Ousted Indiana Republican state senator: ‘I made the right choice’ on redistricting

Indiana state Sen. Greg Walker (R) stood by his decision to oppose a state-level redistricting plan backed by President Trump last year, even though it likely cost him his job.

“I do not,” Walker said during an appearance on NBC News’s “Meet the Press Now,” after host Kristen Welker asked whether he regretted voting against drawing new congressional lines. “I made the right choice.”

He was soundly defeated by challenger Michelle Davis in the GOP primary for Indiana’s state Senate District 41, losing the seat he held for two decades by 17.5 points.

Walker told NBC that he was “surprised” at the strength of Trump’s endorsement, claiming his decision to oppose redistricting had “90 percent approval” among his district’s constituents, and he felt good heading into the election.

He explained that he had reservations about the proposed map from the beginning and was unsure whether it would produce the outcome desired by Republicans.

“My very first words when I heard of this was this is ridiculous and this will backfire,” Walker said. “Clearly on the national level, it has been a backfire. There have been no groundswell of Republican drafted seats.”

“But given the climate of the nation, Indiana’s current seven and two breakdown of the congressional delegation could very well be a six and three once we reduce some of the margins of safety in some of these districts,” he added.

The election capped off a pressure campaign by Trump and his allies, who had vowed to primary state Republicans who rejected a new congressional map that would have favored the GOP in all nine U.S. House districts.

“There have been many Republicans that told me how turned off they were by the pressure on the President of the United States to where we had members that were being swatted, myself included, bomb threats, etc.,” Walker continued. “And it was just that sense of force and coercion and authoritarianism that really struck a bad tone in this in the Indiana Senate.”

Indiana’s lower chamber passed the Trump-backed map, but 21 Republican senators joined with 10 Democrats to defeat it in the upper chamber.

Trump subsequently endorsed a slate of challengers against those senators up for re-election this year, and pro-redistricting groups reportedly spent millions of dollars campaigning against them.

Walker on Wednesday pushed back on Trump’s characterization of those who rejected his demands as “RINOs,” meaning “Republicans in name only.”

“Anyone that stands up and says, we don’t agree with the president, you’re a RINO,” the president said, calling the taunt the “same tired tune.”

“I don’t understand why it continues to be effective,” he continued. “Can the whole nation be wrong and one person right? I don’t think that’s possible.”

Tuesday’s primary was widely viewed as a key test of the power Trump still holds over the Republican Party, and Walker suggested the outcome spells broader implications for the midterms.

“I think this was meant to be a clear message of retribution,” he said. “We had various reasons why we supported or rejected it, but it’s clearly meant to be a message sent to the nation that you will pay a dear price.”

“It’s [Congress] a land of hyper partisanship and threats of primaries constantly in order to hold power, and that’s no way to govern,” the state senator added.

Only one of the seven Republican state senators who opposed redistricting fended off primary challenges on Tuesday, according to Decision Desk HQ. The race between incumbent Sen. Spencer Deery (R) and Paula Copenhaver in Indiana’s 23rd state Senate district remains too close to call.