The Race
Senate District 27 sits in east-central Indiana, covering Wayne, Henry, and Union counties and a portion of Franklin County. The district's anchor is Richmond, the Wayne County seat, a city of roughly 35,000 that borders Ohio. New Castle (Henry County) and Liberty (Union County) are the other principal communities. This is rural and small-city territory with a manufacturing heritage -- auto parts, casket-making, lawn mowers -- that has thinned over decades but still defines the region's economic identity. [1]
The district is deep red. Jeff Raatz has won his last two general elections with approximately 70% and 71% of the vote, respectively. [2] No Democrat has been competitive here in recent memory, and no Republican primary challenger has tested Raatz since he first won the seat in 2014.
Until now. The 2026 cycle brings both a Republican primary challenger (Anthony Lee Jones) and a Democratic general election opponent (Ronald Itnyre, making his second run). The primary is the real contest, and even that is lopsided -- but the endorsement dynamics tell a story worth following.
Republican Primary
Jeff Raatz (Incumbent)
Jeff Raatz has represented SD-27 since 2014. Born in Manistee, Michigan, in 1963, he is a U.S. Army veteran who settled in Richmond. He holds a bachelor's degree in business from Baker College, a master's in political science from Miami University (Ohio), and an MBA from Indiana University. His professional life spans education and business: he is the principal of Richmond Academy, a part-time program coordinator at Miami University, and the owner of Raatz LLC, a business-coaching consultancy. He is also a licensed Indiana insurance agent. [2]
In the Senate, Raatz chairs the Committee on Education and Career Development and sits on the Appropriations Committee and School Funding Subcommittee. His legislative focus has centered on workforce development and education reform, including bills to empower the Indiana Commission on Higher Education and improve career-coaching grant requirements. [3]
Raatz briefly left state politics to aim higher. In 2024, he ran for Indiana's 6th Congressional District in a crowded Republican primary for the seat vacated by Greg Pence. He finished with approximately 13% of the vote -- well behind winner Jefferson Shreve -- and returned to his Senate seat. He reported roughly $83,000 in contributions for that race and loaned his campaign $5,000. [4] The congressional bid was a detour, not a disaster, but it underscores that Raatz's ambitions extend beyond the statehouse.
Redistricting and the Trump endorsement. Raatz voted YES on HB 1032, the Trump-backed mid-cycle redistricting bill, on both the initial and final Senate votes. [5] He was one of 26 senators (later 28 on the final vote) who supported the measure, which ultimately failed 31-19. Raatz published a column in his "Raatz Roundup" newsletter on December 2, 2025, explaining his position: "The rules of engagement have changed on redistricting. Some states have gerrymandered so drastically that it has hampered our overall ability as a state to have appropriate influence in our U.S. Congress." [6]
That loyalty was rewarded. On March 25, 2026, Trump endorsed Raatz on Truth Social as part of a batch of 17 endorsements for Indiana Senate Republicans who had supported redistricting. Trump called Raatz "an America First Patriot doing a fantastic job" and cited his work on migrant crime, the economy, taxes, energy dominance, elections, and the Second Amendment, giving him a "Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election." [7] [8]
The distinction matters: Trump's Indiana endorsements came in two waves. The February wave endorsed six challengers against senators who voted against redistricting -- those were offensive weapons. The March wave endorsed loyal incumbents like Raatz -- those were loyalty badges. Raatz falls in the latter category. His endorsement is not a rescue mission; it is a reward for a vote already cast. [8]
Anthony Lee Jones (Challenger)
Anthony Lee Jones is described as a retail worker who filed for the Republican primary in SD-27. [9] Beyond his filing with the Indiana Secretary of State's office, Jones has no visible campaign infrastructure: no campaign website, no social media presence, no public statements to media, no reported fundraising, and no endorsements from party organizations or officials. [9]
This is not unusual in Indiana state legislative primaries. Down-ballot races regularly attract candidates who file but do not run organized campaigns. Whether Jones represents a philosophical challenge to Raatz, a protest candidacy, or simply a name on the ballot is impossible to determine from public information. What is clear is that he does not pose a competitive threat to a three-term incumbent with a Trump endorsement and institutional support.
General Election (Itnyre)
Ronald Itnyre, a Democrat from Richmond, filed on February 2, 2026, for his second run against Raatz. He lost the 2022 general election 28.8% to 71.2%. [10]
Itnyre brings an unusual profile for a candidate in deep-red east-central Indiana. He is a senior lecturer of biology and director of the Office of Sustainability at Indiana University East. Before academia, he grew up on a 300-acre corn and beef farm and spent 13 years as a corn breeder after earning a doctorate in plant pathology. [10] [11]
His 2026 platform centers on local control: he wants to "bring personal freedom back to Hoosiers and our towns without the heavy hand of the state government interfering in local ordinances, economies and schools." He is concerned about recent tax legislation he believes has harmed Indiana communities. He supports women's access to reproductive healthcare, including abortion, and backs bipartisan legalization of medical and recreational marijuana. [11]
These positions place him well to the left of the district's median voter. In 2023, Itnyre ran for Richmond Common Council At-Large, campaigning on environmental policy (implementing the city's Climate Action Plan), economic opportunity, and support for the unhoused and food-insecure. [12]
Itnyre's candidacy is structurally important even if it is not competitive. A Democrat running twice in a district this red -- absorbing a 42-point loss and filing again -- represents a commitment to contesting seats that party infrastructure often writes off. Whether that persistence translates into any measurable gain in a presidential-endorsement year is another question. His 2022 margin provides the baseline: anything significantly better than 29% would signal at least modest erosion in Republican support.
Why It Matters
SD-27 is not a competitive race. It is an instructive one.
The Trump endorsement of Raatz illustrates the second tier of the Indiana redistricting intervention. The story that gets attention is the six challenger endorsements against senators who voted no -- those are the punishments. But the endorsements of loyal incumbents like Raatz are the other half of the ledger. They establish a precedent: vote with the president on key asks, and the presidential brand flows downward to your state senate re-election campaign. That is a transactional relationship being formalized in real time.
Raatz's trajectory also shows what loyalty looks like in practice. He voted for redistricting, published a justification, and received the endorsement. He did not break with leadership, did not suffer threats or swatting attacks, and did not face a serious primary challenge. For the senators who did break ranks and are now fighting for their political lives, Raatz's smooth path is the counterfactual -- the road they did not take.
The Jones primary challenge is a non-factor electorally. Itnyre's general election candidacy is a 40-point underdog at best. The race's significance is not in its outcome but in what it reveals about how presidential endorsements function as a sorting mechanism in state-level politics -- rewarding the compliant and, by omission, marking the defiant.