The cost of a Trump-fueled revenge campaign: Hundreds of dollars per vote in Senate Dist. 23
Money keeps pouring in as May 5 nears.
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THE COST OF TRUMP-FUELED REVENGE CAMPAIGN: HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS PER VOTE IN SENATE DIST. 23
The Trump-fueled revenge campaign in Indiana Senate District 23, already expected to rack up campaign spending equaling hundreds of dollars for every vote cast in the sprawling district, continues to bloat in the final push to the May 5 primary.
This week, state Sen. Spencer Deery, a West Lafayette Republican who is among eight incumbent senators targeted by White House allies after their stand against President Donald Trump’s press to redraw congressional maps in Indiana, sent out a signal to supporters to brace for a final-week infusion of $600,000 in dark money for TV and radio spots backing Trump-endorsed challenger Paula Copenhaver in the GOP primary.
His point: “These outside groups wouldn’t spend that kind of money right now if they thought this race was already decided. Get out and vote and send a message that Indiana voters don’t want outsiders picking their leaders.”
By Deery’s calculations, campaign spending boosting Copenhaver – or in most cases, tearing into the first-term senator as a fake Republican who won’t get on board with the president – is in the $2.4 million range, much of it reportedly from dark money sources tied to Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Banks.
Money stoking Deery’s campaign, including a share of the $2 million the Senate Majority Campaign Committee had put into the campaigns of eight incumbents targeted by Trump forces and an influx from a new Indiana First political action committee assembled by Indiana Senate leader Rod Bray, will be around $1 million, he estimated. That’s including an attack ad on Copenhaver, still playing in heavy rotation, that calls her out for her part in a $120,000 civil judgment from 2006 over a business dispute.
By comparison, Deery spent roughly $140,000 in a four-way Republican primary when he won the open seat in May 2022. Copenhaver, a former Fountain County clerk and chair of the Fountain County Republican Party, finished third of four in that primary, which drew 10,860 voters in a district that includes parts of six counties, stretching from West Lafayette to the covered bridges of Parke County.
If those campaign spending figures hold and Indiana Senate District 23 turnout is similar, beating Deery could cost about $440 a vote to get more than half of those 10,860 voters needed to win.
