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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowGov. Mike Braun suggested Monday that Indiana lawmakers could return for a special session in November to redraw congressional boundaries—his clearest signal yet in support of mid-cycle redistricting.
Speaking on Fort Wayne’s WOWO radio, Braun said the state is “in the process where we will evolve in that direction,” and continued to emphasize—as he has done in recent weeks—that he wants Hoosier legislative leaders to take the lead on the issue.
“I want it to be where it wasn’t forced upon our legislature, have our leaders talk to their own caucus members,” Braun said. “Some have already changed their point of view when they look at what good comes from it.
“You’re going to find that, probably, the legislators will come around to it,” he continued. “I’m going to give them time. I think eventually we’ll get there.”
Possible ‘consequences’
He pointed to Ohio and Florida as examples. Ohio is already preparing for a map redraw, while Florida’s Supreme Court recently upheld a GOP-favored congressional map.
Braun also tied Indiana’s timeline to national GOP politics.
“If we try to drag our feet as a state on it, probably, we’ll have consequences of not working with the Trump administration as tightly as we should,” Braun said.
Vice President JD Vance visited the Indiana Statehouse in early August to meet with GOP leaders about redistricting, and later that month, a group of Republican lawmakers traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with Vance and other federal officials about the same issue.
Some Hoosier legislators said those conversations played a role in their decision to change their stance.
Trump is pushing GOP-led states like Indiana to redraw maps ahead of the 2026 midterm elections to ensure a Republican majority in the U.S. House for the rest of his second term. Redistricting is typically only done after the decennial census.
The Republican governor raised the possibility of lawmakers returning before the end of the year.
“We’ll have to do that either at the very beginning of the next (legislative) session we have in ‘26, or probably more ideally sometime in November,” he said in the radio interview. The next regularly scheduled legislative session, for 2026, begins in January.
Waiting until 2026 would be complicated by the filing period for congressional primaries starting in January.
The governor is the only one empowered to call a special session. A two-week special session in Indiana in 2022 cost about $240,000.
Lawmakers still divided, leadership quiet
Braun’s comments come amid ongoing deliberations among Indiana’s Republican supermajorities. GOP senators held a closed-door caucus last week to discuss redistricting, but did not comment publicly afterward. House Republicans also caucused virtually on Friday and have met previously in person.
Legislative leadership has largely remained silent on the issue.
Still, some rank-and-file lawmakers have started to shift. Among them, Seymour Rep. Jim Lucas recently flipped from opposing to supporting a map redraw, saying he went from a “hard no to a hell yes.”
Others—like Sen. Spencer Deery, of West Lafayette—said as recently as last week that they remain against making changes before the next census.
Outside the Statehouse, opposition is also mounting. A coalition of advocacy groups delivered nearly 9,000 signatures last week urging lawmakers not to pursue early redistricting.
Braun on Monday specifically dismissed Democratic criticisms of the idea, pointing to the state’s maps from two decades ago.
“I think more and more legislators are understanding that the real gerrymandering—you ought to look at the map that the Dems did from the year 2000, where they were in charge of the new jurisdictions,” he said. “That looked like the tentacles of an octopus, would be the best way to describe it. So you’re going to find, I think, that … (Democrats) are raising most of the chorus against it—because they cannot gerrymander any further.”
The Indiana Capital Chronicle is an independent, nonprofit news organization that covers state government, policy and elections.
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What a bunch of sissies. They’re going to undo any good faith that they built during the redistricting process in 2021 because they’re literally scared of what Trump will do to them if they don’t go along with his cheating scheme. Absolutely INSANE.
“We’ll have consequences of not working with the Trump administration as tightly as we should,” Braun says. If you actually value democracy and the Constitution, the correct answer is, you should NOT give in to un-American threats from an authoritarian ruler. They have said, out loud, that this is all about artificially acquiring enough extra votes to hold power even if the majority wants to throw them out. How does that attitude even remotely uphold American values?
If you can’t win on policy and good governance, then cheat.
Completely agree !
Republicans will bend the knee and fold like a chair. The other option is they get primaried.
Also, Braun is rewriting history; the 2000 redistricting had to clear a Democratic House and a Republican Senate, no?
That’s correct.
Politicians already have a bad reputation – they devote too much time to things that don’t matter, like eliminating DEI, giving tax breaks to data centers and utilities. Real issues like high healthcare costs and the environment go unaddressed.
Braun does not say how much money would a special session cost, both in terms of time and out of pocket costs. And what would come of a special session? Maybe flipping 1 of 9 districts from Democratic to Republican? That’s just not worth it, and would just reinforce the idea that politicians are more worried about gaming the system than doing things the really matter.
”We’re going to look at it, we’re going to poll our legislators, and if it’s there, we’re going to do it,” Braun said. (IN Focus: Indiana Politics, by: Hannah Adamson).
Don’t poll the legislators! POLL THE PEOPLE, THE VOTERS! Y’all work for us (or are supposed to) not the other way around. Or, are you too afraid to learn that the people want the opposite of what you want? Every public opinion poll I have seen has shown a strong majority of constituents do not want this redistricting – even a majority of Republican voters.
DON’T DO THIS! IT’S BAD FOR INDIANA, AND BAD FOR AMERICA!
Hear, hear !
F-ing Cheaters! You already hold EVERY statewide seat and 7 out of 9 Congressional seats. Not enough for you? What about all of those Hoosiers whose votes NEVER count because of the unfair way maps are already drawn? You call this a democracy?
DITTO!
Strong comments from the above. King Trump. Let’s just put it out there. Working with the current administration in DC instead of representing the citizens of the State of Indiana (ie, all citizens) is truly the current State administrations priority?? Slippery, slippery slope. It is just not enough to already have a super majority. It is more important to “have it all”. Control and greed are funny cousins. Most times the combination turns out pretty bad according to history. Does Indiana really want to go down that path? My guess is that if you can ram it through in a “special session” then the leaders think it so. Hail to the King.
And the thing is, the Indiana GOP has never won a supermajority (2/3rds or 66.7%) of votes. The most votes a Governor has gotten was Mitch Daniels in 2008 with 57.8% of the vote. The largest share of votes that any Republican running for Statewide office was the State Auditor in 2022 with 65% of the vote. There is no indication at all that Republicans receive enough votes to hold 80% of seats in the Indiana Senate and 70% of seats in the Indiana House.
We slipped down the slope a loooooong time ago.
The reality is this has been going on for most of our state’s history, both sides and both directions. It is legal and is part of the democratic process.
And for TM., my vote here in Marion County hasn’t counted for Mayor for the last 12 years, and Congress since Andy Jacob’s Sr was our congressman, before Julia Carson and her worthless grandson. It’s all part of how we work and vote, better than any country in the world.
Your vote counts regardless of the candidate who wins.
Indiana Republicans are the ones who’ve decided to make your vote inconsequential. But worry not, here soon, all the donut counties will be cracked and packed with the dying rest of the state to make Dear Leader happy. Ironic given how most Hoosiers these days are fleeing areas like those …
You make a valid point, Kevin P. I hadn’t thought of it that way. I’m no fan of our current Mayor but, unlike gerrymandered legislative districts, the Mayor is/was elected by the will of the people not by a group of voters identified through manufactured boundaries designed to allow politicians to select voters.
(I’ve been wrong before, but I think that’s valid statement?) Your thoughts?
Braun and the Rino super majority are not conservatives and are not and do not listen to the people! We are surfs and they are all cowards!
It’s very easy to explain to D.C. why this isn’t a good or necessary thing for our State.
Yes we should absolutely primary any republican leadership that caved on property taxes and those that cave on redistricting!
Talk about feeling helpless!! Writing to my state legislators is an exercise in futility. They could care less about listening to opposing views. They wonder why people hate them. Here is a clue. Stop pandering to MAGA. If you listened you might be surprised to find that a very large number of Hoosier voters are opposed to any redistricting and other Trump initiatives such as the “Speedway Slammer” embarrassment. Braun is not his own man or at least he doesn’t seem like he is. Show some guts governor!!!
Correction – the next regular session does not start in January, it starts with Organization Day on Nov. 18. And yes mid-decade redistricting is a bad idea.
Organization Day is the ceremonial start to the legislative session. The official legislative session of the Indiana General Assembly is scheduled to begin on Jan. 13.
Since in the 2024 election 40% of Indiana votes in the presidential race were for the Democrat, the districts should reflect that. So of the 9 seats, at least 3 or 4 should be blue. There should be a law to prevent the districts from failing to reflect the true leanings of the population. At least the presidential votes are free from gerrymandering in the state, and only get skewed when the Electoral College is factored in.
There’s no requirement like that. The only requirement is equal population.
The Republicans have drawn the maps. They’ve chosen their voters. Until incumbents start getting sent home in November elections, that’s the way it will be.
Counting down the days until mid-terms. Can’t wait to throw the bums out.
This is a democracy? Don’t think so, particularly when the party in power national and state wide (a super majority) wants to go from 7-2 GOP to DEMS….to 9 to zero. This is such a backward state with an absence of spending to become excellent in education, health, etc. Go for it GOP: you’ll own ALL of the lack of progress and poor achievement…as you have for years.
You could always move to Illinois. (I mean, SOMEONE has to.) No gerrymandering there whatsoever.
Just a reminder which party introduced a bill to fight gerrymandering and which party blocked it, Lauren.
Lord Acton had it right – how do we ever progress out of this dystopian hell the new GOP has created.
Bowing to the orange king. Absolutely ridiculous. The last redirecting was heralded as a great fix. What happened to that? Unless you’re a straight, Christian, white male in Indiana, it’s clear that your vote doesn’t count. Stacking the deck since the MAGAts can’t win fairly.
Needs to be done anything to get rid of Carson as he is such an embarrassment. This stuff about Rep.being crooked is a joke the Dems are as crooked as a dogs hind leg and have been that way for years. Will we ever recover from the mess Biden left?
If record American manufacturing output, low unemployment, steady growth in the stock market and lots of new jobs is a “mess” (all happened under Biden but not 45/47) then I think we need a bigger mess right now.