President Donald Trump spent May working to remove Republicans who crossed him, winning primary fights in Indiana, Louisiana, and Kentucky before turning his attention to Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert after she campaigned for one of his targets. Boebert may find herself in deepwater as she competes with a former Republican turned Democrat who was the Defense Attache in India under Trump 1.0.
The campaign began May 5 in Indiana, where Trump backed challengers against seven GOP state senators who had blocked his mid-decade congressional redistricting push. Five of the seven lost, according to the Associated Press. Sen. Travis Holdman, the chamber’s third-ranking Republican and a legislator since 2008, fell to real estate agent Blake Fiechter by more than 20 percentage points. Indiana’s official canvass deadline falls around June 4, and certified results are not yet posted.
Louisiana followed on May 16. Sen. Bill Cassidy — one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump after the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot — failed to finish in the top two of his own party’s primary. Trump-backed Rep. Julia Letlow finished first with 45% of the vote, per Fox News and the Associated Press. State Treasurer John Fleming took second at 28%, and Cassidy drew roughly 25%. Because no candidate topped 50%, Letlow and Fleming advance to a June 27 runoff. Cassidy becomes the first elected Republican senator to lose renomination since Indiana’s Richard Lugar in 2012, per Fox News.
Kentucky closed out the month’s primary action on May 19. Rep. Thomas Massie, a 14-year incumbent who pushed for release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, voted against Trump’s signature tax legislation, and opposed the war in Iran, lost to Trump-backed former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein by 10,280 votes, according to figures the Associated Press attributed to the Kentucky Secretary of State’s office. Gallrein drew 54.9% to Massie’s 45.1%. Turnout in the district jumped from 66,874 in the 2022 primary to 105,361 in 2026, per the same source. The Washington Post and Associated Press described the race as the most expensive U.S. House primary on record, with more than $32 million in advertising.
Colorado entered the story the weekend before the Kentucky vote. Boebert traveled to Shelby, Oldham, and Boone counties to campaign alongside Massie, making her one of a handful of House Republicans to publicly back him, according to the Kentucky Lantern. She and Massie co-chair the Congressional Second Amendment Caucus and jointly signed the discharge petition to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files. Trump responded on Truth Social calling Boebert “Weak Minded” and a “Carpetbagger” for switching from Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District to the 4th, and invited a primary challenger. “Even though I long ago endorsed Boebert, if the right person came along, it would be my Honor to withdraw that Endorsement,” Trump posted, per the Colorado Springs Gazette.
The threat had no immediate path. Colorado’s candidate filing deadline passed March 18, the Secretary of State’s office had certified the ballot, and ballots were already mailed to overseas voters, per Colorado Newsline. Boebert is running unopposed in the June 30 Republican primary. She told NewsNation, “My election in my primary is settled. There is no time for a write-in candidate. That can’t happen.” She did not retract her support for Massie. “I knew the risks when I agreed to stand by my friend Thomas Massie,” she posted on X, per Colorado Newsline. Colorado Newsline noted she is the third House Republican Trump targeted over the Epstein discharge petition, after Massie lost and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned earlier this year following sustained White House pressure.
The pattern continues Tuesday, May 26, when Texas holds its Republican Senate runoff between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton. Cornyn led the March 3 primary 42% to 40.5%, per Ballotpedia, but Trump endorsed Paxton on May 19, going against Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s preferred candidate. The University of Houston’s Hobby School poll, conducted April 28 through May 2 and reported by the Texas Tribune, showed Paxton at 48% and Cornyn at 45%, within the margin of error. The Texas Tribune reported combined ad spending at $135 million — the most expensive Senate primary on record, per AdImpact.
California voters are also in the middle of casting ballots, with the statewide primary set for June 2. The governor’s race features 61 candidates in a nonpartisan top-two system, and the Democratic field has not consolidated around a single candidate. The most recent Emerson College poll, conducted May 9-10, showed former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra leading at 19%. Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Tom Steyer each drew 17%, with former Rep. Katie Porter at 10%. Because only the top two finishers advance regardless of party, a divided Democratic vote creates a path for two Republicans to reach November — an outcome the California Democratic Party has publicly warned against, per KPBS. What May’s primaries established is that Trump’s endorsement continues to move Republican voters, and Republicans who cross him continue to pay for it — a fact Colorado’s lone dissenter now has until November to reckon with.
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