On Indiana’s 209th birthday, state lawmakers voted down a redistricting bill that would have positioned Republicans to gain two additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Indiana Senate voted 31-19 against House Bill 1032, delivering a blow to President Donald Trump, who for months has been pressuring Republican-led states to redraw congressional districts to give his party an advantage in the 2026 midterm elections.
Protesters watching in the gallery erupted in applause after the vote was read aloud.
The new map would have split the city of Indianapolis into four districts, grouping parts of the city with large portions of rural Indiana. Three of the districts would stretch to the borders of nearby states. Most of the city now makes up one congressional district long held by Democratic U.S. Rep. André Carson.
Trump posted a lengthy rant on social media the night before the vote, calling out Indiana Senate President Rod Bray and other senators for going against his wishes. Trump has also promised to run primary challengers against Republicans who vote against redistricting, though Bray isn’t up for reelection until 2028.
It’s rare to see controversial pieces of legislation decided by such a close margin. Republicans have a supermajority in both the House and Senate. Typically, if they don’t have the votes to get a bill passed, they decide behind closed doors not to call a bill down for a vote.
That didn’t happen this time around.
Bray, reversing a previous commitment not to call the Senate back into session, brought his caucus back to the Statehouse this week after a number of lawmakers received threats to themselves and their family members.
“The issue was causing a lot of strife, so we decided to come in and vet the issue, and we’ll vote on it and answer the question,” he told reporters earlier this week.
The night before the vote, several more Indiana lawmakers were targeted in a bomb threat.
How we got here
Trump had asked Republican-led states to redistrict in the middle of the decade — an uncommon practice — in order to make more seats winnable for the GOP ahead of next year’s elections.
Midterms tend to favor the party opposite the one in power, and Democrats are increasingly liking their odds at flipping control of the U.S. House after they fared well in recent high-profile elections.
In addition to carving up Indy, the proposed map was also designed to eliminate the district of U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan, a Democrat who represents an urban district near Chicago.
Nationally, mid-cycle redistricting so far has resulted in nine more congressional seats that Republicans believe they can win and six more congressional seats that Democrats think they can win. However, redistricting is being litigated in several states.
Texas, Missouri, Ohio and North Carolina quickly enacted new GOP-favorable maps. California voters recently approved a new map in response to Texas’ that would favor Democratic candidates, and a judge in Utah imposed new districts that could allow Democrats to win a seat, after ruling that Republican lawmakers circumvented voter-approved anti-gerrymandering standards.
Multiple Republican groups threatened to support primary opponents of state senators who vote against redistricting. Turning Point Action pledged “congressional level spending” in state legislative races if the redistricting measure does not pass.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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Peter Blanchard covers local government. Reach him at 317-605-4836 or pe*************@********dy.org. Follow him on X @peterlblanchard.
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Peter Blanchard