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Officials within the Indiana Senate’s Republican caucus signaled Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s efforts to redraw state district maps are not yet across the finish line.
“The votes aren’t there for redistricting,” Molly Swigart, spokesperson for Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray, told the IBJ on Wednesday.
That evaluation from Bray’s office comes as the White House has stepped up its pressure campaign on Indiana lawmakers, particularly Republican senators, in the last few weeks.
Vice President JD Vance twice visited Indianapolis to speak with state lawmakers about redistricting: once in August and again earlier this month.
On Friday, The New York Times reported that Trump held a call urging Indiana GOP senators to redraw the state’s district maps.
Per the Indiana Capital Chronicle, Bray participated in last week’s call with the White House and called conversations with the Vice President on his most recent visit “fruitful” and productive.”
“Obviously, the conversation was about redistricting,” Bray told reporters. “We talked a lot about that—pros and cons—and so, no decisions were made. But we’re going to work on that and hopefully have a decision very soon.”
Swigart did not immediately respond when asked by the IBJ where Bray stands on redistricting.
Meanwhile, Gov. Mike Braun released a statement Wednesday saying he’s still hoping to call a special session on redistricting.
“I am still having positive conversations with members of the legislature. I am confident the majority of Indiana Statehouse Republicans will support efforts to ensure fair representation in congress for every Hoosier,” the governor said in a post on social media.
Indiana’s Congressional delegation currently 7-2 in favor of Republicans, with Democrats only representing the district comprising Indianapolis and northwest Indiana.
Multiple polls released in the last few weeks suggest a majority of Hoosiers are not in favor of redistricting.
While some in opposition to redistricting were quick to celebrate on Wednesday, House Democratic Leader Phil GiaQuinta, D-Fort Wayne, cautioned that these discussions may be far from over.
“House Democrats have received massive amounts of calls against redistricting, and I’m sure the Senate Republicans have, too,” he said in a written statement. “I’ll continue to monitor the possibility of redistricting until we end the 2026 legislative session in March.”
The national fight over mid-cycle redistricting was sparked by lawmakers in Texas redrawing their state’s maps to please the Trump administration. Missouri recently followed suit, while California will soon vote on new maps to benefit Democrats in the state.
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Reminder that in the Indiana Senate, there are 40 Republicans. (Well 39 if you count Young who dropped out of the caucus.)
So presumably, there are at least 16 holdouts. That’s fascinating.
Redistricting in the middle of the decade appears to be as “cheating” — they don’t think the cards they are holding will get the job done so they’re asking for a replacement deck!
It does seem like stacking the deck, but it might be interesting to see Indiana mess with the lines. After all, it was only a little over a decade ago that the did a big gerrymandering of the state. Odds are, if they mess with the lines, they will make things worse, not better for the GOP by undoing some of what they did before….
They just redistricted a couple years ago.
Robert H., they redistricted four years ago after the last decennial census as required by the US Constitution.
The hesitation among some Indiana Senate Republicans to move forward on redistricting is not just disappointing, it’s politically naïve and strategically self-defeating. Let’s be clear: Democrats in blue states across the country have already mastered the art of redrawing their maps to cement their political advantage for the next decade. States like California, Illinois, and New York have aggressively reshaped their districts to ensure Democratic dominance, while Republican-led states like Indiana are still debating whether to even step on the field. That’s not prudence it’s surrender.
Every election cycle we hear the same refrain about fairness, bipartisanship, and not “politicizing” redistricting. But when one side plays by the old rules and the other side rewrites them, the result isn’t fairness it’s unilateral disarmament. The Democrats aren’t waiting around for compromise; they’re acting. Missouri and Texas recognized this reality and have already redrawn their maps to ensure their states are represented according to their values and their voters. Indiana should be doing the same.
Redistricting isn’t about partisanship, it’s about balance. It’s about ensuring that conservative voters, who make up the overwhelming majority of Hoosiers, have their voices proportionally represented in Congress. Right now, Democrats are reengineering states like California to silence Republican voters entirely, while we pretend that staying idle somehow makes us virtuous. That’s political suicide.
The time for hesitation is over. The White House understands what’s at stake. President Trump and Vice President Vance have made it clear that fair representation in red states is critical to restoring balance in Washington. The national map is being redrawn, and if Indiana Republicans sit this one out, they’ll bear responsibility for weakening not just our state’s influence, but the conservative movement as a whole. Just look at what the current districting has led to, a government shut down. I didn’t see the democrats running to fix the last census even when it was admitted by the Census Bureau that they counted people that shouldn’t have been counted.
Republicans in the Senate must remember politics rewards those who act, not those who hesitate, and yes, Trump is a great example of that. It’s time to finish the job. Redistricting isn’t an overreach, it’s a correction, long overdue.
It’s amazing the conclusions one can draw when you stack one lie on top of another.
A simple reminder – despite Democrats being the supposed masters of gerrymandering, they introduced a bill to prohibit its usage, which was blocked by Republicans. If it was all about restoring balance, why wouldn’t Republicans have eagerly accepted such a measure to become law and level the playing field and get more votes in all those places?
We are in this boat because Republicans know exactly what will happen if they allow for a Congressional election using the lines drawn previously. Democrats might get a majority, and that’s something Republicans can’t abide. So they have to redraw the lines now, because it would be far too messy to let elections take place and then to have to claim fraud in all these states where Republicans are administering the elections and introduce a Constitutional crisis by not seating them. Better to just rig the elections upfront and call it “balance” or “eliminating racing discrimination”.
Kind of like how Republicans claim that they have a mandate to do what they are doing when they spent the entire run-up to the election claiming they weren’t going to do what liberals said they would do. “No, Project 2025 isn’t our plan”. “We are only going after the really bad illegal immigrants”. “We care deeply about the rule of law and the Constitution.” All lies. Speaking of the Constitution…
“I didn’t see the democrats running to fix the last census even when it was admitted by the Census Bureau that they counted people that shouldn’t have been counted.“
Either abide the Constitution or amend it. Like it or not, the Census cares not one whit about citizenship and it never, ever has.
“ It’s about ensuring that conservative voters, who make up the overwhelming majority of Hoosiers, have their voices proportionally represented in Congress.”
Republicans got 58.6% in the last presidential race.
They currently have 78% of the Congressional seats in Indiana.
Your claim is, hence, based on those first two numbers, they’re entitled to 100% of the seats because they’re under-represented based on congressional district lines that Republicans drew just four years ago when they got 57% of the presidential vote. Picking up 1.6% more Hoosiers entitles them to 22% more congressional representation.
I don’t know what is more suspect, your point or your math.
Good point, Joe B. R’s should redistrict to give back two seats to the D’s in Indiana if they want to insure all Hoosiers’ voices are heard and represented fairly
But to these MAGA wingnuts, the only voices that count are theirs. Which is quite problematic in a Constitutional republic.
So called “Don B” — probably a WH staffer or other paid Trump/Vance functionary — blithely distorts common sense, history and, most importantly, virtue. Thus, again, the idea that MAGA-ism is somehow related to conservatism is disproved. So-called “Don B” is no conservative!
Functionaries, like so-called “Don B” are either ignorant of the designs of our government — as evidenced by the Trump Administration’s conducting Article 1 duties in the Article 2 office — or are willfully twisting the architecture of our Repulic to suit tawdry ends. Whether by abbreviated lessons from 10th grade US Government Class, or by careful reading of The Federalist Papers, so-called “Don B” should know that the designers of our Constitution — which Mssrs Trump and Vance swore an oath to “PRESERVE, protect and defend” — intentionally created differences between the House of Representatives and the Senate. Among them are that Senators were to represent the body politic of an entire state via winner take all election — originally by state legislatures and for the past century by direct statewide election. House Districts, however, were intended to represent subsections of the entirety that were distinct from the winner take all result of Senate elections.
The idea of drawing district boundaries that subvert knowledge of and sensitivity toward “local circumstance” (See Federalist 55) in favor of a statewide view is counter to the intent of the Framers. This is no surprise. This Administration’s trampling of the Constitution is by now so constant that a new instance barely registers as news. But the point should be noted nonetheless.
It is impossible to judge history in the making. But maybe one day students will learn that the tide began to turn when the supermajority of REPUBLICAN state senators in Indiana said, “no more”.
Chris, they’d be much more intellectually honest if they just said “cry harder libs”.
Just admit it, elections don’t matter. Lean into the naked power of minority rule, unaccountable to American citizens. That’s what they wanted, a fauxmocracy like Russia or Turkey or Hungary.
“Get out and vote! Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore! Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore.”
Trump said it out loud and everything. Sometimes, the best way to interpret what people say is to believe them.
Don, did that manifesto sound good in your head before you copied and pasted it?
By “taking action” I assume you also mean your felon in chief giving pardons to crypto criminals because his family is directly benefiting financially
Braun: ‘…I am confident the majority of Indiana Statehouse Republicans will support efforts to ensure fair representation in congress for every Hoosier…’
How does one fairly represent the 63%* of registered voters who did NOT vote for Trump in the last election if one further gerrymanders the state to ensure Democrats lose one or more of the 2 seats they have today?
*per Diego Morales website: Number of Registered Voters: 4,674,413 (as of January 2, 2024).
per CBS News website: Trump received 1,720,347 in IN in the 2025 presidential election.
If Indiana’s legislature votes for redistricting that confirms the final demise of the former Republican political party . It has completely devolved into TRUMP’S MAGA CULT devoted to pleasing their dear leader TRUMP !
it was lost when Murdock knocked out Luger.
it was lost when Murdock knocked out Luger.
it was lost when Murdock knocked out Luger.
it was lost when Murdock knocked out Luger.
it was lost when Murdock knocked out Luger.
it was lost when Murdock knocked out Luger.
Braun is a stupid old man that need to exit public life and move back to Jasper. I wonder how successful Meyer Distributing would have been if Braun had some idiot screaming Tariff!! every other day while he was trying to build the company