The Only Senator Who Asked
On a weeknight in late 2025, Greg Goode did something no other Indiana state senator bothered to do. He held a public listening session on redistricting -- at Terre Haute City Hall, open to anyone who wanted to show up and speak.
Every single constituent who spoke opposed mid-cycle redistricting. [1]
Then Goode voted no.
For that, he got called out by name by the President of the United States on Truth Social. Hours later, someone sent an email to the Vigo County Sheriff's Office claiming harm had occurred at Goode's home. Deputies rushed to the scene. His family was safe. The investigation was handed to federal authorities. [2]
Now Goode faces a Trump-endorsed challenger, a dark-money air war, and a ballot dispute so chaotic it temporarily shut down absentee voting in three counties. Welcome to Senate District 38.
The Appointed Senator
Goode is not who you'd cast as a RINO rebel. He studied political science and history at Indiana State University, pursued graduate studies at the Catholic University of America (at the Pentagon), and is a doctoral student at Virginia Tech. For over a decade he served as Executive Director of Government Relations and University Communications at Indiana State, then became State Director for U.S. Senator Todd Young -- a Republican. He co-chairs the Indiana General Assembly Defense Caucus. [3]
He got the Senate seat in October 2023 after Sen. Jon Ford resigned. Goode won a Republican precinct committee caucus 56-18 over former state senator John Waterman, with Ford's endorsement. He has never faced a general electorate. [4]
His committee portfolio -- Education and Career Development (Ranking Member), Appropriations, Elections, Family and Children Services, School Funding Subcommittee -- suggests a legislator building institutional credibility, not seeking cable-news attention. [3]
When the redistricting vote came, Goode framed his opposition in terms that were hard to argue with from the right. The proposed map would have split Clay County and other Wabash River counties into a congressional district with Boone County and Indianapolis, fracturing an economic development region that had been working since 2015, under three governors, to unify those counties. "That map was just not a fair reflection of the shared interests of my fellow citizens in the Wabash Valley," he said. [5]
During the Senate floor debate, he invoked former Vice President Mike Pence's signature phrase: "I'm a Christian first, then an American, then a conservative, then a Republican -- in that order." [1]
It was a defense designed to make the "betrayed Trump" attack awkward to execute.
The Challenger From the AG's Office
Brenda Wilson is a Vigo County Council member whose family has farmed in the county since 1816. The Wilson farm encompasses approximately 2,600 acres with cash crops of corn, wheat, and soybeans. She and her husband have also developed property and own an excavating company. [6]
Since September 2025, Wilson has worked for Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita's office as an outreach coordinator at a salary of $62,000 per year. That employment will matter later. [7]
On January 28, 2026, Trump gave Wilson his endorsement via Truth Social, describing her as a "Successful Family Farmer, and Highly Respected Vigo County Commissioner, who will be a strong and effective Voice for our amazing Farmers and Indiana Agriculture." [8]
Trump got her title wrong. She's a Vigo County Council member, not a County Commissioner. [8]
On March 4, 2026, Wilson was one of six Trump-endorsed Indiana Senate challengers who received an Oval Office meeting with the president -- the same choreographed White House visit afforded to the other redistricting revenge candidates. [9]
The campaign follows the standard revenge-race playbook: local officeholder, presidential endorsement, White House photo op, dark-money air support. But this race acquired complications the others did not.
The Other Wilson
A second candidate named Wilson filed for the same Republican primary.
Alexandra Wilson's candidacy has been challenged on the basis of a 2010 guilty plea to resisting law enforcement -- originally charged as a Class D felony, though her attorney contends the judge accepted it as a Class A misdemeanor. Indiana law prohibits felony-convicted individuals from holding elected office. [10]
The Indiana Election Commission deadlocked 2-2 on the eligibility challenge, keeping Alexandra Wilson on the ballot. [10]
Conservative attorney Jim Bopp -- a political ally of Governor Mike Braun -- filed an appeal on behalf of Jeffrey Gallant (Gallant v. Indiana Election Commission and Alexandra Wilson, Case No. 11C01-2603-RA-185), arguing that Alexandra Wilson's candidacy is a ballot "trick" by local Republicans to help Goode survive the primary by splitting votes intended for Brenda Wilson. Bopp noted that Alexandra Wilson's name will appear above Brenda Wilson's on the ballot due to alphabetical ordering. [10]
Vigo County Republican Party Chair Randy Gentry, who certified Alexandra Wilson's GOP candidacy, denied allegations of ballot manipulation. [10]
Whether the second Wilson is a deliberate plant or a coincidence, the practical effect is the same: voters in SD-38 will see two candidates named Wilson on their ballot, and only one of them has Trump's endorsement.
Three Counties, No Ballots
The legal fight over which Wilson belongs on the ballot spilled into election administration.
On March 19, 2026, Judge David Thomas ordered Vigo, Clay, and Sullivan counties to "immediately cease sending, mailing, or otherwise distributing absentee ballots" for the SD-38 race. He then recused himself. Putnam County Superior Court Judge Charles D. Bridges was appointed as replacement. On March 21, Bridges lifted the stay, allowing ballots to go out, and scheduled a hearing for March 24 for judicial review. [11]
No other redistricting revenge race has produced anything like this -- a judicial halt on absentee voting weeks before the primary. The ballot dispute has become the most operationally disruptive feature of any race in the cycle.
The Conflict No One Recused
Here is the wrinkle that makes this race structurally different from the other revenge primaries.
The Attorney General's office is defending the Indiana Election Commission in the ballot dispute litigation. The Attorney General's office also employs Brenda Wilson -- the candidate who would benefit most from Alexandra Wilson's removal from the ballot. [7]
This dual role has not resulted in formal recusal. The AG's office is simultaneously the employer of one candidate and the legal defender of the body that ruled on her competitor's eligibility. Whether or not this affects the legal outcome, it creates a visible conflict of interest that would trouble any reasonable observer.
The Outside Money
Hoosier Leadership for America, the dark-money group affiliated with U.S. Sen. Jim Banks and run by Andrew Surabian, is running ads across the redistricting revenge races, planning to spend $3 million across seven state Senate races. Ad content accuses targeted senators of opposing "President Trump's plan to remove liberal Democrats from Congress" and attacks votes on gasoline taxes, property taxes, and foreign land ownership. Fair Maps Indiana and Club for Growth have also pledged multi-figure spending in support of Trump-endorsed challengers. [12]
The money is national. The race is local. That gap defines every one of these primaries.
The District
Senate District 38 covers Vigo County, Clay County, and a portion of Sullivan County in west-central Indiana. The district's anchor is Terre Haute (population roughly 60,000), an Indiana State University city and the historic center of the Wabash Valley. The district is solidly Republican. It was previously held by Jon Ford. Goode is the first person to seek election to the seat under the current map. [3]
The Stress Test
This is the messiest of the redistricting revenge races, and the mess itself tells a story.
Greg Goode has the strongest "I listened to my constituents" defense of any targeted senator. He held the only public listening session. Every speaker opposed redistricting. He cited their feedback, not personal conviction, as the basis for his vote. In a Republican primary where Trump's name carries weight, that constituent-facing narrative is strategically useful -- and unlike the other targeted senators, he built it in public, on the record, before the vote.
Brenda Wilson's campaign follows the revenge-race template faithfully: endorsement, White House visit, dark money. But the execution has gone sideways in ways that no one planned. The dual-Wilson ballot confusion has entangled the Attorney General's office in a conflict of interest, temporarily halted absentee voting in three counties, and created a ballot-design problem that could plausibly confuse voters. Every news cycle spent on court orders and ballot disputes is a cycle not spent on the "Goode defied Trump" message.
The irony is thick. The chaos may actually help the incumbent. If Alexandra Wilson remains on the ballot, the anti-Goode vote splits between two Wilson candidates -- one endorsed by the president, one not. A race designed to punish a senator for independent judgment has become a case study in how national political hardball produces unintended local consequences.
What should be a simple question -- should a senator who held the only public hearing and voted with his constituents be removed for defying the president? -- has been buried under procedural wreckage that is, itself, a symptom of how far outside power is willing to reach into a state Senate primary in Terre Haute.