Primary voters in Ohio and Indiana will go to the polls on May 5 to test whether the president’s grip on the Republican Party is waning.
President Trump reacts after Indiana Senate rejects Republican redistricting plan
The Indiana Senate rejected a Republican redistricting bill as President Donald Trump and leaders responded with both sharp criticism and praise.
Two Midwest primaries on May 5 will provide insight into the fall campaign, including whether conservative voters are tired of President Donald Trump’s demands for obedience from Republicans.
Voters in Ohio and Indiana are heading to the polls to choose candidates for Congress and statewide office, a move that could prove critical in supporting or thwarting the Trump administration’s policy goals.
The most notable example is the campaign featuring former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Ramaswamy is aiming to lead Ohio in a similar fashion to his failed 2024 White House campaign, largely due to divisive opinions over his unique personality.
“He’s a polarizing figure,” said Jessica Taylor, an analyst at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, which forecasts U.S. elections.
The 40-year-old biotech mogul is known for his entrepreneurial bravado and verbose pronouncements about the direction of American culture. He has poured $25 million of his own money into this race, and last year ousted other credible Republican rivals from the race who received support from Republican bigwigs, including Mr. Trump.
That would normally give Mr. Ramaswamy a safe bet in Republican-leaning Ohio, which Mr. Trump won by 12 points in 2024. The state hasn’t elected a Democratic governor in about 20 years.
However, in the general election, he is expected to face Democrat Amy Acton, the state’s former coronavirus response czar, who is running unopposed, and recent opinion polls have shown that it is a close race. It is largely based on Mr Ramaswamy’s controversial statements, including raising the voting age to 25.
“Every time I saw a candidate’s wife and child appear in his first ad, it was clear to me that he had a likability problem,” Taylor said. “It certainly looks like he’s trying to soften his image as a candidate.”
Ramaswamy faced racist backlash for supporting foreign-born workers
Ramaswamy, the son of Indian immigrants, regularly criticizes what he sees as the Democratic Party’s obsession with identity politics.
In 2021, he published the bestseller “Woke, Inc.” It was a critique of the racial justice movement.
“We got so tied up in common ideals that we forgot all about how we are truly Americans,” Ramaswamy said at a town hall hosted by USA TODAY in New Hampshire during the 2024 campaign.
“I believe deep in my bones that those ideals still exist,” he added. “But we’re going to have to do the hard work of rediscovering them.”
In the 2024 primary, Mr. Ramaswamy drew a lot of support from many of the same voters who were attracted to Mr. Trump, who enthusiastically supported him even after he dropped out of school. He was named co-head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency with Elon Musk, but quickly resigned to run for governor.
When the Cincinnati-born Ramaswamy staunchly defended companies using foreign-born workers in a series of posts on X in late 2024 (which he said was the result of embracing “mediocrity”), he began facing a flood of racist comments about his Indian heritage and Hindu faith.
“My social media feed is littered with hundreds of slurs, most from accounts I don’t remember, calling for me to be ‘back to India’ and deported,” he said in a 2025 guest opinion column for The New York Times. He also challenged conservative activists at a December 2025 convention hosted by Turning Point USA to reject the growing sentiment that “traditional Americans” — primarily white families who trace their ancestry back to this country for generations — have a greater right to this country than other peoples.
Ramaswamy’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment, and most of his supporters deny the clashes are a distraction.
The comments infuriated anti-immigrant conservatives, including Republican Casey Pucci, who describes himself as an “auto entrepreneur” and Ramaswamy’s opponent, “Christian America’s No. 1 candidate.”
He has openly launched xenophobic attacks against Ramaswamy, even though he is trailing Ramaswamy by double digits in the race for the Republican nomination.
President Pooch called Ramaswamy a “foreign-born anchor baby billionaire” and ran provocative ads on social media on April 14, including a spot where he challenged Ramaswamy to a game of “Cowboys vs. Indians” before firing a rifle.
Ramaswamy is expected to win the primary, but experts say they are paying close attention to the margin ahead of the general election.
Cook Political Report downgraded the Ohio gubernatorial race from “likely” to “leaning Republican” in its March assessment, largely due to Mr. Ramaswamy’s controversial statements, including calling for the closure of certain Ohio universities and rolling back property tax repeal.
Acton, a physician, has worked closely with outgoing Republican incumbent Mike DeWine as Ohio public health director and is seen as a strong Democratic candidate who would benefit from his bipartisan credentials.
But just as many believe her past role leading the state’s coronavirus response could be ripe for attack from Ramaswamy, who seems intent on relitigating the pandemic.
Republicans focus on vulnerable Democratic Party after Ohio redistricting
The Ohio election is also the beginning of a test for Republicans to see if redrawing Congressional lines will work, starting with one of the nation’s toughest districts.
Five Republican candidates are vying to take on Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, the longest-serving woman in Congress, who last won reelection in 2024 by less than 1 percentage point.
The state Legislature redistricted Ohio’s 9th Congressional District last year after a previous attempt failed. The district, which currently spans the Toledo area along the state’s northern border with Michigan, is a more favorable seat for Republicans and one of the few seats held by Democrats that could derail the “blue wave” expected this year.
But the biggest concern for Republicans remains President Trump’s growing unpopularity in the state. A Bowling Green State University poll released last month found that 52% of Ohio voters disapproved of his job performance.
There are also concerns that Republicans could lose if voters nominated Madison Sheehan, a former senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official who led some of the administration’s tough enforcement campaigns in major cities where violent and deadly clashes have occurred.
The University of Virginia’s Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball rates the seat as “leaning Republican,” but the Cook Political Report considers it a toss-up.
Ohio is also one of the key states in the race between Republican incumbent Jon Husted and former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown that could determine who controls the Senate. Both candidates are expected to be on track to win their party’s nominations.
President Trump seeks revenge on redistricting in Indiana
The Hoosier state is also in the spotlight after a handful of Republican lawmakers resisted President Trump’s arm-twisting effort to change the House’s congressional boundaries. These lawmakers now face the president’s wrath in a primary election backed by his political machine.
President Trump supported a primary challenge to seven state senators who rejected a plan to reshuffle nine Indiana seats. He specifically singled out state Senate Majority Leader Roderick Bray, one of 21 Republicans who voted against the bill that would have created two new red districts.
“He’s probably going to lose the next primary,” Trump said at the White House signing ceremony. “I hope he does, because he did something very bad.”
The president’s gerrymandering war is a top priority for the administration, and was further reinforced by the U.S. Supreme Court following last week’s ruling striking down key provisions of the Voting Rights Act. Many southern states have announced plans to redraw the map.
Trump’s political allies, including Hoosier Leadership for America and American Leadership PAC, have donated about $6 million to targeted incumbent lawmakers, according to AdImpact. Other national groups are also joining the fray with direct mail and field work, including Win It Back PAC, an affiliate of the Club for Growth.
Gov. Mike Brown’s political machine is also on the president’s side.
Mr. Bray has been doing everything he can to combat the flood of dark money, with support from a group called the Indiana First Coalition and the Senate Majority Campaign Committee, which poured about $2.4 million into Mr. Bray’s campaign.
Trump’s challengers have been unable to put together a coherent message about why they should win, and there are already reports that redistricting is not a top priority for local grassroots conservatives.
“This has been a strange and unique election year,” Bray told the Indianapolis Star, part of the USA TODAY Network, in April.
