In a Rare Rebuke for Trump, Indiana Republicans Reject New Gerrymandered Congressional Map Favoring GOP

The Republican-led Indiana state senate has rejected a new congressional map pushed by President Trump to net the GOP two additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The president spent months trying to pressure lawmakers into creating the new map as part of his nationwide effort to pad his Republican majority in the House ahead of next year’s midterm elections. After Texas kicked off the gerrymandering war over the summer, California Democrats made clear that they would retaliate with their own new congressional map. That sent Mr. Trump and his allies on a quest to find other red states to start eliminating blue congressional districts as all signs began pointing to the GOP losing the House majority in 2026. Vice President JD Vance made two trips to the state to press Republican lawmakers to pass the new maps. The state house of representatives passed the redistricting effort last week. Governor Mike Braun tried to get the senate to do the same. The state senate, however, rejected the map, with 31 members voting no and just 19 members voting in favor. More than any other state, Mr. Trump took an active and aggressive role in trying to publicly pressure his fellow Republicans in the Hoosier State. “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,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday. “If Republicans will not do what is necessary to save our Country, they will eventually lose everything.”Other national Republicans began throwing out threats on Thursday in the hours leading up to the final vote. Mr. Vance specifically called out the top Republican in the chamber, senate president pro tempore Rodric Bray, who opposed redistricting, of being dishonest. “Rod Bray, the Senate leader in Indiana, has consistently told us he wouldn’t fight redistricting while simultaneously whipping his members against it. That level of dishonesty cannot be rewarded,” Mr. Vance wrote on X while the state senate was debating the new map. “If Indiana Republicans side with these Never Trumpers to do the dirty work of Democrats, I’ll be spending a lot of time in Indiana next year campaigning against every single one of them,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote on X Thursday. Even the campaign arm of the Heritage Foundation — Heritage Action — threatened Indiana senators on Thursday, writing on X that Mr. Trump would strip the state of its federal funding if the maps did not become law. “Roads will not be paved. Guard bases will close. Major projects will stop. These are the stakes and every NO vote will be to blame,” the group wrote on social media. One key swing vote, state senator Greg Goode, announced in a floor speech shortly before the vote that he would not support the maps. He said the “consensus” of his district, after hearing from constituents, was that he should vote no. He also called out fellow Republicans for threatening him and his colleagues with primary challenges, as well as the threats of violence from people trying to pressure them into voting yes. “Friends, we are better than this. Are we not?” he asked. Another Republican who voted against the new map, state senator Mike Crider, says his concern was that congressional representation would become too centered around Indianapolis. The two Democratic seats in the state are currently anchored at both Indianapolis and at Gary, Indiana in the northwestern part of the state along the Illinois border. The proposed GOP map would have carved up Indianapolis into four separate congressional districts. “I mean, I just think that if those maps pass, there’s a good possibility that three or four millionaires from Indianapolis will represent a third of the state, so I don’t know that that serves us well,” Mr. Crider told the Indiana Capital Chronicle. Several of Mr. Crider’s Republican colleagues have faced threats in recent weeks as a result of the angry messaging emanating from Washington around the congressional maps. Two GOP lawmakers, state senators Ron Alting and Jean Leising, have received bomb threats at their homes. Several others have been victims of “swatting” attempts, in which someone calls the police and directs them to a certain person’s home in order to intimidate them.The redistricting war is not stopping in Indiana. Republicans have already picked up seats in Missouri, where they have secured one additional seat; Ohio, where only one Democratic seat has moved to the right, but not by much; and North Carolina, where Republicans hope they can defeat Democratic Congressman Don Davis, though he has vowed to run for reelection what is now a seat that only slightly favors the GOP. Democrats, meanwhile, have washed away Texas Republicans’ gains with a new map approved by voters in November thanks not only to California’s maps, but to other states, as well. A judge in Utah has already mandated that Utah — which currently has an all-Republican congressional delegation — must draw one new heavily Democratic district. Maryland has also threatened Republicans’ redistricting plans. Governor Wes Moore of Maryland has already set up a redistricting commission to eliminate his state’s lone Republican seat. Democrats in the Virginia legislature may be going the farthest, however. The top Democrats in the state legislature have already floated eliminating as many as four Republican seats in that state. That map would have to be approved by voters in a statewide ballot initiative next spring, however, because it would require an amendment to the state constitution.

In a Rare Rebuke for Trump, Indiana Republicans Reject New Gerrymandered Congressional Map Favoring GOP

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