Businessman Mike Braun is projected to win the Indiana Senate race, according to an analysis of the vote totals, unseating incumbent Joe Donnelly in a huge win for the Republicans.
Donnelly was one of 10 Democratic Senate incumbents battling for re-election in states that President Donald Trump won in 2016.
More than 13,000 people traveled to Memorial Coliseum to see the pair.
Trump told them: “A vote for Mike Braun is a vote to keep your jobs going, to keep your wages going up and to take care once and for all” of health care reform.
He said Donnelly, who voted against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, is “an extreme liberal Democrat.”
Donnelly “will be totally against us, he’ll never vote for us, he will never, ever vote for us,” Trump added.
Braun told the crowd he wants to help Trump shake up Washington and “drain the swamp.”
“We need more reinforcements (in Congress) from the real world. People that have done something,” Braun said, who owns a national auto parts distribution company in Jasper and has never served in elected office.
The Democrats had a narrow path to seize control of the Senate, and with Braun’s win, that path has pretty much closed.
Close races are projected in other “toss-up” states, including Florida, where incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) is battling Gov. Rick Scott for the Senate seat.
