These Are The Indiana Republicans Who Voted To Crush Trump’s Redistricting Plan

Twenty-one Republicans in the Indiana state Senate rejected President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign for new congressional maps that would have eliminated the state’s two House seats held by Democrats on Thursday.

The humiliating rejection for Trump came after he put the full weight of the White House and Republican Party apparatus to bear on the state Senate. Trump sent a dozen social media posts threatening GOP Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray and others for opposing redistricting with primary challenges. Vice President JD Vance made multiple trips to cajole lawmakers. White House deputy chief of staff James Blair and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) called individual state senators to push them to change their votes.

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The pressure campaign peaked on Thursday shortly before the vote when Heritage Action, the political arm of the Heritage Foundation, declared in a social media post on Thursday that Trump had threatened to cut off all funding to the state if the state Senate did not support redistricting. Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, a Republican and staunch supporter of the redistricting effort, confirmed this in a since-deleted post on X.

This all-out push predictably led to acts of intimidation and threats and acts of violence targeting GOP state senators who opposed the effort. But the pressure campaign and the threats of violence backfired. A majority of the 41 GOP state senators voted no.

The reasons they gave varied from a refusal to bow to intimidation to a belief that redistricting should only occur once a decade after the census.

These are the Indiana Republican state senators who voted no and the reasons they gave, where available:

Senator Rodric Bray

Bray, the leader of the Senate caucus, opposed Trump’s redistricting push from the beginning and became the face of the president’s ire. In statements issued in November and after Thursday’s vote, he made clear that he believed that redrawing congressional districts was not the best way for Republicans to gain seats in the Indiana congressional delegation.

“Indiana Senate Republicans want to see a Republican majority in Congress at the midterms,” Bray said in a statement on Thursday. “The issue before us today was how to get there, and many of my caucus members don’t think redrawing our Congressional map mid-cycle is a guaranteed way for Indiana — or our country — to achieve that outcome.”

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Instead, Bray insisted in a Nov. 18 statement, the better path is to “support efforts to elect a Republican in the existing 1st Congressional District, which has been trending Republican for the last several years and would give President Trump another Republican in Congress.”

He also noted that the proposed map would split up urban districts centered on Indianapolis and Gary and require GOP lawmakers to represent communities that they have no history with.

“We don’t believe the choice to redistrict is a binary choice where we will either keep a 7-2 map or draw one that automatically becomes 9-0,” Bray said in his Nov. 18 statement. “Candidates in these hypothetical districts have not walked a parade, attended a county fair or raised a dollar. And that’s before we get through primary season, in which we can assuredly expect competition.”

Senator Eric Bassler

“I cannot support any mid-census redistricting plan,” Bassler said in a November statement to the Indiana Capital Chronicle. “Four years ago, my Republican colleagues and I voted for our current state and federal legislative maps. I stand by that vote and I will not support legislation to change our congressional maps.”

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Senator Mike Bohacek

Following his no vote on Thursday, Bohacek told CNN that he and his colleagues “don’t want to be redistricting every two years at the whim of a president’s request.”

Bohacek had previously stated he would vote no after Trump called Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, “retarded.” Bohacek declared his disgust as a parent of a daughter with Down Syndrome and as “an unapologetic advocate for people with intellectual disabilities.”

“I will be voting NO on redistricting, perhaps he can use the next 10 months to convince voters that his policies and behavior deserve a congressional majority,” Bohacek said in a social media post.

Trump’s “vulgarity,” as Bohacek called it in the CNN interview, was just another reason not to vote for redistricting.

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“For me, it added to a litany of reasons for why this was just bad policy and not good timing and wasn’t deserving of my support,” Bohacek said.

Following his post on Trump’s slur, Bohacek’s home was targeted with a bomb threat. He told CNN that his family has been staying with friends ever since.

Senator Vaneta Becker

“Over the past months of conversation regarding the issue of redistricting, I heard over 1,000 people in my district tell me this is not what they wanted and only 100 favor it,” Becker said after her no vote on Thursday. “I always do my best to represent my constituents, and with that in mind, I voted ‘no.’ I am glad to see this bill fail to pass.”

She had previously decried Trump’s pressure campaign: “I think this looks like and feels like bullying, and I don’t think Hoosiers respond well to bullying.”

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Senator Brian Buchanan

No public statements.

Senator James Buck

No public statements.

Senator Ed Charbonneau

No public statements.

Senator Brett Clark

No public statements.

Senator Michael Crider

Crider was one of the GOP state senators who faced threats of violence and intimidation. He spoke out about the threats he faced before he voted no on Thursday.

“When you get kind of bullied and threatened, if that tactic works, then you can expect to deal with that for the rest of your political career. And so I’m a kind of guy that, if you start pushing on me, you’re going to get a reaction,” Crider said.

“I particularly dislike the idea that my wife has to think about cover, you know, closing the drapes and reading emails that our house is going to be firebombed in the middle of the night, and those kind of things. And my kids and my grandkids and things are impacted by things like that. And so, to me, this has been really a kind of a discouraging thing that we’re experiencing this in Indiana. It’s not been our style in the past, and I’m hopeful that it’s not something we deal with in the future.”

Senator Spencer Deery

Deery, who was targeted with a swatting attack after coming out against redistricting, was one of just three GOP state senators to speak against the proposal on Thursday.

“My opposition to mid-cycle gerrymandering is not in contrast to my conservative principles; my opposition is driven by them,” Deery said. “As long as I have breath, I will use my voice to resist a federal government that attempts to bully, direct and control this state or any state. Giving the federal government more power is not conservative.”

He added, “Fighting fire with fire burns the world down.”

Senator Dan Dernulc

Dernulc received a bomb threat to his house the night before the vote, according to The Atlantic. This wasn’t the first threat he faced. In November, Dernulc was the target of a swatting attack after he came out against redistricting.

“Today, my family and I were victims of a swatting attempt, but local law enforcement officials were quick to analyze it, recognize the report was false and inform me of the attempt,” Dernulc said in a statement on Nov. 19. “It is scary and shocking to me that someone would go so far to try to cause harm or fear to me or my family. I have always done my best to serve my community, be their voice, and work alongside them and my colleagues at the Statehouse to help make Indiana a great state. It is sad because of these efforts and work that I am villainized in some minds to the point of harmful retaliation. Threats to public officials cannot and should not be the norm. I hope to see justice for this illegal behavior.”

Senator Blake Doriot

Doriot echoed Bray’s arguments that Republicans should be focused on flipping the existing 1st congressional district rather than redrawing it. He further stated that cracking up Indianapolis and Gary threatened to dilute GOP seats and potentially put them in play:

“The proposed maps would have split Elkhart County” — which Doriot represents — “into two different congressional districts, separating our shared community into two distinct populations. Elkhart County wasn’t the only one being split — Marion County was also separated further into four different districts. I felt the proposed plan put several districts, including historically red districts, at risk of being flipped.”

“Most importantly, I represent those who live in Elkhart County. I heard from friends, neighbors and people I had never met before who overwhelmingly stated they were not in support of this and were concerned that the proposed changes would only hurt our community. My vote reflected those concerns, and I stand by my decision to vote against this bill to support those who rely on me to represent them.”

Senator Susan Glick

“Hoosiers are a hardy lot, and they don’t like to be threatened. They don’t like to be intimidated. They don’t like to be bullied in any fashion. And I think a lot of them responded with, ‘That isn’t going to work,’” Glick told CNN. “And it didn’t.”

Senator Greg Goode

Goode, another target of violent intimidation, decried the threats lawmakers faced in a speech before the vote on Thursday.

“Whether we accept it or not, the forces that define the vitriolic political affairs in places outside of Indiana have been gradually and now very blatantly infiltrated the political affairs in Indiana,” Goode said. “Misinformation. Cruel social media posts. Over-the-top pressure from within the statehouse and outside. Threats of primaries. Threats of violence. Acts of violence. Friends, we’re better than this, are we not?”

After the vote, Goode put out a press release noting the opposition he heard from his constituents to redistricting: “In addition to being the only Republican legislator in Indiana to host a listening session on this issue, I spoke with numerous constituents individually and reviewed all correspondence I received from my district. The overwhelming feedback from constituents, regardless of political leaning or party affiliation, clearly demonstrated that the consensus of Hoosiers in District 38 is to vote against HB 1032.”

Senator Travis Holdman

“The message from my district has been clear — they do not support mid-cycle redistricting, and therefore I cannot support it.” Holdman said in November.

Senator Jean Leising

The target of a pipe bomb threat, Leising had long been opposed to the redistricting push. When the December special session was called, she noted in a statement that “only 7% of my constituents support the mid-cycle effort by partisan groups led by Washington, D.C.”

After her vote on Thursday, she told reporters at the state Capitol that the Trump administration’s pressure campaign backfired.

“You wouldn’t change minds by being mean. And the efforts were mean-spirited from the get-go,” Leising said. “If you were wanting to change votes, you would probably try to explain why we should be doing this, in a positive way. That never happened, so, you know, I think they get what they get.”

Senator Ryan Mishler

No public statements.

Senator Rick Niemeyer

Niemeyer was yet another lawmaker targeted with a swatting attack. He had been viewed as undecided on redistricting in November.

Senator Linda Rogers

Rogers, who said she was targeted with “several intimidation incidents,” said in a statement after her no vote:

“Today, I joined the majority of my colleagues in voting against redistricting. Over the last few months, I have heard from thousands of constituents who were overwhelmingly opposed. When I chose to run for Senate District 11, I promised to serve and advocate for those in our local community, and I believe I upheld that promise today. I will continue to work on issues affecting all Hoosiers, including education reform and reducing taxes.”

Senator Greg Walker

Walker spoke out against the pressure campaign during a committee hearing on the bill prior to Thursday’s vote.

“I refuse to be intimidated,” Walker said. Adding, “I fear for the state of Indiana. And I fear for all states if we allow threats and intimidation to become the norm.”

He also said that the redistricting push is “on its face … unconstitutional.”

Senator Kyle Walker

“[A]ttempts have been made to intimidate me and threaten violence at my home,” Walker said in a statement to NBC News. “All state leaders should send the strongest message possible that not only are these violent threats and intimidation tactics against the law, they are also counter-effective.”

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