by Tom Davies, Indiana Capital Chronicle
August 10, 2026

The Indiana Recount Commission on Monday flipped a Republican primary race in favor of a President Donald Trump-endorsed challenger over a state senator who opposed Indiana congressional redistricting.

The commission’s decisions on challenged ballots turned what had been a three-vote lead for Sen. Spencer Deery of West Lafayette into a three-vote margin for challenger Paula Copenhaver.

New certified totals from the May primary now give Copenhaver 6,332 votes to Deery’s 6,329.

Voter subpoenas denied in recount of narrow Indiana Senate Republican primary

The commission threw out eight votes for Deery and two for Copenhaver — all largely for technical reasons over missing signatures or initials from county election officials on absentee or provisional ballots.

The Deery-Copenhaver race is the last one undecided from the Republican primary in which Trump-endorsed challengers defeated six of the seven other incumbent senators targeted by the president in retaliation for their votes against redistricting.

That wave of victories contributed to Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray announcing recently that he would not seek another term as the Senate’s Republican leader.

James Blair, one of Trump’s top political advisers who was involved with the Indiana retribution campaign, reacted to a social media post about the recount with the comment: “Hahahaha.”

Senator taking case to court

Deery’s attorney said she plans a quick appeal to the state Court of Appeals.

“This is unprecedented,” attorney Samantha DeWester said after the commission’s vote. “Ballots don’t get tossed for a signature missing from a clerk. It’s now going to set the tone going forward for people that are losers of elections that want to overturn them on technicality stuff. I mean, they just disenfranchised a bunch of voters.”

Copenhaver, the Fountain County Republican chair and a staffer to Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, said she was confident her primary victory would stand.

“I think there was a mandate throughout the whole state regarding the redistricting, and what I have found is that a lot of people are afraid to vocalize their position,” Copenhaver said. “They don’t speak up for fear of retribution. I’m not afraid.”

The Deery-Copenhaver winner will face Democratic West Lafayette City Councilman David Sanders and independent candidate Joshua Brant in the November election for the heavily Republican district, which spans all or parts of six counties in the area between Lafayette and Terre Haute.

The three-member Recount Commission was divided 2-1 on tossing out seven of the eight votes that Deery lost, with the other one decided unanimously. The decisions on removing the two Copenhaver votes were unanimous.

In the split votes, Republican commission member Paul Mullin joined with Republican Secretary of State Diego Morales, who, by law, is the commission’s chairman. Democratic member Michael Claytor voted that all those ballots for Deery should be counted.

Morales was a vocal advocate of the congressional redistricting push. Mullin has previously represented Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Banks in election law cases — and political groups allied with Banks were estimated to have spent more than $1 million in supporting Copenhaver’s campaign.

Deery said he believed the courts would “reaffirm me as the choice voters made for the Republican nomination in Senate District 23.”

“Today, we saw members of the Indiana Recount Commission attempt to undermine the will of voters by treating ballots differently based on whether they furthered the president’s political goals,” Deery said in a social media statement. “This was not a meeting intended to find fairness; it was designed to find votes. Indiana law makes clear that valid votes should not be silenced simply because of minor errors made by clerks — clerks who were supposed to be trained by the chairman of this very commission.”

Challenger won’t say who is paying legal bill

Copenhaver was represented at the Recount Commission meetings Monday and July 28 by at least two attorneys and other staff members from the Indianapolis law firm Kroger, Gardis & Regas. DeWester, meanwhile, was the sole legal representative for Deery.

Copenhaver said neither her campaign — which reported raising about $20,000 by mid-April — nor outside political groups were paying her legal bills, but declined to say who was and how much her fight was costing.

“I have some great, phenomenal supporters,” she said in response.

Attorney William Bock, who presented Copenhaver’s case before the commission, also declined to comment on the funding source.

Bock argued during the commission meeting that the challenged votes for Deery should not be counted because the integrity of ballot security needed protection.

“It is not disenfranchisement to enforce the election code,” he said.

Bock said he believed the Recount Commission’s decision would be upheld by the courts.

“Some of the absentee ballots had issues,” he told reporters. “They didn’t comply with Indiana law, and it’s important that voters feel secure about how absentee ballots are handled.”

This story has been updated with additional details and comments.