Indiana Senate Republicans reject Trump’s redistricting push

CNN

By Eric Bradner, CNN

Indianapolis (CNN) — The Indiana Senate on Thursday voted down a plan to redraw the state’s congressional districts to produce two more GOP-friendly seats, rejecting President Donald Trump’s months-long campaign to pressure the Republican supermajority in the deep-red state to bend to his will.

The 31-19 vote saw 21 Republicans join 10 Democrats in voting down the proposed map that would have positioned the GOP, which currently holds seven of Indiana’s nine US House seats, for a sweep of all nine seats in next year’s midterm elections.

The vote comes with significant ramifications for the 2026 midterm elections as some Democratic- and Republican-led states aim to redraw their US House maps beforehand. Not gaining two seats limits the gains Republicans are seeking to make in the redistricting arms race that Trump launched.

Indiana’s rejection also revealed the limits of Trump’s political might. The Trump administration dispatched Vice President JD Vance to Indiana for two visits and invited state lawmakers to the White House as part of their lobbying effort. Trump, Vance, and Republican allies threatened to run primary challengers against senators who didn’t approve a new map.

Instead, a majority of Indiana’s Senate Republican caucus voted no.

Republican Sen. Greg Goode criticized “over-the-top pressure from inside the Statehouse and outside,” as well as “threats of violence, acts of violence.” Goode was one of several lawmakers who faced swatting attempts last month hours after Trump posted on social media calling him a “RINO,” or “Republican in name only.”

“Whether we realize it or not, whether we accept it or not, the forces that define this vitriolic political affairs in places outside of Indiana have been gradually and now very blatantly infiltrated the political affairs in Indiana,” Goode said Thursday before voting no.

Goode said that the “overwhelming feedback” from constituents in his Terre Haute-based district was to oppose the redistricting effort. He also raised the possibility that the new maps could “politically backfire” against Republicans by weakening their support in some districts.

A pro-redistricting Republican, Sen. Liz Brown, said that passing new maps “actually is about trying to predetermine political outcomes — absolutely. It’s a privilege policy-makers have.”

“The only way we can bolster Republican voices in Congress is to do this,” Brown said.

The state’s two legislative leaders, House Speaker Todd Huston and Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray, previously met with Trump. As it became clear the Indiana House would vote for the new map but that the Senate’s outcome was uncertain, Trump led a weeks-long pressure campaign against Bray, threatening to back primary opponents against him and other reluctant Republican senators in 2026 and 2028.

His allies, including the Club for Growth, Turning Point USA and a new group led by veteran Indiana Republican operative Marty Obst and several veterans of Trump’s presidential campaigns, aired advertisements, held a statehouse rally and took to social media to vow to unseat senators who broke with the president’s wishes.

Gov. Mike Braun, who is completing his first year in office, also publicly backed Trump’s redistricting push and floated the possibility of a challenge to Bray’s Senate leadership post, after Bray insisted last month that the chamber did not have enough votes to pass new maps.

“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 Truth Social post on Wednesday night, ahead of the Indiana Senate vote. He targeted Bray, saying the state Senate leader is “either a bad guy, or a very stupid one!”

“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,” Trump wrote. “One of my favorite States, Indiana, will be the only State in the Union to turn the Republican Party down!”

Ahead of the vote Thursday, Trump’s allies escalated their claims that they will campaign against Indiana Senate Republicans who opposed redistricting.

Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, said: “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.”

Vance targeted Bray by name, claiming the Senate leader had told the White House he wouldn’t fight against redistricting while privately working to turn his caucus against the new maps.

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

But senators refusing to vote for the map argued their constituents didn’t want redistricting – and dozens of Indiana residents who spoke to CNN said they agreed.

Bray, Braun and several senators were swatted or faced other threats amid the increasing pressure over the debate. Law enforcement officials have not linked the threats to any group or campaign.

The-CNN-Wire
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