Indiana House Republicans have released a draft congressional map that could give the GOP an advantage in all nine of the state’s U.S. House districts by targeting the two currently held by Democrats. The proposal, advanced amid pressure from former President Donald Trump and national Republicans, splits Democratic-leaning Indianapolis and now heads toward contentious debate in the GOP-led Senate.
Indiana House Republicans on Monday, December 1, 2025, released a draft congressional redistricting map that would significantly reshape the state’s nine U.S. House districts and could eliminate both Democratic-held seats.
Republicans currently control seven of Indiana’s nine U.S. House seats. Democrats hold the 1st District in northwest Indiana, represented by Rep. Frank Mrvan, and the 7th District centered in Marion County and Indianapolis, represented by Rep. André Carson, according to coverage from WBOI and other outlets.
The proposed map, posted to the House Republican caucus’ website shortly before lawmakers convened, is drawn to give the GOP an edge in all nine districts, according to reporting from the Washington Examiner, Bloomberg Law, and the Associated Press. The plan would split Marion County, home to Indianapolis, into four districts — a major change from the current map, under which most of the county sits in a single, safely Democratic district held by Carson.
Northwest Indiana’s 1st District would also be overhauled. Under the draft, the district would no longer be a compact seat largely confined to Lake County and nearby areas. Instead, it would extend southeast to pick up a string of more Republican-leaning counties, a configuration that election analysts say would turn the district from a narrow Democratic seat into one that favored Trump by double digits in 2024, Bloomberg Law reports.
The redistricting push comes amid sustained pressure from former President Donald Trump and his allies for Republican-led states to redraw congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterms in hopes of expanding the GOP’s narrow House majority. NPR and multiple local public radio stations report that some Indiana Republicans had resisted drawing a new map for months despite urging from the Trump White House.
House Speaker Todd Huston, a Republican, has argued that Indiana should not "act in a vacuum" as other states pursue mid-decade redistricting. He has pointed to moves in states such as Virginia, California and Missouri as part of a broader national redistricting fight, according to WBOI. National outlets including the Washington Examiner and Newsweek report that House Republicans believe they have the votes to advance the map through their chamber.
Former President Trump has publicly pressed Indiana Republicans to create a map that could produce a 9–0 GOP delegation, and House Republicans have faced what they describe as intense lobbying from Washington-based groups. Several national reports say Trump and other party leaders view flipping Indiana’s two Democratic districts as part of a strategy to secure additional Republican seats in the U.S. House in 2026.
Despite the momentum in the House, the plan’s fate in the Republican-controlled Senate is less certain. Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray has expressed caution about assuming the map would guarantee a 9–0 outcome.
"It seems like the public is talking about this in terms of a binary choice: either 7–2 or redistricting and get 9–0," Bray said in comments reported by Politico and cited by other outlets. "That is not clear at all to me, because we don’t know who’s going to run."
Bray and other Senate Republicans have signaled concern that drawing more aggressively partisan districts could backfire in a difficult midterm environment if Republican margins become too thin, according to a Newsweek summary of Politico’s reporting. Senate leaders have agreed to reconvene in December to consider the House plan, but have not guaranteed it will pass.
The proposed map has drawn sharp criticism from Democrats and voting-rights advocates, who argue it would dilute the voting power of Democratic-leaning and racially diverse communities, particularly in Indianapolis and northwest Indiana. Carson has called dividing Indianapolis into four districts "ridiculous" and said the plan reflects orders "coming from Washington" rather than from Hoosier voters, according to public radio reporting.
Public demonstrations quickly followed the map’s release. Hundreds of protesters rallied at the Indiana Statehouse on Monday, with opponents accusing Republicans of gerrymandering to entrench their power, the Washington Examiner reported.
Tensions around the redistricting fight have also been inflamed by threats against lawmakers. National and local outlets have documented a series of menacing incidents in Indiana, including a pipe bomb threat and swatting calls targeting Republicans who have broken with Trump on redistricting, as well as broader threats tied to mid-decade map fights in other states. While the specific Indiana House proposal is not the sole focus of these investigations, officials say the heightened rhetoric around redistricting has contributed to a more volatile environment.
If Indiana ultimately adopts the new map, analysts say it would join a group of Republican-led states — including Texas, North Carolina, Ohio and Missouri — that have recently redrawn congressional boundaries in ways likely to boost GOP prospects, even as many of those maps face ongoing legal challenges. Voting-rights groups and some legal scholars have already suggested that Indiana’s proposal could draw lawsuits, particularly over its treatment of racially diverse areas in Marion County and the reshaped 1st District.
For now, the Indiana House is expected to move first, with a committee hearing and floor vote anticipated in the coming days, according to local and national coverage. The Senate is scheduled to convene later this month to decide whether to go along, leaving the future of the map — and the state’s two Democratic-held seats — uncertain.
