Post from Truth Social

A slate card posted on Election Day morning

This is one of at least six Indiana State Senate endorsements posted the morning of November 3, 2026, Election Day itself. It went up at 12:15 UTC, which is 7:15 AM Eastern. That is the clock at both Mar-a-Lago, where he ran tele-rallies over the final weekend, and Washington. All six posts use the same frame: an opening honorific ("It is my Great Honor to endorse America First Patriot"), a résumé line, a list of policy pledges in title case, a closing "Complete and Total Endorsement," and the signature block "President DONALD J. TRUMP" above a link to the RNC's swampthevoteusa.com turnout site. The Jeff Ellington post from the same morning repeats this one's pledge list almost word for word: "Protect 'Hoosier' Values... Champion our Amazing Farmers... Grow our Economy, Cut Taxes and Regulations, Promote MADE IN THE U.S.A."

Who wrote it

The batch structure is the strongest evidence. Six district-specific posts in one morning share interchangeable clauses, the regional demonym sits in identical scare quotes ("Hoosier") in each, and every one ends with the same third-person signature. That is a staff-assembled template filled in with a candidate's name and résumé. The features that read as his voice belong to the house style. The capitalized nouns, the ALL CAPS slogans ("NO TAX ON TIPS," "LAW AND ORDER," "DOMINANCE"), and the coined slur "Dumocrats," which he has used since 2025, have all been absorbed into the template. The text never loses its thread: it moves from biography to opponent to pledges to the voting call without turning to his own grievances or interrupting itself, and that rules out the stream-of-consciousness composition of his late-night posts. "Mutilization," a nonstandard form of "mutilation," is the one oddity. Because it sits inside a stock slate paragraph, it can't be assigned to him as a production error.

What the opponent paragraph adds

Unlike the incumbent endorsements in the batch (Raatz, Alexander, Gaskill, Alting), this post names an opponent, Kirsten Root, and builds a paragraph of devaluation around her. The structure is splitting: Powell gets only virtues ("Businessman, Chiropractor, Farmer, and Highly Respected Tipton County Commissioner... will NEVER LET YOU DOWN"), and Root gets only threats ("Reckless, Radical, and Dangerous!"). The charges against her are national culture-war items: "Open Borders, Men playing in Women's Sports, and Transgender Mutilization of your Children." None of them is tied to anything she has said or done. The post offers no evidence that these are her positions, and the same list appears in endorsement attacks on Democrats nationwide. The worst item, wanting to mutilate "your Children," is aimed at a down-ballot candidate with little public profile and sent to a national audience. The action requested is voting ("GET OUT AND VOTE FOR TRACEY"). Nothing frames her as someone to be confronted beyond the ballot.

A federal promise attached to a state seat

The central policy charge is that Root opposes the three tax pledges, quoted in the post as "NO TAX ON TIPS," the overtime equivalent, and "NO TAX ON SOCIAL SECURITY," and that "if she and the Dumocrats ever got in, all of these things will be terminated." Those are federal income-tax provisions from the 2025 reconciliation law. An Indiana state senator has no vote on them. The law he signed already ends the tip, overtime and senior deductions after tax year 2028, so the "termination" he warns against is built into his own legislation. Indiana does not tax Social Security benefits at the state level in any case. The pattern is a familiar loss-framing device: a benefit the speaker credits to himself is presented as hostage to the opponent, whatever her office's actual powers. Here it reads as rationalized fear appeal at the template level, and nothing in the text suggests he believes a state legislator controls federal tax law.

"Defend our always under siege Second Amendment" carries the usual low-grade persecution motif. The right is described as permanently attacked, with no attacker named.

Motive and timing

The motive is agentic and transactional. The endorsement is presented as a possession he confers ("has my Complete and Total Endorsement"). Posting on the morning of the vote, after early voting has closed, puts its value in turnout and in the endorsement record, which he has historically cited as a win rate. The day's context gives the batch a defensive edge. Forecasts favored Democrats to retake the House, his in-person rallies in Kansas and Iowa were canceled, and an NBC poll put his disapproval at 60%. The post shows none of that pressure. It reads as calm and routine, and the vulnerability belongs to the wider situation, not to anything in the text.

Archetypally the post is modest King-as-patron: it grants legitimacy to a loyal local figure and casts the opponent as the Shadow carrying the movement's disowned threats. On the order axis it promises restoration ("Ensure LAW AND ORDER," "Keep our Border SECURE") and assigns chaos to the Democratic opponent.

Longitudinally, this matches the hundreds of templated down-ballot endorsements in the 2024 and 2026 cycles. The only variable is whether an opponent paragraph is included, and that tracks whether the candidate is a non-incumbent facing a named Democrat.

Fact Verification

The issue is not purely federal, as the first pass assumed. In 2026 Indiana passed SB 243, which matched the federal tips and overtime deductions on the state income tax for the 2026 tax year only. Coverage says the 2027 General Assembly will decide whether to extend it, so a senator elected in this race would get a vote on that. But Democrats did not oppose the 2026 break as a bloc. It cleared the Senate 47-1 (one report says 47-0) and the House 77-19. The only Democrat named as voting no was Sen. Andrea Hunley, in committee, and her objection was that the state still taxes menstrual products.

The Social Security part also fails on the facts. Indiana already leaves Social Security benefits out of state taxable income, and no one in this race is shown proposing to change that.

The charge has nothing behind it in Root's record, and her stated tax approach runs against it. I rate it mostly false rather than false only because no one appears to have asked her directly whether Indiana's one-year break should be extended. | | "If she and the Democrats got in, no tax on tips, overtime and Social Security would be terminated" | False | The tip, overtime and senior deductions were enacted in the 2025 federal reconciliation law, and the Indiana State Senate has no power over them. That same law ends all three after tax year 2028, so their expiration is already written in. Indiana does not tax Social Security benefits at the state level. | | "'No tax on Social Security' is an existing policy that could be taken away" | Mostly False | The 2025 law added a temporary $6,000 deduction for taxpayers 65 and older, phased out at higher incomes. It did not exempt Social Security benefits from federal income tax, and benefits remain taxable under the existing formula. | | "Root wants massive tax increases, open borders, men in women's sports, and transgender mutilation of children" | Mostly False | I checked each item against Root's own published platform (rootforindiana.org/platform) and her voter-guide answers. Results:

• Massive tax increases: not supported. Her platform calls for closing corporate tax loopholes, more transparency on tax breaks and making 'large corporations pay their fair share' under a 'Tax Wealth, Not Work' heading. That is a call for higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy, not broad increases. In the same platform and in her WFYI answers she calls for property-tax relief for working families, seniors and people on fixed incomes. Asked about the 2028 local fiscal cliff, she told Current she 'would consider local income tax changes only after examining other options and their impact on working families.'
• Open borders: none of her materials says anything about immigration or the border, which a state senator has no control over in any case.
• Men in women's sports: none of her materials mentions sports. Her platform does pledge to 'oppose efforts to target LGBTQ+ Hoosiers for political gain' and to back anti-discrimination protections. Critics could read that as opposing Indiana's 2022 school-sports law, but she has not said so.
• Transgender mutilation of children: there is a partial factual basis. Her reproductive-health plank lists 'Provide gender-affirming care.' But my keyword check of the platform found no mention of minors, and nothing shows she has called for repealing Indiana's 2023 ban on such care for minors. 'Mutilation' is a loaded description, not a position she holds.

One item has a real but overstated basis (general support for gender-affirming care), one is a distortion (targeted corporate taxes described as massive tax increases), and two have no support (open borders, sports). Overall the claim is mostly false. | | "Tracey Powell is a businessman, chiropractor, farmer, and Tipton County Commissioner" | True | Several independent local sources confirm each part of this description. The Reporter's story on Powell filing for Senate District 21 calls him 'a lifelong Hoosier, chiropractor, farmer, and small business owner.' It also cites his 'service as Tipton County Commissioner since 2020.' Current's September 2025 story on his challenge to Sen. Jim Buck says he was elected Tipton County commissioner in 2020, runs a chiropractic practice, farms, and is vice president of the North Central Indiana Regional Planning Council. WFYI's 2026 voter guide lists his occupation as chiropractor, farmer and small business owner.

Powell won the May 5, 2026 Republican primary over Buck and faces Democrat Kirsten Root in the November 3 general election. 'Highly Respected' is opinion and can't be checked, but every factual part of the description holds up. |

Overall Veracity: 32%