Indiana Capital Chronicle
For The Republic
President Donald Trump is publicly backing a Republican primary challenger to state Sen. Greg Walker, who was an early and vocal opponent of the Indiana congressional redistricting demanded by the president.
Trump has vowed political revenge against Republican legislators who helped defeat the redistricting bill — and in a Monday social media post he endorsed Rep. Michelle Davis in her challenge to Walker.
“Michelle will be a fantastic replacement for Walker who, for whatever reason, voted against Redistricting in Indiana, which puts the United States Congress in jeopardy,” Trump’s post said.
Davis, a third-term House member from Whiteland, announced her Senate campaign in August after Walker had said he would not seek reelection to the seat he first won in 2006.
But Walker, R-Columbus, earlier this month filed for the May primary, saying he was “greatly concerned when I see Hoosier politics play a surrogate to those national battles.”
Davis voted in favor of the redistricting plan when it passed the House in December. She said after Walker reversed his decision on seeking reelection that she was continuing her Senate campaign.
Trump’s post called Walker a “‘RINO’ LOSER” — for Republican in name only — and “an America Last politician” for voting against the redrawing of Indiana’s U.S. House maps aimed at helping Republicans win all nine seats.
Walker said in a statement that he was “not surprised this issue is following some of us in our primaries.”
“I could not support a map creating four new Indianapolis districts that would have greatly undermined the important voices of rural Indiana and my constituents who live in these areas,” Walker said. “I respect the President’s opinion but I have to put Hoosiers first.”
Davis is challenging Walker in Senate District 41, which includes all of Bartholomew County and much of Johnson County south of Indianapolis.
