The Race
Indiana Senate District 22 covers the city of Lafayette, the eastern portion of Tippecanoe County, and all of Carroll County. It is Purdue University country -- the kind of district where a Republican state senator can serve for nearly three decades without ever facing a primary. Ron Alting has held the seat since 1998, making him the longest-serving member of the Indiana Senate. [1]
In May 2026, Alting faces his first contested Republican primary in over 25 years. The challenger is Richard Bagsby, a minister and driving range owner introduced at his campaign kickoff by Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith. On the Democratic side, two first-time candidates -- Natasha Baker and Marlena Edmondson -- are competing in their own primary. [2]
What makes this race structurally unusual is not the challenge itself but the factional geometry. Trump endorsed Alting on March 24, 2026, as part of a batch of 17 endorsements for Indiana Senate incumbents who voted for redistricting. [3] Beckwith, Trump's own lieutenant governor ally in Indiana, is backing the challenger. The president and his enforcer are on opposite sides of the same primary.
The MAGA Split
In the redistricting revenge races -- SD-19, SD-21, SD-23, SD-38, SD-39, SD-41 -- Trump endorsed challengers against senators who voted no on HB 1032. The logic was punitive: defy the president, face a primary. The factional line was clear.
SD-22 inverts the pattern. Alting did not defy Trump on redistricting. He publicly endorsed the plan weeks before the December 11, 2025 vote, posting on X that the federal government shutdown had "convinced" him to support redistricting and declaring "I support President Trump, and I support plans to redistrict our maps." He voted yes on HB 1032. [4]
Yet Beckwith is backing a challenger against him anyway.
The rift is not about redistricting. It is about social conservatism. Beckwith posted a video reel from his Statehouse office on February 14, 2026, triggered by a side comment Alting made during a Senate committee hearing. Alting had gotten laughs from colleagues by joking about whether he needed to involve the lieutenant governor as a tie-breaker. When asked if his microphone was on, Alting smiled and said "No, it's on." [5]
Beckwith's response was what Based in Lafayette reporter Dave Bangert called "a legislative diss track." In the video, Beckwith put air quotes around the word "Republican" while referring to Alting, then enumerated his grievances: Alting's 2022 vote against the near-total abortion ban (SB 1), his vote against the transgender athlete bill (HEA 1041), his vote against banning DEI practices, and his vote against Senate Bill 425, which would have allowed energy projects to bypass local zoning. [5]
This places Beckwith directly at odds with the president whose agenda he claims to champion. Trump gave Alting his "Complete and Total Endorsement." Beckwith gave Alting's challenger a campaign introduction. The split reveals something about the internal architecture of the MAGA coalition in Indiana: the social conservative wing, anchored by Beckwith and the convention delegates who elected him, has a different set of litmus tests than the transactional loyalty machine that produces presidential endorsements.
In the redistricting revenge races, Beckwith and Trump were aligned -- both wanted to punish dissenters. In SD-22, they diverge, because the dispute is not about obedience to Trump but about how far right the party should go on abortion, gender, and energy policy. Beckwith's beef with Alting predates redistricting and will outlast it.
Republican Primary
Ron Alting (Incumbent)
Ron Alting was born and raised in Lafayette. He graduated from Lafayette Jefferson High School (inducted into the school's hall of fame in 2001) and holds a Bachelor of Science from Purdue University. Before entering the Senate, he served on the Lafayette City Council and was its president from 1995 to 1998. He is also a Major in the Indiana Guard Reserve. [1]
In the Senate, Alting has chaired the Public Policy Committee and served on the Elections Committee and Judiciary Committee, as well as holding the Republican Caucus position of Assistant Majority Whip. His legislative profile is that of a business-oriented Republican comfortable with the institutional rhythms of the chamber -- a committee chairman, not a bomb-thrower. [1]
His voting record on social issues is where the challenger finds purchase:
Abortion (SB 1, 2022): Alting voted no on Indiana's near-total abortion ban -- both the initial 26-20 passage vote and the 28-19 concurrence vote. He was one of ten Republican no-votes initially, calling the bill "mean and cruel" and "an attack on all women," specifically objecting that the exemptions for rape and incest victims were too restrictive. [6]
Transgender sports (HEA 1041, 2022): Alting was one of seven Republicans who voted against the transgender athlete ban, arguing that the IHSAA already had a policy in place. In 2025, however, he voted for a bill banning transgender athletes from competing in NCAA women's sports at the college level. [7]
Property tax reform (SB 1, 2025): Alting was one of twelve Republicans who voted against the property tax freeze bill. [8]
Energy zoning (SB 425, 2025): Alting was one of four Republicans who voted against allowing energy projects to bypass local zoning processes. [9]
Alting's defense on social issues has been that his positions align with Trump's own stated views. "I'm proudly pro-life and support exceptions for the life of the mother, rape and incest -- the same position President Trump has outlined," he said after Beckwith's video attack. On transgender sports, he pointed to his 2025 vote supporting the college-level ban and his support for SB 182, which would prohibit transgender students from using restrooms matching their gender identity. [7]
The defense is not unfounded. Trump has repeatedly positioned himself as supporting rape and incest exceptions to abortion bans. Alting can plausibly claim to be more aligned with Trump's stated abortion position than the Indiana legislators who passed SB 1 without adequate exceptions.
Trump endorsed Alting on March 24, 2026, with a Truth Social post calling him "a Strong Champion and Highly Effective Representative" who "has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election." [3]
The pro-Alting Senate Majority Campaign Committee launched a website, "The Bagsby Record" (thebagsbyrecord.com), and a television ad on the same day, both detailing Bagsby's criminal history, license suspensions, and civil judgments. [10]
Richard Bagsby (Challenger)
Richard Bagsby was born in Gary, Indiana. He earned an associate degree from Ivy Tech in 2015. He owns Tee Off Golf, a driving range and sports bar on Veterans Memorial Parkway in Lafayette, and describes himself as a minister from the eastern edge of Tippecanoe County. He is 42 years old. [2]
This is not his first campaign. In 2022, Bagsby finished third in the Republican primary for Indiana House District 41, behind eventual winner Mark Genda. [2]
Bagsby's campaign kickoff took place at Gathering Acres Event Center south of Lafayette, where Lt. Gov. Beckwith introduced him. Bagsby described their relationship: "I like to say, Micah and I, we're brothers from another mother." He said they had been friends for years. [2]
His case against Alting centers on social conservatism: the abortion ban vote, the transgender sports vote, LGBTQ issues broadly, and the energy zoning vote. Bagsby argues that Alting is not conservative enough for the district. [2]
The vulnerabilities on the challenger's side are substantial:
2008 cocaine dealing conviction: In April 2008, Bagsby was charged in Tippecanoe Superior Court with dealing cocaine, possession of cocaine, resisting law enforcement, and maintaining a common nuisance. He pleaded guilty to three charges and was sentenced to six years in prison, serving approximately 30 months. [10]
2004 Oklahoma felony charges: Bagsby faced felony charges in Craig County, Oklahoma, for possessing and intending to distribute cocaine and marijuana. The case received a deferred sentence and was expunged in 2020. [10]
License suspensions: His driver's license was suspended ten times over a 14-year period for reasons including failing a sobriety test, driving on a suspended license, failing to appear in court, and failing to pay penalties. [10]
Civil judgments: Multiple business dealings wound up in court. [10]
Bagsby's Indiana records were expunged at the end of 2018. His campaign explicitly frames his biography as a redemption narrative -- he documented his past in a memoir titled "Transformation: The Untold Story of Richard Richmond." When the attack ads launched, Bagsby responded: "My life has not been perfect. But it has been transparent. I am not running from my story. I am running on it." [10]
When Trump endorsed Alting, Bagsby's response captured the asymmetry of the race with accidental precision: "A 28-year incumbent had to call in the president ... to try and stop me." [3]
The fundamental asymmetry of this primary is that Alting has a 28-year incumbency, the sitting president's endorsement, and institutional party support. Bagsby has the lieutenant governor's introduction and a social-conservative critique of an incumbent whose actual voting record is mixed rather than liberal. Whether Beckwith's grassroots network can overcome Trump's endorsement in a district the incumbent has owned for three decades is the question.
Democratic Primary
Natasha Baker
Natasha Baker is a 2010 Harrison High School graduate with two degrees from Purdue University. She teaches Family and Consumer Sciences in Carroll County and is married to a volunteer firefighter. She is raising two young children in Tippecanoe County. [11]
Baker describes herself as having a unique perspective on both urban and rural issues because she grew up in Lafayette but teaches in Carroll County -- the two geographic components of SD-22. Her platform emphasizes public school support, family leave initiatives, and "common-sense" gun laws. She has hosted gun safety classes in the district as a campaign activity. [11]
Baker was the first Democrat to file for the seat, announcing her candidacy in late 2025. [11]
Marlena Edmondson
Marlena Edmondson was born and raised in Tippecanoe County, where she grew up in a low-income family as a first-generation college student. She holds degrees in Political Science and Social Work. For 14 years, she has worked as a social worker in child welfare, juvenile justice, and public education. [12]
Her campaign emphasizes affordable healthcare, transportation, and replacing "career politicians with genuine representatives who prioritize the needs of the people." The "career politicians" framing is aimed squarely at a 28-year incumbent. [12]
Edmondson was the second Democrat to file, making the May 5 primary competitive on both sides of the ballot for the first time in the seat's modern history. [12]
Neither Democratic candidate is likely to win the general election in a district this reliably Republican. But their presence -- two candidates competing for the right to challenge in a district that often runs unopposed on the Democratic line -- reflects the broader energy in downballot Democratic organizing in 2026.
Why It Matters
SD-22 is not a redistricting revenge race. Alting voted the way Trump wanted on HB 1032. He got Trump's endorsement for it. This race exists because Beckwith's faction of the Indiana Republican Party has a purity test that goes beyond loyalty to the president on any single vote.
The three issues Beckwith hammers -- abortion exceptions, transgender policy, DEI -- represent a social-conservative agenda that Trump himself has been strategically ambiguous about. Trump says he supports rape and incest exceptions to abortion bans. Alting voted that way. Trump endorsed Alting. Beckwith attacked Alting for the same vote Trump's position would logically support.
This reveals the internal tension in the MAGA coalition that the redistricting revenge narrative obscures. In the six revenge races, Beckwith and Trump are united -- both punishing disloyal senators. In SD-22, they split, because Beckwith's Christian nationalist faction demands a different kind of loyalty than Trump's transactional endorsement machine provides. Beckwith is not enforcing Trump's agenda here. He is enforcing his own.
The race also tests whether the lieutenant governor's grassroots network can challenge the institutional party in a district where the incumbent is not weakened by a redistricting defection. Alting voted with Trump. He has the endorsement. He has the Senate Majority Campaign Committee's attack operation working on his behalf. He has 28 years of constituent service in a Purdue-adjacent district.
Bagsby has Beckwith's introduction, a social-conservative critique, and a criminal record that the institutional party has already weaponized. The structural advantages favor the incumbent overwhelmingly.
But the race matters less for its outcome than for what it reveals: even within the MAGA coalition, the factions disagree about what the coalition is for. Redistricting united them temporarily. The abortion vote splits them permanently. And the lieutenant governor of Indiana is, on this question, on the opposite side from the president whose name he invokes.