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.
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.
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. 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.
In the redistricting revenge races, Trump endorsed challengers against senators who voted no on HB 1032. The logic was punitive. SD-22 inverts the pattern. Alting did not defy Trump on redistricting. He publicly endorsed the plan weeks before the vote and voted yes. 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, putting air quotes around the word "Republican" while referring to Alting, then enumerating his grievances: Alting's 2022 vote against the near-total abortion ban (SB 1), his vote against the transgender athlete bill, his vote against banning DEI practices, and his vote against allowing energy projects to bypass local zoning.
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 pro-Alting Senate Majority Campaign Committee launched a website, "The Bagsby Record," and a television ad detailing Bagsby's criminal history, license suspensions, and civil judgments. 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.
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.