Indiana Senate won't vote on redistricting, defying Trump's push

“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.

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.

Volmert reported from Lansing, Michigan. Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri.