The Indiana Supreme Court restored a Republican state senator’s primary victory, reversing a recount that had given the nomination to a challenger whom President Donald Trump endorsed to punish him.
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Sen. Spencer Deery, a West Lafayette Republican, won the District 23 primary 6,335 to 6,332, according to a the court filed Thursday afternoon.
The order set aside an August decision by the Indiana Recount Commission that had certified Fountain County Republican chair Paula Copenhaver as the winner.
“Election preparations for District 23 shall resume using candidate Spencer R. Deery’s name on the ballot as the Republican candidate for Senate District 23,” the order said.
The order, signed by Chief Justice Loretta Rush, takes effect immediately. The court said it will issue a written opinion later explaining its reasons.
The fight came down to six absentee ballots cast for Deery. County election workers had failed to stamp them with a circuit court clerk’s seal and signature, the Indiana Citizen reported. Deery argued in his appeal that voters followed the rules and that an election worker’s mistake should not cost them their votes, the Indiana Citizen reported.
“Voting is the bedrock upon which our country has been built,” Deery wrote.
The Recount Commission threw out those ballots on Aug. 10, turning a 6,337 to 6,334 win for Deery into a 6,332 to 6,329 win for Copenhaver, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle.
Deery was one of seven sitting Republican senators whose opponents Trump endorsed after they voted against his plan to redraw Indiana’s congressional map. The president backed Copenhaver in January and called her a “MAGA Warrior.”
“Paula is running against an incompetent and ineffective RINO incumbent named Spencer Deery who, for whatever reason, betrayed his voters by voting against Redistricting in Indiana,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, using an acronym that stands for Republican in name only.
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The Indiana Senate had rejected the new map in December, when 21 Republicans joined all 10 Democrats to defeat it 19 to 31, Newsweek reported.
Trump promised payback, writing that “Every one of these people should be primaried.”
About $12 million was spent on advertising across the seven races with a Trump-backed challenger, NBC News reported, citing the tracking firm AdImpact. More than $3 million of that went into Deery’s race alone, in a district of about 135,000 people.
Deery spent $167,000 and got no help from outside groups, according to an Associated Press report.
“This was a top political priority of President Trump’s and [he] was very clear about that,” Marty Obst, the Republican consultant who led the redistricting push, told NPR. “And the bottom line is there’s consequences and accountability to those actions.”
Five of the targeted senators lost their primaries by double digits on May 5, and one survived, NBC News said. Deery’s was the only race left unresolved. The stay the court lifted Thursday had frozen general election ballots across the district’s six counties, the Indiana Capital Chronicle reported.
Counties must begin mailing absentee ballots by Sept. 19, and early in-person voting starts Oct. 6. Deery will face Democrat David Sanders, a West Lafayette city councilman, and independent Joshua Brant in November.
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