At the end of March, President Donald J. Trump issued a wave of endorsements in Indiana’s 2026 Republican primaries, backing multiple state Senate incumbents and challengers following the fight over congressional redistricting. Yet while Trump’s Truth Social posts describe these lawmakers as defenders of “Hoosier” values, election integrity, law and order, and the Second Amendment, their records on The New American’s state Legislative Scorecards vary widely — from occasional strong marks in some cases to deeply mediocre or low ones in others.
Recent reporting shows that Trump’s Indiana endorsements were closely tied to the redistricting battle that followed the failed push to redraw the state’s congressional map before the 2026 elections. The March 24 endorsement wave aimed largely at Republican state senators who supported that effort, while earlier and later endorsements targeted primary challengers running against Republicans who opposed it.
The Endorsements
That wider endorsement slate included Senator Ronnie Alting in District 22, Senator Scott Alexander in District 26, Senator Elizabeth M. Brown in District 15, Senator Tyler Johnson in District 14, Senator Mike Gaskill in District 25, Senator Jeff Raatz in District 27, Senator Randy Maxwell in District 43, Senator Chris Garten in District 45, Senator Daryl Schmitt in District 48, Senator Jim Tomes in District 49, and Senator Gary Byrne in District 47. These senators show slight variation in their lifetime freedom scores: Alting at 20 percent (more than a dozen Democrats in the Indiana Legislature have higher lifetime scores than him), Alexander at 39 percent, Maxwell at 42 percent, Garten at 43 percent, Brown at 46 percent, Schmitt at 50 percent, Raatz at 55 percent, Johnson at 61 percent, Byrne at 61 percent, Gaskill at 63 percent, and Tomes at 71 percent.
Taken together, the scores show that Trump’s endorsement list was not made up exclusively of the highest-scoring constitutionalists in the Indiana Senate. Instead, it included lawmakers with records ranging from weak to mediocre, even though the endorsement language was uniformly glowing. That is why The New American’s Freedom Index and state Legislative Scorecards are so important.
Voting Records vs. Endorsements
That contrast becomes clearer when compared with some of the strongest freedom scores in the state. Representative Andrew Ireland at 83 percent, Representative Matt Hostettler at 79 percent, Representative Lorissa Sweet at 78 percent, Representative Zach Payne at 74 percent, Senator R. Michael Young at 74 percent, and Representative Craig Haggard at 72 percent. In other words, several Indiana lawmakers have notably higher scores than many of the candidates Trump praised in his March endorsement push.
None of this means Trump’s endorsements are insignificant. In a Republican primary, they may still carry real weight. But they do underscore an important point: An endorsement is not the same as a voting record. Voters who want to know whether a candidate truly supports limited government, constitutional fidelity, and individual liberty should look beyond campaign rhetoric and examine the actual state Legislative Scorecards, vote by vote.
