Indiana Senate President Insists Trump’s Redistricting Effort Cannot Pass His Chamber Despite Governor Calling a Special Session

The president pro tempore of the Indiana state senate, Rodric Bray, insists that President Trump’s effort to redraw the state’s congressional map does not have the requisite support in his chamber. Governor Mike Braun, who does support redistricting, is calling the legislature back for a special session anyway. Mr. Bray’s office told The New York Sun last week that the “votes aren’t there for redistricting” even as national Republicans were pushing lawmakers to squeeze one or two more GOP seats out of the Hoosier state. Regardless, Mr. Braun announced Monday that he is calling his legislature into a special session to look at redrawing the congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterms. When reached by the Sun for comment on Monday, Mr. Bray’s communications director, Molly Swigart, confirmed that the redistricting push still does not have the necessary support to pass the state Senate. “I am calling a special legislative session to protect Hoosiers from efforts in other states that seek to diminish their voice in Washington and ensure their representation in Congress is fair,” Mr. Braun said in a statement announcing the special session on Monday. Lawmakers will return to Indianapolis on November 3 to begin considering new congressional maps. Republicans won nine of the state’s 11 congressional seats while President Trump received 58.6 percent of the popular vote in last year’s elections.Nevertheless, the state’s lieutenant governor, Micah Beckwith, accused members of the legislature’s upper chamber of cowardice after Mr. Bray pushed back last week on the redistricting effort coming from the White House. “The people of Indiana did not elect a Republican supermajority so our Senate could cower, compromise, or collapse at the very moment courage is required. Yet, here we are again,” Mr. Beckwith, who also serves as president of the state senate, said in a statement on Wednesday.“The Indiana Republican-controlled Senate is failing to stand with President Trump, failing to defend the voice of Hoosier voters, and failing to deliver the 9-0 conservative map our citizens overwhelmingly expect.”Indiana state law mandates that the legislature may only draw congressional maps once per decade after the census, so lawmakers would have to change state law before moving forward with a redistricting effort. That would require a simple majority in the legislature, where Republicans currently hold a supermajority. Of the 50 members of the Indiana state Senate, 40 are Republicans. The redistricting wars kicked off in earnest over the summer when Texas redrew its maps to net the GOP five additional seats. That led Governor Gavin Newsom of California to launch a statewide ballot initiative which would allow Democrats to redraw their state’s maps for the 2026 midterms. That ballot initiative is expected to pass when it goes to the voters next Tuesday. Other Republican-led states joined the fray, including Missouri, which has already approved a map expected to eliminate one Democratic seat, though that is likely to face a court challenge. An anti-gerrymandering group is now gathering signatures to try to overturn the mid-decade redistricting via a statewide ballot initiative. North Carolina Republicans have also passed a map to eliminate one Democratic seat. Virginia Democrats unexpectedly jumped into the fight last week, after the house of delegates speaker, Don Scott, called his colleagues back to Richmond for a special session, which was due to begin Monday afternoon. If the Democratic-controlled Virginia legislature passes a bill to redraw the state’s congressional map during this session, and then passes another bill after the next session begins in January, Virginia voters will go to the polls next spring to approve the initiative. If Democrats can get through that process, they will likely be able to draw new maps giving their party two or three more seats in Congress. The next state that could enter the redistricting war is New York, where Governor Kathy Hochul has expressed support for redrawing maps. Although the state’s Democrats are not empowered to redistrict the state before the 2026 elections, a lawsuit from a Democratic voting rights law firm could change that. The lawsuit was first reported by the New York Times. On Monday, Marc Elias — who has handled most of the Democratic Party’s voting rights and redistricting legal battles in recent years — filed a lawsuit in New York state court alleging that the 11th Congressional District represents an illegal racial gerrymander under the Voting Rights Act. That district covers the entirety of Staten Island, as well as parts of Brooklyn. It is currently represented by a Republican, Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis. Depending on the outcome of that lawsuit, New York Democrats may be able to redraw Ms. Malliotakis’s district before November 2026 in order to gain one House seat for Democrats.

Indiana Senate President Insists Trump’s Redistricting Effort Cannot Pass His Chamber Despite Governor Calling a Special Session

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