Republicans who brazenly crossed President Trump are looking over their shoulders after six out of seven state senators who resisted his redistricting push in Indiana have been knocked off.
Now, Team Trump is plotting to take down Republicans who made it onto his bad side in Louisiana, Kentucky and Georgia – while firing up redistricting efforts in Tennessee and South Carolina to try to carve out more Republican seats in a fight to retain control of the House.
Trump allies poured $13.5 million into state Senate races in Indiana, with one redistricting resister’s race still yet to be called Friday. Experts say it was a stunning sum for small races that delivered an outsized message to anyone in the party thinking of going rogue.
“The Indiana result said you try any wiggle room – the executioner comes,” former President Bill Clinton’s advisor James Carville told The Post.
Near the top of Trump’s list is Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who voted to convict him on “incitement of insurrection” after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. Trump tore into Cassidy after his nomination of Dr. Casey Means for US Surgeon General imploded over her position on vaccines.
“Magic seldom happens this close to an election. It’s pretty clear that Cassidy is not going to win,” said Carville. Trump got behind challenger Rep. Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.) and late last month called Cassidy “very disloyal.” Republican state Treasurer John Fleming is also running.
Trump is also salivating to take down Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who has pushed to release files on the Jeffrey Epstein scandal and opposed the president’s Big Beautiful Bill – flying to his district to endorse former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein. Outside groups have poured $10 million into ads TV trashing Massie.
Trump is also keen to settle scores with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who resisted his pleas to “find 11,780 votes” in their infamous phone call after the 2020 elections.
On Wednesday night Trump endorsed Georgia Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who is running against Raffensperger, at a tele-rally. Health care exec Rick Jackson has a narrow polling lead in the Republican primary.
“Republican candidates distancing themselves from President Trump’s success are in for a rude awakening and should pull a Geoff Duncan and switch to a different party,” one senior Georgia political operative told The Post, referencing the former lieutenant governor who left the GOP to become a Democrat last year.
Republicans are firing up their mid-decade redistricting push after the Indiana results and a Supreme Court ruling that struck down the Louisiana map in a Voting Rights Act case, while facing predictions of a blue wave.
“It is indisputable and undeniable that the president is a real political force and people should obviously pay heed to it,” said South Carolina AG Alan Wilson, who is pushing a new plan to redraw his state’s congressional lines.
He says he phoned half a dozen state senators Thursday urging them to support legislation to extend South Carolina’s legislative session to redraw its map.
The move could cost Democrats a seat and endangers President Joe Biden pal Rep. James C. Clyburn (D-S.C.), the only black member of the state’s House delegation.
