The Revenge That Found No One Home
In five other Indiana Senate districts, the story writes itself: a Republican senator voted against Trump's redistricting plan, Trump endorsed a primary challenger, and the machinery of punishment lurched into motion. Senate District 39 is the odd one out. Here, the target left before the shot was fired.
Eric Bassler announced his retirement in July 2025, citing twelve years as enough. [1] Four months later, he publicly opposed Trump's redistricting push anyway, becoming the seventh Republican senator to break ranks. [2] In December, he voted against HB 1032 as part of the 31-19 majority that killed the bill. [2] Then he walked away -- on his own terms, with a Senate resolution honoring his service.
Trump endorsed Jeff Ellington for the open seat in February 2026 regardless. [3] That decision is what makes SD-39 analytically interesting. Punishment is reactive. What happened here was something else: installation. Even with no enemy to defeat, Trump moved to claim the seat. The revenge campaign's second face -- patronage -- is most visible in the race where there is nobody left to punish.
The Firefighter Who Kept Running
Jeff Ellington is a retired firefighter, a business owner, and a man who does not quit easily.
He spent 29 years as a Rescue Technician with the City of Bloomington Fire Department, retiring in 2017. He runs J.R. Ellington Tree Experts, Ellington Stables, and Phoenix Demolition, and since 2018 has been restoring Bloomfield's historic Old Woolen Mill. He lives in Greene County with his wife Hope; they have two grown children and one grandchild. [4]
His political career began with an appointment to Indiana House District 62 on December 21, 2015. He won election in his own right in 2016, 2018, and 2020, representing Greene, northern Martin, and Daviess counties. In the House, he served as Vice Chair of the Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee and sat on Local Government and Natural Resources. He compiled a high American Conservative Union rating, an NRA "A" rating, and supported Indiana Right to Life and post-Dobbs abortion restrictions. [5]
Then redistricting took his seat away.
Indiana's 2021 mapmaking moved Greene County from House District 62 into District 45, where incumbent Bruce Borders already held the line. Ellington challenged Borders in the 2022 Republican primary and lost, 46.7% to 53.3%. He ran again in 2024 in a three-way primary and finished third with 27.4%. [6] Two consecutive losses. The state house door had closed.
So he pivoted. On August 8, 2025 -- with Bassler's retirement already announced -- Ellington filed for the SD-39 Senate seat. Different chamber, broader geography, fresh start. His campaign announced itself with familiar conservative priorities: protecting taxpayers, opposing tolling of Interstate 69, cutting fuel taxes, accelerating road repairs, immigration enforcement, and "America First" policies. "If elected, I'll fight to uphold conservative principles," he told the Sun-Commercial. "Even if that means challenging the insiders" who compromise conservatism. [7]
It was a solid but unremarkable entry into an open-seat race -- until the phone rang from Washington.
The Endorsement and the Oval Office
In February 2026, Trump endorsed Ellington on Truth Social, calling him an "America First Patriot" and praising him as "a successful businessman, retired firefighter, horse farmer, Greene County GOP Chairman and former State Representative who has dedicated his life to serving his community." He gave Ellington his "Complete and Total Endorsement" and noted he had won the district by 55 points. Ellington responded: "I am incredibly honored to have President Trump's endorsement." [3]
On March 4, 2026, Ellington was one of six Trump-endorsed Indiana Senate candidates who received an Oval Office meeting with the president. The other five were all challenging incumbent senators who had voted against redistricting. Ellington was the only one running for an open seat. [8]
That distinction matters. In the other five races, the endorsement is a weapon aimed at a specific target. In SD-39, it is a coronation -- national-level branding deployed to select a successor in a state legislative race where any of three conservatives could have won.
There is also the question of what the endorsement repairs. Ellington lost two consecutive primaries for the state house. The Trump brand offers something his local record alone could not: a reset. Whether voters in Knox and Daviess and Greene counties treat a presidential endorsement as decisive in a down-ballot primary is the open question of this race.
The Senator Who Left on His Terms
Eric Bassler had represented SD-39 since 2014, when he defeated incumbent John Waterman in a Republican primary. He holds a bachelor's degree in Chemistry and Psychology and a master's in Economics, both from Indiana University. He worked as a financial advisor at Edward Jones Investments. During the 2025-2026 session, he chaired the Ethics Committee and served on Appropriations, Environmental Affairs, and Rules. [1]
The timeline matters here. Bassler announced retirement in July 2025. He publicly opposed redistricting on November 13, 2025, declaring: "I cannot support any mid-census redistricting plan. Four years ago, my Republican colleagues and I voted for our current state and federal legislative maps. I stand by that vote and I will not support legislation to change our congressional maps." [2] He voted against HB 1032 on December 11, 2025. [2]
Because Bassler was already leaving, Trump could not punish him with a primary challenge. The endorsement of Ellington served a different purpose: marking the seat as Trump territory regardless of what Bassler did on his way out.
Tanner Bouchie: The Hometown Attorney
Tanner Bouchie is the local candidate in its purest form -- a Knox County lifer running for the seat that covers his home county on a platform built from the ground he walks on.
A graduate of South Knox High School, Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, and IU's Maurer School of Law, Bouchie founded Bouchie Law LLC in Vincennes, the Knox County seat and Indiana's oldest city. His practice handles business law, family matters, estate planning, and guardianships across the district's rural counties. He also serves as in-house counsel for True Rx Health Strategists, a pharmacy benefit management firm. [9]
His community footprint is civic rather than political. He chairs the Knox County Board of Health, has served as president of both the Knox County Drug Court Foundation and the Knox County Bar Association, and currently holds the bar association's vice-president and treasurer posts. He lives in Vincennes with his wife and daughter. [9]
This is his first run for public office. He declared his candidacy in July 2025 via Facebook video and press release -- a low-budget announcement that matched the campaign's grassroots positioning. [10]
His platform is built around three issues tailored to southwestern Indiana's economy. First, coal energy: Bouchie explicitly supports Trump's coal agenda and has promised to "work with Governor Braun to support coal energy production and coal jobs" while fighting "against destructive solar projects that make electricity more expensive and less reliable." [10] In a district where Knox and Sullivan counties have deep ties to coal extraction and coal-fired power generation, the position is not performative -- it is the local economy speaking.
Second, rural first responders: Bouchie advocates for state resources to attract and retain both paid and volunteer firefighters and EMS workers across rural communities where volunteer departments carry the burden of emergency coverage. Third, local infrastructure: stable, predictable state funding to enable long-term planning by local officials, rather than dependence on competitive grant applications administered from Indianapolis. [10]
He is pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, and frames governance as "bottom-up" rather than "top-down." He also opposes Indiana's gas tax structure, calling for elimination of automatic increases and a reduction in the rate. [9]
What Bouchie does not have is a political network beyond Knox County. He has no prior elected office, no statewide endorsement operation, and no Trump endorsement. His candidacy is a bet that local credibility -- the attorney people know, the health board chairman, the Drug Court Foundation president -- outweighs national branding in a primary where many voters know the candidates by name.
Kristi Risk: The Establishment Outsider
Kristi Risk's candidacy is the most analytically interesting in the SD-39 field, because she occupies a position that should not exist: an insider to a Trump ally's operation who was passed over by Trump himself.
Risk chairs the Owen County Republican Party and, since January 2025, has served as Director of Government Affairs for Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith. [11] [12] That last detail is critical to the redistricting story. Beckwith is the official who conveyed Trump administration threats about withholding federal funding from Indiana over the redistricting dispute (see ine-p23-beckwith-role). Risk is Beckwith's chief liaison to government -- and yet Trump endorsed Ellington over her.
Her professional background is unusually deep for a state senate candidate. Before joining Beckwith's office, she served as a congressional Chief of Staff -- though the specific member of Congress has not been publicly identified in available sources. [11] She ran for Congress twice: in 2012, she challenged incumbent Larry Bucshon in the Indiana 8th District Republican primary and lost 42% to 58% (24,960 votes to 34,511). In 2024, she ran in the crowded eight-way primary to succeed the retiring Bucshon and finished fifth with 9.2% (7,350 votes), far behind winner Mark Messmer's 38.5%. [13]
Born in St. Joseph, Missouri, Risk holds a bachelor's degree in Christian counseling from Cornerstone University. She owns Pink House Sweets, a family chocolate manufacturing company in Spencer, Indiana -- her trademarked product, Fudge O'Bits, has been featured on QVC and won two national awards for Most Innovative Product from the National Confectioners Association, along with the IN EDGE Emerging Small Business Award and a local Chamber Small Business of the Year honor. During COVID-19, she converted her manufacturing facility to produce hand sanitizer, earning a "Hometown Hero" recognition. She previously directed New Beginnings Pregnancy Center. [11] [14]
Risk lives in Spencer with her husband David. They have four adult children -- three sons on active duty in the U.S. Army and one daughter -- and a granddaughter. Her personal interests include barrel racing (she was a WPRA circuit rider), horseback riding, and Harley-Davidson riding. [11]
Her campaign positions, drawn from her 2024 congressional race and her 2026 messaging, emphasize energy independence through coal and oil, border security, small business support, term limits, and constitutional governance. She cites Ronald Reagan as her primary political influence. [13]
Where Risk diverges from Ellington and Bouchie is in institutional support. In 2026, she secured the endorsement of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, which praised her commitment to economic growth and her vision for a stronger business climate in southern Indiana. Risk framed the endorsement around "Home Rule," promising to work directly with county leadership "to ensure growth happens on their terms." [15] The Chamber endorsement is notable because it went to Risk rather than to the Trump-endorsed Ellington -- a signal that the business establishment's preferred candidate and the presidential endorsement point in different directions in this race.
The question Risk's candidacy poses is pointed: if working directly for the lieutenant governor who carries Trump's messages to the Indiana Senate does not earn a Trump endorsement, what does? The answer appears to be that the endorsement operation runs on its own logic -- prior political candidacy and local party chairmanship matter, but institutional proximity to the Trump coalition is neither necessary nor sufficient. Risk has the statehouse resume. Ellington has the presidential stamp. Both claim the same ideological lane. The primary will determine which credential SD-39 voters value more.
Joseph Baughman: The Democratic Long Shot
Joseph Baughman is running a candidacy that defies every assumption about what is viable in a district Trump won by 55 points -- not because he expects to win, but because he believes the district's working class deserves a voice that sounds like them.
Baughman, 47, is a factory worker with 22 years in manufacturing. He started on the production floor, worked his way into engineering, and currently serves in quality assurance -- "fixing systems that are inefficient or broken," as he describes it. [16] He is a father of four and grandfather of five, and a graduate of Sullivan High School. He has no prior political experience. [16]
What distinguishes Baughman is his willingness to say things no other candidate in this race will say. He identifies openly as a "Christian Socialist," citing Jesus, Eugene V. Debs, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X as his political influences. His Instagram handle includes "dsa," signaling affiliation with the Democratic Socialists of America. [16] In a district dominated by conservative Christianity, running on Christian Socialism is either an act of extraordinary conviction or an act of political self-immolation. Possibly both.
His platform is specific and structurally ambitious. He proposes a $19-per-hour minimum wage indexed to local cost of living -- if rent goes up, so does the wage floor. He calls for Rural Regional Training Centers to build skills in advanced manufacturing, trades, and computer systems, creating a pipeline to the workforce. He advocates for universal healthcare access and redirecting the tax burden onto profitable corporations. [16]
Most strikingly, Baughman is running on a two-year moratorium on data centers, with mandatory environmental impact investigations and a requirement that companies fund grid infrastructure upgrades before breaking ground. His framing is blunt: "We can no longer afford to be people last, corporations first." He calls the extraction of resources from labor, electricity, and water the greatest challenge facing the state over the next decade. [16]
His fundraising infrastructure is minimal -- an ActBlue page and social media accounts. He has no institutional endorsements. In a district where the Republican primary is the real election, Baughman's campaign is less a contest for power than a public argument: that the people who work the factories and drive the trucks in Knox and Daviess and Greene counties have economic interests that none of the three Republicans are addressing.
Whether anyone in SD-39 hears that argument above the noise of a Trump endorsement, a Chamber endorsement, and a coal-energy platform is the unstated question of the general election that will follow the May 5 primary.
The Geography
Senate District 39 covers all of Knox, Daviess, Greene, and Martin counties and parts of Sullivan and Owen counties in southwestern Indiana. It is a rural, solidly Republican district with approximately 135,806 residents. Key communities include Washington (Daviess County seat), Vincennes (Knox County seat and Indiana's oldest city), and Bloomfield (Greene County seat). Bassler ran unopposed in both 2018 and 2022. [17]
This is deep-red territory where the Republican primary on May 5 is the real election. The question is not whether a Republican wins SD-39. The question is whose Republican.
What This Race Reveals
There is an irony at the center of Jeff Ellington's candidacy that is worth sitting with. He lost his House seat because of redistricting -- Indiana's 2021 maps merged his district with another incumbent's territory, and he lost twice trying to fight his way back. Now he is the beneficiary of a different kind of redistricting politics, endorsed by the president whose redistricting push the retiring incumbent rejected.
Ellington did not cause any of this. He entered the race before the endorsement campaign materialized, running for an open seat on straightforward conservative credentials. But the Trump endorsement transformed the race's meaning. What would have been a routine open-seat primary in southwestern Indiana became the sixth front in a presidential intervention into state legislative politics.
For Republican voters in SD-39, the practical choice is among three conservatives with different patronage networks and different theories of what matters. Ellington carries the Trump brand, the Oval Office visit, and the hard-won resilience of a man who lost two primaries and kept running. Risk carries the Beckwith connection, the statehouse experience, the Indiana Chamber endorsement, and a resume that stretches from congressional staff to small business ownership. Bouchie carries a law practice, deep Knox County roots, and a coal-energy platform calibrated to the district's economic geography. All three would vote conservatively in the Indiana Senate.
For the lone Democrat, Baughman, the race is a different proposition entirely -- a factory worker running on Christian Socialism and a data center moratorium in a district where "Democrat" is barely a functional category. His candidacy is less a bid for office than a public record of dissent.
What distinguishes the Republican primary is not ideology but alignment -- and whether a presidential endorsement, deployed in a state senate race where there is no incumbent to unseat, functions as decisive kingmaking or merely as one more data point in a rural primary where most voters know the candidates personally. The Indiana Chamber of Commerce backing Risk while Trump backs Ellington creates the rare spectacle of two conservative credentialing systems pointing at different people for the same seat. SD-39 is where the redistricting revenge campaign reveals what it becomes when there is no one left to punish: a patronage operation, selecting allies for seats where dissent used to live.