Politics

Indiana Redistricting Push Goes Down In Flames As Majority Of Republicans Reject Trump’s Appeals

Original: Daniel SchwenDerivative work: Massimo Catarinella, CC BY-SA 2.5 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5>, via Wikimedia Commons

Republicans’ bid to redraw Indiana’s congressional map ahead of the 2026 midterms collapsed Thursday after 21 GOP state senators broke with their party and joined Democrats in voting down new district lines.

Had the proposed map been enacted, Republicans stood to gain two more seats in the Hoosier state, giving them full control of all nine of its House seats. Despite pressure from President Donald Trump, other top national Republicans and conservative groups, a slight majority of GOP senators refused to back the map, resulting in a 19–31 defeat.

The setback narrows the gains Republicans hoped to lock in after Trump sparked a mid-decade redistricting battle earlier this year by urging Texas to draw a new map that created five new GOP-leaning seats.

Uncertainty hung over the Indiana vote until the final hours, as several key Republican senators kept their positions quiet for weeks.

Republican State Sen. Greg Goode, one of the lawmakers who kept silent on his stance until Thursday, said he respected the advocacy of Trump and other pro-redistricting Republicans, but emphasized that his duty is to the people he represents.

“I am confident my vote reflects the will of my constituents,” Goode said during a floor speech, pointing to “Hoosier common sense.”

Another Republican, “no,” Sen. Spencer Deery, said he found “no justification that outweighs the harms it would inflict upon the people’s faith in the integrity of our elections and our system of government.”

“Some say we should gerrymander because Democrats have been doing it for years and it’s time for Republicans to catch up,” Deery said ahead of the vote. “That would be a sensible question to ask four years ago or four years in the future.”

Over the past month, the president repeatedly targeted Senate President pro tempore Rodric Bray, who had resisted opening a special session after insisting that the GOP lacked the votes. Trump labeled Bray a Republican in name only (RINO) and threatened to support primary challenges against him and any other Republican who opposed the new map.

“Anybody that votes against Redistricting, and the SUCCESS of the Republican Party in D.C., will be, I am sure, met with a MAGA Primary in the Spring,” Trump wrote in a lengthy Wednesday Truth Social post. “Rod Bray and his friends won’t be in Politics for long, and I will do everything within my power to make sure that they will not hurt the Republican Party, and our Country, again.”

As debates were underway at the state Legislature, Vice President JD Vance also took to X to accuse Bray of publicly claiming neutrality while privately urging colleagues to vote no.

“That level of dishonesty cannot be rewarded, and the Indiana GOP needs to choose a side,” Vance wrote on X.

Turning Point Action, the political advocacy arm of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), also pushed aggressively for passage of the map, staging a rally at the Indiana Capitol on Friday and threatening an eight-figure campaign against Republicans who voted no.

During his floor speech, Goode said forces outside Indiana have been “infiltrating the political affairs” of the state, citing “cruel” social media posts and “over-the-top” pressure that included “threats of primaries” and “threats of violence.”

Multiple Republican senators were also hit with bomb threats and swatting calls in the weeks before the vote.

“This recent pattern of threatening behavior and intimidation attempts is not only concerning, but also illegal,” state Sen. Mike Bohacek said on Dec. 1 after he received one of the threats. Bohacek, who has a daughter with Down syndrome, said he was voting against the map after Trump used the word “retard” to describe Democrat Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz over the welfare fraud scandal involving Somalians in his state.

Indiana’s rejection of the new map comes as Republicans elsewhere have secured significant redistricting wins. Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio have approved new maps, bringing the total likely GOP pickups in 2026 to nine, including Texas.

However, the GOP’s national redistricting spree stalled in Kansas in November after Republican state House Speaker Dan Hawkins announced that he did not have the votes needed to convene a special session to redraw the map targeting the state’s lone Democratic member of Congress.

Meanwhile, California voters approved a partisan measure in November that could deliver Democrats up to five more seats, and a Utah judge recently selected a House map that provides the party one pickup opportunity. Virginia Democrats are also attempting to redraw their maps to add as many as two seats to the national Democratic tally.