Indiana Senate won't vote on redistricting, defying Trump's push
[November 15, 2025]
By ISABELLA VOLMERT and DAVID A. LIEB
The Republican leader of the Indiana state Senate announced Friday that
his chamber will no longer meet in December as planned to vote on
redistricting, citing a lack of support from his members even after
months of pressure from the White House.
The announcement greatly diminishes the likelihood of redistricting the
Midwest state. Indiana is the second Republican state to recently resist
the push from President Donald Trump to create new congressional maps
that would favor Republican candidates in the 2026 elections.
“Over the last several months, Senate Republicans have given very
serious and thoughtful consideration to the concept of redrawing our
state’s congressional maps,” Indiana Senate President Pro Tem Rodric
Bray said in a statement. "Today, I’m announcing there are not enough
votes to move that idea forward, and the Senate will not reconvene in
December.”
Indiana Republicans, who hold a supermajority in both legislative
chambers, have been under pressure to redraw the state's congressional
districts since August. Vice President JD Vance has made two trips to
Indianapolis to speak with lawmakers and legislative leaders have met
with Trump in the Oval Office.
Republicans currently outnumber Democrats in Indiana’s congressional
delegation 7-2. Those in favor of redistricting Indiana often point to
Democratic states with none or few congressional Republicans as a reason
to make Indiana's map entirely red.
While Trump won Indiana by 19 percentage points in the 2024 election,
many Indiana Republicans have balked at the idea of gerrymandering. Some
said it could backfire politically, while others generally considered it
to be unethical.
State Sen. Kyle Walker, a Republican, announced in a statement Thursday
that he would not support redistricting, saying the overwhelming
majority of his constituents are against it.
After Vance’s second visit to Indianapolis, Bray said his caucus did not
have the votes for the measure to succeed.
An uncertain future for redistricting efforts
Gov. Mike Braun, a Republican and ally to Trump, called for a special
session on redistricting last month to force a vote. State lawmakers in
both chambers decided to take up the issue by starting the 2026 regular
session early in December in an extremely rare scheduling maneuver,
saying it would offset the cost of a special session.
“Our state senators need to do the right thing and show up to vote for
fair maps,” Braun said in a statement Friday. "Hoosiers deserve to know
where their elected officials stand on important issues.”
The Senate’s rejection means that lawmakers might not be able to
redistrict at all before the 2026 midterm elections. Lawmakers in both
chambers will convene for their regular session in January, but the
deadline to file to run for Congress in Indiana is in early February.
Republican state Sen. Liz Brown, who is in favor of redistricting, said
in a statement that Republicans should “consider all options for getting
redistricting back on the table."
With just 10 Democrats in the 50-member Senate, that means more than 15
Republicans oppose the idea.
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Republicans in the Indiana House have enough votes in support of new
congressional maps, but it is unclear if the chamber will still meet
in December to vote on redistricting as previously planned.
Democratic Indiana lawmakers framed Bray's announcement as the end
of redistricting.
“I want to thank Senator Bray and all the Republican and Democratic
members of the Indiana Statehouse who held firm on Hoosier values,”
said U.S. Rep. Andre Carson, a Democrat representing Indianapolis,
in a social media post. Carson's district would likely be a target
of redistricting.
Redistricting in other states
Trump wants Republican-led states to redraw congressional districts
to boost the party's chances of winning more seats in next year’s
congressional elections. The stakes are high, because Democrats need
to gain just three seats to win control of the House and impede
Trump’s agenda. Trump’s trying to buck historical trends, in which
the president’s party typically loses seats in the midterms.
Republican-led legislatures or commissions in Texas, Missouri, North
Carolina and Ohio all have adopted news districts designed to boost
Republicans’ chances in next year’s elections. Voters in California
have countered by adopting new districts drawn to improve Democrats’
chances of winning more seats. And the Democratic-led Virginia
General Assembly also has taken a step toward redistricting with a
proposed constitutional amendment.
But Indiana is the second state with a Republican-led legislature to
drop plans for a redistricting session, despite pressure from Trump
to do it. While struggling to round up enough support, Kansas House
Speaker Dan Hawkins announced earlier this month that Republican
lawmakers were ending a petition drive to call themselves into
special session for congressional redistricting.
Recent redistricting efforts also have stalled in some Democratic
states despite pressure from national party leaders.
Illinois lawmakers declined to take up congressional redistricting
during an October session, because of concerns that redrawing the
already heavily Democratic districts to try to gain yet another seat
could weaken representation for Black voters. That came despite a
personal visit from U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and
support for redistricting from the Democratic Congressional Campaign
Committee.
In Maryland, where Democrats already hold seven of the eight U.S.
House seats, Democratic Senate President Bill Ferguson said last
month that his chamber won’t move forward with redistricting. He
expressed concerns that an attempt to draw eight Democratic
districts could backfire with losses in other districts and lead
even more Republican-led states to retaliate with their own
redistricting.
But Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, kept the effort alive this
month by forming a commission to consider mid-decade redistricting.
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