From the Indianapolis Star:

In the Senate race, it was clear Republicans weren’t ready to embrace Dan Coats as a returning hero. For Coats, Tuesday’s win was nice, but the final numbers had to be humbling. A former U.S. senator, a man who recently came back to Indiana to great fanfare, Coats grabbed only about 39 percent of the vote Tuesday. Four other candidates split the remainder.
The results suggest Coats has a lot of work ahead of him. His past work as a high-powered D.C. lobbyist and his recent residency in Virginia have turned off many voters. His primary campaign was full of stumbles. Still, he won.

W. James Antle III wonders if Coats could have been beaten from the right:

Conservatives failed to beat Coats, but it wasn’t due to a lack of trying. In the waning days of the campaign, the Beltway right rallied behind Stutzman. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) endorsed him and helped him raise over $200,000. Other prominent conservative endorsements followed. Prior to that, the little-known state senator had been treading water . . . Thus conservatives ended the primary fighting each other instead of the Republican establishment. They will now put aside their differences and unite behind Dan Coats, with his 90 percent American Conservative Union rating, against a Democrat who voted for the stimulus, the public option, and a health care reform measure that did not prohibit taxpayer funding of abortion. But many of these conservatives will always wonder: Could they have won this primary if either Stutzman or Hostettler had a clean shot at the frontrunner?

Coats’s numbers should worry Republicans being tagged as “too establishment” in upcoming primaries. With anti-incumbency fervor at its highest level since ‘94, anyone considered a (or potential) Washington insider is vulnerable. The tea-party favorites may not always win, but they sure can brew up a storm.