Indiana state Sen. Spencer Deery won his Republican primary recount by three votes, defeating challenger Paula Copenhaver after the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday to restore disqualified ballots. Deery now advances to the November general election for Senate District 23 following a months-long legal battle.
An Indiana state senator who bucked President Donald Trump’s demand for a gerrymandered congressional map in the state will likely keep his seat after the state Supreme Court Thursday declared him the victor in an extremely close primary race. In affirming state Sen. Spencer Deery’s three-vote victory over a Trump-endorsed candidate, the Indiana Supreme Court ended a months-long recount process. Its ruling also likely deals a serious blow to future Republican redistricting efforts in the Hoosier State.
State Sen. Spencer Deery defeated challenger Paula Copenhaver by a razor-thin margin of 6,335 votes to 6,332, according to the court’s certification. Indiana’s Supreme Court on Thursday ruled after a monthslong recount that a Republican state senator narrowly defeated his Trump-backed challenger in the GOP primary for the state Senate seat. The court declared state Sen. Spencer Deery the winner of the Senate District 23 Republican primary in May, certifying that he beat challenger Paula Copenhaver by three votes and ordering that his name appear on the general election ballot in November. In the order, Chief Justice Loretta Rush said the court would issue a written opinion further explaining its reasons at a later date.
The Recount Battle Over Disqualified Ballots
GOP state senator who defied Trump named winner, four
The race hinged entirely on how election officials handled administrative errors. The recount in the race had put Copenhaver in the lead in early August after the Indiana Recount Commission threw out 10 votes mainly for technical reasons involving missing election official signatures on some ballots, giving Copenhaver a three-vote lead.
In finding Deery the victor, the state Supreme Court ruled that Republicans on the three-member commission overseeing the recount incorrectly threw out six ballots and flipped the race for Copenhaver. The court concluded that state law barred the Republican commissioners from disqualifying ballots that lacked county clerk signatures or initials from election officials because those errors were caused by election officials and not voters. Rush said Thursday, however, that a majority of Indiana’s Supreme Court set aside the commission’s final determination that Copenhaver had received the higher number of votes.
Indiana Code section 3-12-1-12 makes a qualifying ballot legally countable despite a defect caused by an election officer,
the court’s initial order read.
Chief Justice Rush stated that the court would issue a later ruling explaining its reasoning in more depth.
Indiana Supreme Court rules for state senator over Trump-backed
High-Stakes Fallout From the Congressional Map Fight
The primary contest carried immense political weight. Deery, who has served in the state Senate since 2022, was part of a contingent of GOP state senators last year that blocked Trump’s plan to redraw the state’s congressional map to boost Republicans’ chances of capturing two more U.S. House seats. Deery was one of the seven Republican state lawmakers in Indiana who refused to vote for the president’s proposed mid-decade congressional gerrymander, despite facing immense political pressure from the White House. Trump and his allies in Indiana targeted those holdouts in the state’s May primaries. Trump targeted seven state senators in Republican primaries in May, and candidates he backed won five of those races. Of the seven, only state Sen. Greg Goode — and now Deery — survived.
Deery faced a challenge from Paula Copenhaver, an aide to Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith and chair of the Fountain County Republican Party. The contest came down to just a handful of votes, which set off a recount process. Trump’s demand for a gerrymander in Indiana was part of his nationwide push for new maps to favor Republicans in the upcoming midterms.
Reactions and General Election Outlook
Indiana Redistricting foe declared election winner in blow to
Deery said Thursday in a post on X that he was pleased by the court’s ruling.
We could never have secure elections in our state if our votes could be invalidated by government error or malfeasance,
he wrote. Instead, in Indiana, we have set a precedent that says if you do everything right, your right to vote is sacred and protected.
Copenhaver’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
With the primary contest settled, Deery moves forward to the November ballot. In the general election, Deery faces West Lafayette City Council member David Sanders, a Democrat, and independent Joshua Brant.
