{"id":16385,"date":"2025-12-08T10:01:51","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T10:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/indiana-republicans-threaten-to-thwart-trumps-redistricting-onslaught\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T10:01:51","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T10:01:51","slug":"indiana-republicans-threaten-to-thwart-trumps-redistricting-onslaught","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/indiana-republicans-threaten-to-thwart-trumps-redistricting-onslaught\/","title":{"rendered":"Indiana Republicans threaten to thwart Trump’s redistricting onslaught"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s maximalist, command-and-control approach to the GOP faces one of its most significant tests yet, as a band of stubborn Indiana state Senate Republicans threatens his mid-cycle redistricting scheme when it is expected to come to a vote this week.<\/p>\n

The Hoosier Republicans will gavel in Monday to decide on a map, passed Friday by the Indiana House, that supporters say would all but guarantee a 9-0 Republican congressional delegation and would be in effect for next year\u2019s pivotal midterm elections. Present maps give the GOP a 7-2 advantage.<\/p>\n

Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray<\/u><\/a>, who \u2014 along with roughly half his 40-member Republican majority \u2014 has resisted a four-month White House pressure campaign to redraw the congressional lines. Indiana Conservation Voters, Club for Growth and Building a Better Economy are among the groups that have spent nearly half-a-million dollars in ads trying to sway public opinion \u2014 the first group against redistricting and the second two for \u2014 in recent weeks, according to AdImpact. Trump campaign veterans like Chris LaCivita have joined the dark money group Fair Maps Indiana to advance the cause, too. <\/p>\n

Speaker Mike Johnson has been calling reluctant Republican state senators in recent days \u2014 reported here for the first time, based on accounts from two people granted anonymity to freely discuss sensitive private conversations. One Indiana Republican elected official briefed on the calls said Johnson\u2019s \u201csoft touch\u201d with lawmakers may be moving the needle.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnybody who tells you they know how this is going to play out doesn\u2019t know,\u201d this person said.<\/p>\n

A Johnson spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

\"House<\/p>\n

The matter is top of mind for the president, who brought up Indiana redistricting to visitors at a White House Christmas party Sunday attended by Gov. Mike Braun, according to a person present and granted anonymity to disclose the conversation. Trump asked Braun in front of other guests if redistricting would pass, and Braun responded it would.<\/p>\n

The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Trump \u201cthinks we should fight democrats every legal way we can to win the majority and keep accomplishing things for the people,” according to a Republican close to the White House granted anonymity to discuss the president\u2019s motivations.<\/p>\n

And on Friday, Turning Point Action announced that it was partnering with several Trump-aligned super PACs to target Indiana Republicans who are blocking the president\u2019s redistricting effort, including threatening to spend millions of dollars to primary resistant members of the Indiana GOP.<\/p>\n

Trump needs the backup: The state Senate\u2019s reservations threaten to derail his plans to push new maps across the country to shore up his party\u2019s slim House majority, which Democrats would seize by netting just three seats in an election that is expected to be a repudiation of the party in power.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese guys and ladies are under intense, 24-hour-a-day pressure and I don\u2019t know if they can withstand it, ultimately \u2014 we will see,\u201d said Mike Murphy, a former Republican member of the Indiana House of Representatives. \u201cI feel badly for them and their families, primarily. They came to be public servants, and instead they are pawns in really what I consider to be Trump\u2019s strategy to avoid a third impeachment and potentially set himself up a third term.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump-backed pressure campaign in Indiana has included two visits from Vice President JD Vance to Indianapolis on Air Force Two, and repeated calls and invitations to Oval Office meetings \u2014 including with Trump, Bray and Speaker of the House Todd Huston in August.<\/p>\n

Now, lawmakers will convene amid threats of violence following Trump\u2019s series of social media posts ramping up pressure. At least a dozen elected Indiana Republicans have faced swattings<\/u><\/a> \u2014 false reports of danger that bring an aggressive law enforcement response designed to intimidate the target \u2014 and pipe bomb threats. Few though have publicly reversed their positions against redistricting since they stalemated 19-19<\/a>last month on a vote that was a close proxy for gerrymandering. That means Trump and the White House would need to flip at least half a dozen GOP senators to secure a simple majority to pass the new maps.<\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

\u201cHow does (Trump) have the time to mess with a nobody like me with all of the important matters that are to take his attention as the leader of the executive branch in this nation?\u201d Republican state Sen. Greg Walker told a local newspaper<\/u><\/a> in November.<\/p>\n

Three Indiana Republicans close to the process \u2014 and granted anonymity to appraise support \u2014 said they do not believe there are currently enough votes in the Senate for the map to pass.<\/p>\n

Asked whether he felt pressured by the White House to redistrict, Huston would only say, \u201cWe had conversations. There was no secret.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump posted twice<\/u><\/a> on Truth Social this weekend about his demand for redistricting in Indiana, the barn-red state he once called \u201cImportantville\u201d<\/u><\/a> and that helped him clinch the GOP nomination in its May 2016 primary, saying, \u201cthis new Map would give the incredible people of Indiana the opportunity to elect TWO additional Republicans in the 2026 Midterm Elections.\u201d He also posted the names of nine senators who “need encouragement to make the right decision\u201d as they have not yet declared their position on the new map.<\/p>\n

Turning Point last week deployed members<\/u><\/a> of their \u201cstrike force\u201d to meet with and whip many of those same senators, but the results of that effort remain unclear. \u201cIt’s so hard to judge at this point, because it’s such a fluid situation,\u201d said Brett Galaszewski, Turning Point Action\u2019s national enterprise director.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the Supreme Court reinstated Texas\u2019 newly drawn congressional map last week, staving off a major setback<\/u><\/a> to Trump’s redistricting campaign. Now, the GOP has nine more favorable seats across four states \u2014 Texas, Ohio, Missouri and North Carolina. Those will likely be offset by the five Democratic seats California Gov. Gavin Newsom scored in his counterpunch last month.<\/p>\n

Redistricting battles are brewing around the country, with Democrat-led Virginia and Maryland headed in opposite directions of one another.<\/p>\n

Virginia Democrats expanded their grip on power in the General Assembly by picking up 13 House seats while flipping three Republican-held statewide offices, including governor, in last month\u2019s elections. Top Democrats in the state legislature appear unfazed by Indiana\u2019s push to redraw its maps. The state\u2019s top Democrat said it was \u201cfull steam ahead<\/a>\u201d \u2013 a reference to the state lawmakers clearing a procedural hurdle in October to put a constitutional amendment before voters to allow the Democratic-led legislature to redraw its maps ahead of the 2026 midterms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a plan and process in place that will facilitate delivery of our maps on time,\u201d state Sen. L. Louise Lucas said via text Saturday. \u201cVirginia is a good place to be.\u201d Don Scott, the Virginia House speaker, opined that a new map could drastically change the delegation makeup in Virginia, which is near parity with six Democrats and five Republicans.<\/p>\n

Scott said \u201c10-1 is not out of the realm to be able to draw the maps in a succinct and community-based way,” at a public forum last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And in Maryland, Gov. Wes Moore continues to pressure his state lawmakers to take up new maps, but has run into opposition from state Senate President Bill Ferguson, who has refused to entertain bringing up a vote<\/a> on the matter.<\/p>\n

Maryland\u2019s lower chamber appears poised to take up the issue, but House Speaker Adrienne Jones, who earlier this year publicly supported the governor\u2019s redistricting push<\/a>, stunned many in Annapolis by announcing Thursday she was immediately stepping down.<\/a>It\u2019s unclear what impact this will have on negotiations to redraw the state\u2019s lines.<\/p>\n

Moore\u2019s Redistricting Advisory Commission, set up last month to solicit residents\u2019 feedback on whether to craft new maps, is slated to hold its final public meeting Friday before it issues recommendations to the governor and Maryland General Assembly.<\/p>\n

Trump set the latest redistricting arms race in motion when he leaned on Texas to redraw its maps earlier this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t operate in a vacuum and states are doing this all across the country, red and blue states,\u201d Huston told reporters Friday. \u201cWe felt like it was important for us to be a part of that, and to make sure that we used every tool we could to support a strong Republican majority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether he felt \u201cproud\u201d of the maps, Huston, who said in 2021<\/u><\/a> that he would \u201cdefend these maps all day long, six days to Sunday,\u201d did not use that word, saying he felt \u201cvery blessed to lead the Indiana House of Representative.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI support this, and I support what we\u2019re doing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The state Senate committee on elections will meet in the Senate chamber to hear the congressional map Monday afternoon, with a final vote from the whole chamber expected Thursday.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s demands on Indiana lawmakers though have exposed some of the limits of his power.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe MAGA movement hasn\u2019t permeated down to the state legislative level,\u201d said an Indiana Republican allied with Trump\u2019s redistricting cause.<\/p>\n

But this person, granted anonymity to discuss the tense debate, referenced primaries of resistant Indiana Republicans, saying, \u201cwe\u2019re either going to get new maps, or we\u2019re going to get a new Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people think Trumpworld is bluffing or doesn\u2019t have any juice left and this will just go away if the state Senate rejects the maps,\u201d this person said. \u201cThe reality is that will only be the start of a long and brutal campaign to purge the state of anyone who opposed Trump on this issue. And there will likely be collateral damage that hurts even those who supported Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump\u2019s maximalist, command-and-control approach to the GOP faces one of its most significant tests yet, as a band of stubborn Indiana state Senate Republicans threatens his mid-cycle redistricting scheme when it is expected to come to a vote this week. The Hoosier Republicans will gavel in Monday to decide on a map, passed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}