President Donald Trump’s campaign to politically punish Republicans who stand in his way moves through Indiana on Tuesday, when seven state senators face Trump-backed primary challengers.

In neighboring Ohio, primaries for U.S. Senate and governor will lock in the candidates for two major races with national implications.

And in Michigan, voters in a bellwether district will fill a vacancy in the state Senate, a race with implications for the balance of power in a battleground state.

Here’s what to watch for.

How strong is Trump’s grip on the Republican Party?

Trump is taking aim at seven Republican state senators in Indiana who opposed his plan to redraw congressional district boundaries to help the party gain seats in the U.S. House.

Groups allied with the president have spent millions on advertising, an extraordinary flood of cash and attention into races that are typically low profile.

The races are a test of Trump’s enduring grip over his party as Republicans grow increasingly anxious about the midterm elections in November.

The results will signal to Republicans everywhere about how big a price they’ll pay with their voters if they distance themselves from Trump even as his popularity fades. And it will show the president whether he can still credibly threaten consequences for Republicans who cross him.

The Trump-targeted state senators all represent districts he carried in 2024, mostly by 20 percentage points or more.

The key races to watch are districts 1, 11, 19, 21, 23, 38 and 41.

Ohio races get started in earnest

The state’s primary is the wind up to the big show. Although Ohio has become increasingly conservative, Democrats believe their path back to a U.S. Senate majority runs through the state.

They’re putting their hopes behind former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who lost Ohio’s other Senate seat to Bernie Moreno in 2024.

He’s expected to face off with Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed last year to fill the vacancy created when JD Vance became vice president.

The race is a special election to fill the last two years of Vance’s term.

In the campaign for governor, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy has parlayed his national name recognition, tech industry connections and alliance with Trump into a record fundraising haul. He’s largely ignoring Republican rival Casey Putsch, focusing his rallies and television ads on the general election.

An engineer and vehicle designer who calls himself “The Car Guy,” Putsch has attracted fans with provocative YouTube videos that troll Ramaswamy and criticize national Republicans over their handling of the Epstein files, positions on energy-guzzling data centers and support for Israel.

Amy Acton, Ohio’s former public health director, is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination. She played a key role in the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Will Democrats sweep another special election?

The special election for a state Senate seat in central Michigan carries outsized importance.

It’s another test of enthusiasm in a series of special elections that have swung almost universally toward Democrats since Trump returned to the White House. It also could affect the balance of power in the Michigan State Capitol. A Democratic victory would give the party a firm majority in the state Senate, while a Republican win would deadlock the chamber in a 19-19 tie.

The district is closely matched. Democrat Kamala Harris beat Trump there by less than 1 point in the 2024 presidential election.

The seat has been vacant for more than a year, since Democrat Kristen McDonald Rivet resigned to take a seat in Congress.

Democrats are showing surprising strength in special elections and off-year contests across the country, winning races in unexpected places and significantly narrowing the gap, even when they fall short.

There’s no guarantee the trend will continue through the midterms, when turnout will be much higher, but it has nonetheless energized Democrats and spooked Republicans worried about keeping their congressional majorities.

• Four early-career journalists have joined Bridge Michigan for the summer
• The internship program is now in its eighth consecutive year
• Alumni have worked at major national and regional news outlets

Four emerging reporters will spend the summer working with Bridge Michigan.

This marks the eighth year of summer internships at Bridge. Alumni have gone on to careers at outlets like The New York Times, USA TODAY, MLive, the Petoskey News-Review and WKAR, as well as paths including Harvard Law School and a Fulbright scholarship. One former intern, Asha Lewis, now serves as Bridge’s full-time digital marketing associate.

“At Bridge, we’re dedicated to helping make Michigan a better state and part of that mission is growing the next generation of great journalists,” said Joel Kurth, Bridge Michigan executive editor for impact. “We’re excited to welcome them to our newsroom.”

Isabella Figueroa Nogueira is a junior studying journalism and economics at Michigan State University. During the school year, she is a writer for Great Lakes Echo, which covers stories about the environment and sustainability. 

She is passionate about using journalism to explore the connection between people, policy and the natural world. Outside of writing, she loves to travel, watch movies, spend time with friends and walk her dogs, Oso and Polo.

Figueroa Nogueira will be reporting on Michigan’s environment through Aug. 21. 

Nate Miller is from Berrien Springs, Michigan. He will be a senior at the University of Michigan, where he studies English. 

Miller will be a general assignment reporter for Bridge through June 19.

Blace Carpenter is a rising senior at Central Michigan University, studying journalism with a minor in multimedia design. Since starting his career in the news industry in 2022, Carpenter has worked for publications such as the Grand Haven Tribune, Alpena News and Greenville Daily News. 

Carpenter has also had some work published in statewide and national publications. For the past year, he has served as the managing editor of CMU’s student publication, Central Michigan Life.

Carpenter will report on northern and rural Michigan for Bridge through Aug. 14. 

Ella Miller is Bridge Michigan’s photojournalism intern. A metro Detroit native and recent graduate of Central Michigan University, she studied photojournalism and multimedia design. 

She was a staff photographer and photo editor at Central Michigan Life during her time in college, where she discovered her love for visual storytelling and community-centered journalism.

Related

While delivering his speech at the University of Michigan’s spring 2026 commencement ceremony, history professor Derek Peterson, outgoing chair of the University of Michigan’s Faculty Senate and Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs, told graduates to remember pro-Palestine student activists when singing the University’s fight song.

“Sing for the pro-Palestinian student activists, who have over these past two years opened our hearts to the injustice and inhumanity of Israel’s war in Gaza,” Peterson said.

Since 2023, student activists have called for the divestment of the University’s endowment from companies with financial ties to Israel’s military campaign Gaza, which has killed more than 75,000 people and has been classified as a genocide by the United Nations. The University has consistently refused demands for divestment and financial transparency.

Peterson also told graduates to remember historical activists and social movements. These included Sarah Burger, a suffragette who campaigned for the University to accept women in 1858; Moritz Levi, who fought against antisemitism as one of the University’s first Jewish faculty members in 1896; and the Black Action Movement of the 1970s and 80s, which fought for the rights of students of Color on campus.

“The greatness of this institution does not only rest on the shoulders and on the accomplishments of our student athletes, who deserve all the congratulations we can offer them,” Peterson said. “The greatness of this university rests also on the courage and the conviction of student activists who have pushed this university down the path towards justice.”

Following the commencement ceremony, excerpts of Peterson’s speech quickly spread across social media. An Instagram post by Students for Justice in Palestine praising his remarks currently has 430,000 views, and a post to X by StopAntisemitism calling for Peterson to be fired currently has 1.9 million views.

In an email to The Michigan Daily, Peterson wrote that he believes his statements have recieved an excessive amount of controversy online.

“It should not be controversial to have one’s ‘heart opened to the inhumanity and injustice of Israel’s war in Gaza’, which is what I credited activists with doing,” Peterson wrote. “Having an open heart to other people’s suffering is a fundamental human virtue, and it is a quality that I hope we teach our students, whatever their political posture might be.”

The University has previously reacted negatively toward pro-Palestine student activists at commencement and elsewhere, and Peterson’s speech received a similar response. The University’s commencement recording has since been removed from YouTube, and University President Domenico Grasso issued a statement apologizing for Peterson’s remarks, calling them “hurtful and insensitive.”

“Everyone in our community is entitled to their own views; but this was neither the time nor the place,” Grasso wrote. “Commencement is a time of celebration, recognition and unity. The Chair’s remarks were expected to be congratulatory, not a platform for personal or political expression. Introducing such commentary in this setting was inappropriate and did not align with the purpose of the occasion.”

When asked about his reaction to the issued statement, Peterson told The Daily he has had a productive working relationship with Grasso, but wrote that it was “not his finest hour.”

Grasso’s statement has received backlash from the U-M community. The day after commencement, several faculty members wrote an open letter demanding Grasso retract his statement and apologize to Peterson. The letter says Peterson’s remarks were an appropriate celebration of the University’s students and values.

“Professor Peterson’s remarks were thoughtful, informed, instructive, and ethically rich,” the letter read. “President Grasso’s response was none of that. It represents a sad abrogation of the ideals and principles which should have been upheld and celebrated on the dais and from the Office of the President. President Grasso and those who compelled him to issue his unfortunate statement would do well to go back and rewatch Professor Peterson’s speech, this time listening for what they can learn, from history and about the future.”

At press time more than 600 students, faculty and staff have signed their names to the letter.

Daily News Editor Glenn Hedin can be reached at heglenn@umich.edu.

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