President Donald Trump’s team is gearing up to launch a multimillion-dollar “revenge campaign” against Indiana state Senate Republicans for having defied the president’s redistricting push last year, but multiple prominent conservatives say the effort may very well blow up in the president’s face, and on a historic scale.
The White House unsuccessfully pressured Indiana state Senate Republicans last year to approve a new congressional district map to help the party’s electoral prospects in the upcoming midterms. Now, those defiant Republicans have become a target for Trump’s team, with Trump adviser Alex Bruesewitz telling Politico in its report Friday that he predicts they’ll “be crushed in their upcoming primaries.”
More than $5 million is planned to be used to oust the defiant Indiana Republicans, Politico reported, but the effort – made during an election season in which the GOP risks losing control of both the House and Senate – could end up backfiring spectacularly, multiple prominent conservatives warned.
“I’ve been reminded of a lesson I learned in business a long time ago: Revenge is not a strategy,” said former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who also served as former President Ronald Reagan’s political affairs director, speaking with Politico. “I do find it hard to understand.”
Of the more than $5 million planned to be used against Indiana Republicans during their primary elections in May, $3 million alone comes from a political nonprofit organization run by Team Trump operative Andrew Surabian, who intends to “carpet-bomb seven state Senate races” with an “eye-popping splash of cash,” Politico reported.
“We’re coming,” said an anonymous source close to Club for Growth, a conservative nonprofit political organization involved in the plan, speaking with Politico on the condition of anonymity.
But the multimillion-dollar effort, at least according to Mike Murphy, former Indiana state House representative and chair of the Marion County GOP, will likely be a wash.
“I will predict that none of them lose,” Murphy told Politico.