Trump-Endorsed Candidate Loses Indiana Primary After Court Ruling - Newsweek
The Indiana Supreme Court has declared state Senator Spencer Deery the winner of a Republican primary over Paula Copenhaver, a challenger endorsed by President Donald Trump.
In a one-page ruling, the court said the majority of its five justices had voted to overturn the Indiana Recount Commission's decision that had certified Copenhaver as the winner of the May primary.
The court's decision ends a monthslong legal fight to determine the winner of the primary in Indiana's 23rd Senate District. It also deals a blow to Trump, who had sought to oust Deery and other state senators who defied White House pressure and rejected his push to redraw Indiana's congressional maps to favor Republicans.
Trump's endorsements of primary challengers and spending by pro-Trump groups led to the ousting of all but two—Deery and state Senator Greg Goode—of the state senators the president targeted.
The court said in its ruling, "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."
Newsweek contacted Copenhaver's campaign and the White House for comment via emails sent outside regular business hours. Deery's campaign was contacted for comment through a form on the campaign's website.
The initial count following the May 5 primary ended with Deery three votes ahead of Copenhaver. In August, the three-member Indiana Recount Commission disallowed six ballots cast for Deery that lacked a county clerk's stamp or signature, giving Copenhaver the win by three voters.
Deery filed a challenge in court, and the Indiana Supreme Court's ruling on Thursday vacated the commission's decision to disallow those ballots.
The court's order did not explain the decision, but it said the court would issue a written opinion explaining its reasons at a later date.
"I am so proud to be a Hoosier and am obviously very pleased by the Indiana Supreme Court's decision today, but this case was bigger than any of us who were involved with it," Deery, a first-term state senator, wrote on X.
"We could never have secure elections in our state if our votes could be invalidated by government error or malfeasance," he continued. "Instead, in Indiana, we have set a precedent that says if you do everything right, your right to vote is sacred and protected."
Copenhaver told reporters on Thursday that she disagreed with the court's decision, which she said could mean inauthentic ballots could be counted.
"The last step in this Republican primary nominating process was ended by the Indiana Supreme Court reversing the Indiana Recount Commission's decision to count absentee ballots which lacked statutorily required markers of authenticity," Copenhaver said, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle.
She added: "While I disagree with the Court's decision, which leaves open the potential of inauthentic ballots to be counted, I respect the Court's right to their opinion. I wish Senator Deery all the best and pray he delivers for District 23."
The six ballots at the center of the dispute were four sent by mail and two cast during early in-person voting, the Capital Chronicle reported.
The Recount Commission's two Republican members, Secretary of State Diego Morales and attorney Paul Mullin, disallowed them in a number of 2-1 votes in August.
Deery's attorneys had argued that the commission's majority abused its discretion by rejecting the ballots because the missing seals or signatures were not the result of anything the voters had done.
During Thursday's hearing, the justices questioned Copenhaver's attorneys on why they should not be counted given there was no evidence of fraud or tampering.
Justice Derek Molter said he could not understand how there could be a "plot" involving the disputed ballots.
"It's hard for me to reverse engineer how only six ballots, not 200 or something like that, just six spread across three counties could be something other than a valid indication of how those six people were trying to vote," Molter said, according to the newspaper.
William Bock, Copenhaver's attorney, told the justices that it "need not be a voter error," and that the seal and signatures are measures to prevent fraud since the "problem can come in any part of the process."
Trump had called for Indiana's Republican senators to be ousted in primaries after they voted to reject a bill seeking to redraw the state's congressional districts ahead of November's midterm elections.
The president kicked off a mid-decade redistricting fight last summer after urging Republicans in states such as Texas to redraw congressional districts to give the GOP an edge in the midterms. Democrats in California and other states have countered by redrawing their own maps.
While Texas, Missouri and several other Republican-led states redrew their maps, Indiana—where Republicans hold the governor's office and large majorities in both chambers of the state legislature—did not.
In December, 21 Republicans joined all 10 Democrats in voting against a map that was designed to oust the state's two Democratic U.S. Representatives.
The move sparked Trump's ire, prompting him to write on Truth Social that every one of the Republicans who voted against the map "should be primaried."
In January, the president endorsed Copenhaver, calling her a "MAGA Warrior" running against someone who "betrayed his voters."
He wrote on Truth Social that Copenhaver was "running against an incompetent and ineffective RINO incumbent named Spencer Deery who, for whatever reason, betrayed his voters by voting against Redistricting in Indiana," referring to Deery by the acronym meaning "Republican in name only."
Trump continued: "We could have easily picked up two seats in Indiana, but Deery, an America Last politician, would rather side with Far Left Democrats who will do anything and everything in their power to reverse the incredible progress we have made for the American people over the last year since I reassumed the Office of President."
This is a developing story. More to follow.
