The Republican-controlled Indiana Senate voted 31-19 against a congressional redistricting proposal backed by President Donald Trump, dealing a setback to his broader push for mid-decade map changes aimed at expanding GOP control of the U.S. House.
On December 11, 2025, the Indiana Senate, where Republicans hold 40 of 50 seats, voted 31-19 to defeat a bill that would have redrawn the state's congressional map. The proposal, backed by President Donald Trump, was designed to give Republicans a strong advantage in all nine of Indiana's U.S. House districts, effectively targeting the two Democratic-held seats currently represented by André Carson and Frank Mrvan, according to reporting from The Washington Post and Axios.(washingtonpost.com)
The outcome represents a significant setback for Trump's national campaign to encourage GOP-led states to undertake mid-decade redistricting to shore up the party's slim House majority. In recent months, Republican-controlled states such as Texas, Missouri, Ohio and North Carolina have advanced new maps in line with this strategy, while Indiana's refusal underscores the limits of Trump's influence even in reliably conservative states, according to The Washington Post and the Daily Wire.(washingtonpost.com)
The Senate vote followed months of political pressure from Trump and his allies. Trump repeatedly used social media to urge Indiana Republicans to approve the map and warned that those who opposed it could face "MAGA primaries" in 2026, as reported by the Daily Wire and Axios.(dailywire.com) Vice President JD Vance also pressed state senators, meeting with them multiple times in Indianapolis and in Washington to lobby for the plan, The Washington Post reports.(washingtonpost.com) Indiana Governor Mike Braun, a Trump ally, publicly backed the effort and said decisions on redistricting could carry "political consequences" for Republicans who resisted, according to Axios and other local coverage.(axios.com)
Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray, a Republican, ultimately brought the measure to the floor but voted against it. Vance accused Bray of telling the White House that he would not work against the proposal while privately encouraging no votes, an allegation Bray denied, saying his style was to let members "vote like they want," the Daily Wire reports.(dailywire.com)
Several Republicans framed their opposition as rooted in concerns about mid-cycle gerrymandering and federal overreach rather than a break with conservative principles. Republican Senator Spencer Deery said he saw "no justification that outweighs the harm" the plan would inflict on public faith in elections, arguing that expanding federal leverage over state-level decisions is not conservative, according to Axios and The Washington Post.(axios.com) By contrast, supporters such as Republican Senator Michael Young argued that the stakes for control of Congress justified redrawing the lines, noting that only a small number of districts nationwide may decide the House majority in 2026, as reported by the Associated Press and other outlets.(washingtonpost.com)
Democrats, who hold just two of Indiana's nine House seats, denounced the proposal as an extreme partisan gerrymander that would diminish the political power of minority and urban voters, especially in Indianapolis and northwest Indiana, according to The Washington Post and Time.(washingtonpost.com) The rejected map would have split Indianapolis into multiple districts extending into rural areas and dismantled the northwest Indiana district anchored in Lake County, reshaping or effectively eliminating the two Democratic-leaning seats currently held by Carson and Mrvan.(washingtonpost.com)
Outside the Statehouse in Indianapolis, protesters rallied against the proposal, chanting "Vote no!" and "Fair maps!" while carrying signs with slogans such as "Losers cheat," The Washington Post reports.(washingtonpost.com) The debate unfolded amid a tense security climate: lawmakers in both parties reported threats and harassment, including hoax emergency calls, or "swatting" incidents, directed at some Republicans who were seen as potential swing votes on the plan, according to The Washington Post and Time.(washingtonpost.com)
The vote highlights internal Republican divisions between staunch Trump loyalists and more traditional conservatives skeptical of mid-decade map changes and outside pressure. Nationally, Republicans currently hold a 220–213 majority in the U.S. House, with two vacancies, a margin that has intensified partisan battles over redistricting, according to the Daily Wire and other national outlets.(dailywire.com) Officials and strategists in other states, including Illinois, have said they are closely watching Indiana's experience as they weigh whether to pursue their own mid-decade map changes.(stlpr.org)
