When Donald Trump furiously ordered his minions to find and fund primary challenges to seven Indiana Republican state senators who refused to conduct a mid-decade gerrymander that he demanded late last year, it looked like just the typical act of a vengeance-obsessed president who couldn’t abide being defied. Indeed, eyebrows were raised about the millions being spent on an intraparty punishment mission when Republicans had much bigger midterm fish to fry elsewhere.

Little did anyone anticipate that the May 5 Indiana primary would take place days after the U.S. Supreme Court triggered a frenzied last-minute Republican gerrymandering effort across the South with its decision in Louisiana v. Callais. So when Trump’s hired hands succeeded in defeating five of his seven Hoosier GOP targets (with another in a race too close to call), it was more than just a reminder to potential GOP rebels that “It’s Donald Trump’s Republican Party,” as his local hatchet man, Senator Jim Banks, put it on primary night. It also added to the pressure on southern Republicans looking at risky pre-midterm congressional gerrymanders to abandon their inhibitions and go for the kind of maximum partisan advantages Trump has been crusading for since last summer, in order to mitigate or reverse likely Democratic gains in the House. As Punchbowl News observed, nobody is missing the implications:

Trump’s success on Tuesday could have real implications for southern states that are now considering whether to redistrict after the Supreme Court gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act last month. Indiana proved there are serious consequences for any Republican state legislators resisting Trump on redistricting.

Trump’s success on Tuesday could have real implications for southern states that are now considering whether to redistrict........

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