BLUFFTON, Ind. — Veteran state Sen. Travis Holdman’s vote against congressional redistricting put himself and his largely rural northeastern Indiana district at the center of President Donald Trump’s quest for political vengeance.
A wave of anti-Holdman advertising is hitting the mailboxes and screens of voters in and around the 10,000-person city of Bluffton, the seat of Wells County and the political base for both Holdman and Trump-endorsed Republican primary challenger Blake Fiechter.
Holdman is the highest-ranking member of the Senate’s GOP leadership on Trump’s Indiana target list. That makes him something of a proxy for the ire Trump directed at the Senate’s Republican leader, Rodric Bray, but who isn’t up for reelection until 2028.
When asked whether he feels the pressure of being a potential big prize of national pro-redistricting groups, Holdman just acknowledges the challenge.
“They’re probably spending more money on me than anybody else to try to take me out,” he told the Indiana Capital Chronicle just before the Wells County Republican Party’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner last week.
The 75-year-old attorney and former local bank president was soon working the crowd of familiar faces as he seeks to retain the Senate District 19 seat he’s held since 2008.
At stake is the GOP nomination for a four-year Senate term paying $33,000 in base salary. Including per diem and leadership bonuses, Holdman’s salary is $89,000.
Party stalwart or RINO?
About a dozen of those among the Senate district’s party hierarchy in attendance said in interviews that they were standing with Holdman despite the president’s complaint that the senator is a RINO — for Republican in name only — because of his redistricting vote.
Duane Monroe, a county commissioner in neighboring Jay County, said the frequent ads touting Trump’s Fiechter endorsement were resonating among his coworkers at the Jay County REMC.
“They see that stuff, and they’re Trump supporters, and so they’re thinking that that’s the guy to go vote for,” Monroe said. “I know Travis, so, no, it won’t persuade me.”
Holdman used a brief speaking time before the dinner crowd of a couple hundred people in the county 4-H Park’s community center to highlight his positions as Senate majority caucus chair and leader of the chamber’s Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee, which give him considerable Statehouse clout.
He also rattled off numerous endorsements, ranging from the Indiana Farm Bureau to the state Chamber of Commerce to all five of the district’s county sheriffs.
Challenger not in MAGA mold
Fiechter, a 36-year-old real estate broker, is a relative political newcomer in his first term as an at-large member of Bluffton’s city council after winning election in 2023.
With a soft-spoken demeanor, Fiechter does not seem to have embraced the attacks on Holdman.
He sat with his wife at their table for several minutes while others mingled before dinner, then didn’t mention Trump’s name or the redistricting fight during his dinner remarks. He introduced his wife, mentioned they were homeschooling their three daughters and offered to “bring representation to District 19, if that’s what they want.”
“Really running to try to keep small communities safe,” Fiechter said. “Being on the city council, I see where the state level really affects our local level. So that’s kind of been my main focus, to make sure our small rural communities have the necessary tools to stay healthy, grow, thrive.”
Fiechter’s candidacy path has been circuitous — starting with Trump’s social media post endorsing Fiechter as a “True America First Patriot” on Jan. 22, before he had decided to run and nearly a week before he filed his candidacy.
Then Fiechter told a Fort Wayne television station a month later that he was ending his campaign, citing a lack of help in getting organized across the sprawling district.
But he reappeared a couple weeks later among six Trump-endorsed state Senate candidates on a trip to Washington that included a session with U.S. Jim Banks and an Oval Office talk with the president.
Fiechter said in a brief interview that the White House visit was “a once-in-a-lifetime experience” and that he had not been to Washington before.
Fiechter said he’s still trying to raise money toward his own campaign message and points out he has no say over what the pro-redistricting groups say in their mailers and TV ads.
“I’m maybe not the best at trying to ask for help,” Fiechter said. “I kind of try to do it all on my own and muscle through it. But at the same time, there’s been a lot of support. It’s been good.”
Will redistricting debate move voters?
Wells County Republican Chair Preston Wright, a former Banks congressional staffer, said he believes voters largely understand that the Trump endorsements are based upon nothing but the redistricting vote.
Wright calls Holdman a “solid conservative” and said “if it weren’t for his no vote on redistricting, President Trump would have no issue with him.”
Holdman was among the 21 state Senate Republicans who voted against the proposed redrawing of Indiana’s congressional maps that aimed to give the GOP all nine U.S. House seats rather than the current 7-2 Republican majority.
Wright said he believed the redistricting debate is an artificial issue — even though Trump won 78% of Wells County’s votes in the 2024 presidential election.
“I can count on one hand the number of people in Wells County who reached out to me in support of redistricting,” he said. “The majority of what I heard was opposition or indifference. The average voter has moved on.”
Barb Rigney was at the dinner with her husband, David, a former Ossian police chief running for Wells County sheriff. She was concerned about the acrimony surrounding the redistricting debate.
“I just think that it’s unfortunate that it just seemed to be divisive, and people seem to be hard one way or the other,” she said. “I don’t know how it’s going to work out.”
Holdman, for his part, said he would be campaigning hard through the final weeks until the May 5 primary.
He said he’ll keep defending his record and argued the attack ads against him could be back firing.
“I think they’re going the opposite direction for some of them. I get more folks telling me they’re sick and tired of all the negative,” Holdman said. “I feel some people just have Trump fatigue right now.”
Indiana Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com.
