After the Indiana Senate voted 31-19 to reject a Trump-backed congressional redistricting plan that would likely have erased the state’s two Democratic U.S. House seats, Republican lawmakers who opposed the measure faced threats of primary challenges from Trump and Gov. Mike Braun, while analysts noted that the defeat underscored limits on mid-decade map changes even in conservative states.
Indiana’s Republican-led Senate decisively defeated a Trump-backed congressional redistricting plan on Thursday, voting 31-19 against the proposal after months of pressure from the White House and conservative allies, according to reporting from NPR and The Washington Post. Forty of the chamber’s 50 members are Republicans, and 21 GOP senators joined all 10 Democrats in opposition.
The mid-decade plan was designed to give Republicans control of all nine of Indiana’s U.S. House seats, up from the seven they now hold. It would have effectively dismantled the two Democratic-held districts by splitting Indianapolis among multiple districts that reached into rural areas, reshaping Rep. André Carson’s Indianapolis-based seat, and by eliminating the northwest Indiana district held by Rep. Frank Mrvan, The Washington Post reports.
Republican critics framed their opposition as a stand against mid-cycle gerrymandering and federal pressure. Sen. Spencer Deery, a West Lafayette Republican, argued that redrawing the map now would damage trust in elections and conflict with conservative principles. “My opposition to mid-cycle gerrymandering is not in contrast to my conservative principles, my opposition is driven by them,” he said during floor debate, in remarks reported by NPR affiliates. “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.”
Other Republicans raised legal and political concerns. Daily Wire reporting notes that Sen. Greg Walker called the proposed map “unconstitutional,” while Sen. Sue Glick, who also voted no, said, “You have to know Hoosiers, we can’t be bullied.” Some GOP senators said their constituents objected to having their counties split or drawn into districts they viewed as engineered for partisan gain.
Trump had urged Indiana Republicans for months to approve the new map as part of a broader push for mid-cycle redistricting in GOP-led states. In a comment to reporters, cited by The Daily Wire, he said he believed the Indiana plan would have added two seats for Republicans in the next election and pointed to his repeated success in the state. “I won Indiana all three times by a landslide,” he said. “It would’ve been nice. I think we would’ve picked up two seats if we did that.”
Gov. Mike Braun, a Republican and close Trump ally, publicly sided with the former president and blasted members of his own party who opposed the plan. In a statement reported by The Daily Wire, Braun called them “misguided State Senators” and vowed to help Trump support primary challenges against Republicans who joined Democrats to defeat the map, saying such decisions “carry political consequences.” NPR also reported that both Braun and Trump had threatened to back primary opponents to senators who voted no.
Opponents of the plan, including Democratic lawmakers and civil rights advocates, warned that it would dilute the voting power of minority communities in Indianapolis. NPR and other outlets reported that Democrats, who currently hold just two of Indiana’s nine U.S. House seats, argued that the proposal would further weaken representation for voters of color in the state’s largest city.
The defeat in Indiana stands in contrast to states such as Texas, Missouri and North Carolina, where Republican-led governments have passed new congressional maps that are expected to bolster GOP prospects in the 2026 midterm elections, according to coverage in The Daily Wire and The Washington Post. At the same time, national redistricting battles remain fluid, with Democrats securing gains in some blue or competitive states and courts weighing challenges to several newly drawn maps.
Political analysts say the Indiana outcome highlights the limits of Trump’s influence over redistricting and complicates Republican efforts to use mid-decade map changes to entrench their narrow U.S. House majority. While Republicans have logged redistricting victories in several states, the Indiana rebuke—coming in a deeply conservative state where Trump remains popular—has underscored that some GOP legislators are wary of aggressive tactics that could erode public confidence in elections or trigger legal challenges.
