” he said of Davis.
Davis said she hears very little about redistricting on the campaign trail.
“As I’m door knocking and talking to people, redistricting does not come up,” Davis said. “It’s not a conversation piece. Now I know why it’s a conversation piece at the national level with President Trump, of course. But when I’m door knocking, people talk to me about property taxes, and they talk to me about their kids.”
Redistricting, she said, is “just not a topic that is that anyone’s talking about.”
Brenda Wilson, the Trump-endorsed Republican challenging Sen. Greg Goode in his Terre Haute-based District 38 who drove to Franklin for the rally, said it’s “very fair” to say redistricting isn’t at the forefront of voters’ minds.
More salient, she said, are concerns about utility costs and property taxes, particularly after Indiana lawmakers approved a law in 2025 aimed at reducing property taxes that has had little effect.
She said she has also encountered many voters who know she’s endorsed by Trump and tell her a version of: “That’s all I need to know. If he’s for you, then so am I.”
CNN’s David Wright contributed to this report.