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Bowing To Trump's Pressure, Indiana Republicans To Reconsider Redistricting

Indiana Republicans said Tuesday that lawmakers will meet next month to consider redrawing the state’s congressional map, a reversal that comes after a pressure campaign from the White House and mounting threats to Indiana’s GOP members.

“The issue of redrawing Indiana’s congressional maps mid-cycle has received a lot of attention and is causing strife here in our state,” Indiana Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray (R) said in a statement.

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“To resolve this issue,” he continued, “the Senate intends to reconvene as part of the regular 2026 session on Dec. 8 and make a final decision that week on any redistricting proposal sent from the House.”

The White House demanded earlier this month that Indiana Republicans call a special session to adopt a new congressional map that would give Republicans all nine of Indiana’s seats in the House, therefore securing the party’s majority in the chamber. Indiana Republicans currently occupy seven of the nine seats.

But despite Trump’s gerrymandering demand – which has been backed by Gov. Mike Braun (R) – Republicans in the state Senate refused to support calling a special session for that purpose. Bray said at the time that after “very serious and thoughtful consideration” of redistricting, he concluded that there were not enough votes to go through with it.

That refusal brought Trump’s wrath down upon Indiana Republicans, who say they have faced swatting and bomb threats. The president has a history of public, violent rhetoric toward his opponents and those who do not fall in line to carry out his political agenda.

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“I’d rather my house not get firebombed,” one Republican, who chose not to be named, told The Atlantic. The Indiana lawmaker said he received a pizza delivery at his home earlier this month that had his name and address, despite no one ordering it.

“The whole idea is, ‘We know who you are. We know where you live,’” the Republican told the outlet. “They’re trying to intimidate us.”

Trump’s attacks let up on Tuesday, after Indiana Republicans rescheduled a special session to vote on redrawing the congressional map.

“I am glad to hear the Indiana House is stepping up to do the right thing, and I hope the Senate finds the Votes,” Trump wrote Tuesday on Truth Social. “If they do, I will make sure that all of those people supporting me win their Primaries, and go on to Greatness but, if they don’t, I will partner with the incredibly powerful MAGA Grassroots Republicans to elect STRONG Republicans who are ready to do what is needed.”

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The White House launched its gerrymandering war in red states like Texas, whose Republican lawmakers approved a congressional map earlier this year that could eliminate as many as five Democrat-held seats in the House.

Last week, a federal judge ruled that the map is an illegal racial gerrymander and ordered Texas to use its 2021 maps for next year’s midterm. The Supreme Court has since paused that ruling while it decides whether to take up the case.

Republican lawmakers in Missouri, Ohio and North Carolina have launched their own redistricting efforts, although such plans have stalled in Kansas. Democrats have meanwhile countered the GOP’s campaign by approving a new map in California and launching a plan to redistrict Virginia.