Mike Wolanin | The Republic State Reps. Ryan Lauer, left, and Jim Lucas take part in a Legislative Preview Lunch organized by the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce at Columbus City Hall in Columbus, Ind., Monday, Dec. 11, 2023. The legislators discussed issues facing the state and what they hope to accomplish in the upcoming short legislative session.
WASHINGTON — Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, and Rep. Ryan Lauer, R-Columbus, were among the Indiana delegation of GOP lawmakers who met with Trump administration officials Tuesday amid a push for redistricting for new voting maps in Texas and other Republican-controlled states including Indiana ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Lauer and Lucas arrived in Washington, D.C., on Monday. Most of other Indiana Republican legislators left Indiana Tuesday for Washington D.C.
It is unclear whether redistricting will be a topic of discussion during the meeting or if President Donald Trump will make an appearance.
Lucas said previously that “it’s an honor to be invited to the White House” but “I’m not going to speculate on what the issues discussed might be.”
Lauer said he travelled to the nation’s capital “to represent my constituents and (is) looking forwarding to a productive meeting at the White House.”
“I’m just really excited for Indiana,” Lauer said. “I think as the administration has made comments in the past, Indiana, I think, is a model for what Washington needs to do to shape up. I think we’re coming in here to be supportive of the president’s efforts to improve our country and safety and continue to solidify the relationship between Hoosiers and Washington.”
Indiana Democrats held a press conference entitled “Sayonara, Sellouts” at the Indianapolis airport Tuesday to signal their disapproval of the legislators making the trip to Washington.
While it is unclear the extent to which early redistricting will be discussed during the meeting, Lucas and Lauer have expressed opposition to redrawing Indiana’s congressional maps ahead of the midterms.
Lauer said he thinks early redistricting would be “ill-advised” and described Indiana’s current congressional district maps as “very fair.”
“I think it would be ill-advised. I’m not for changing the maps,” Lauer said. “…From constituents reaching out to me, I think the consensus is that we should continue with the tradition of redistricting every 10 years unless there are extraordinary circumstances. But I don’t see this as an extraordinary circumstance.”
Lucas said early redistricting would be “highly unusual” and “politically optically horrible.”
“I don’t believe Republicans should stoop to the level of Democrats on this issue,” Lucas said in a Facebook post. “Republicans hold about 90% of all local offices statewide and once the voter rolls get purged of illegals, we will hold an even more commanding lead. Democrats can’t compete with their Socialist policies and ideology, and if there are seats that need targeted, we should do it the old-fashioned way and campaign harder in those districts.”
If redistricting comes up during the White House meeting, Lucas said he “will still be a vocal no against Indiana redistricting midway through because Indiana is already such a red state.”
Not all of the Republican state lawmakers who represent Bartholomew County made the trip. Sen. Greg Walker, R-Columbus, said he declined the invitation because it didn’t fit with his schedule.
Walker also opposes early redistricting in Indiana. “I think it’s a ridiculous idea, and I think it would backfire,” he said previously.
The meeting with Indiana lawmakers comes as Trump and his allies ramp up pressure on GOP-led states to redraw congressional maps, which are normally revised once a decade after the census.
The effort targets Democratic-held districts, aiming to shift them in Republicans’ favor by redrawing their boundaries in hopes of retaining the GOP’s slim majority in the House following the 2024 midterm elections.
Early redistricting has divided lawmakers representing Bartholomew County.
While Lucas, Lauer and Walker oppose redistricting before the midterms, U.S. Rep. Jefferson Shreve, R-Indiana, and Rep. Erin Houchin, R-Indiana, support redrawing the maps.
“I support the president’s call to counterbalance radical blue states governors like (California Gov.) Gavin Newson and (Illinois Gov.) JB Pritzker who’ve long manipulated districts in California and Illinois,” Shreve said in the statement last week. “Their gerrymandering efforts undercut fair representation. Hoosiers can help turn this tide.”
Houchin also expressed support for redrawing Indiana’s congressional districts ahead of the midterm elections.
“Democrats will stop at nothing to push their radical agenda,” Houchin said last week in a statement on X. “Republicans can’t accept that any longer. Indiana can act to guarantee that all Hoosiers have the strongest possible conservative voices in Washington. I’m standing with President Trump — it’s time to redraw Indiana’s congressional map.”
While Gov. Mike Braun would have to call a special session to start the redistricting process, state lawmakers have sole power in Indiana to draw new maps.
The issue of early redistricting ahead of next year’s elections started in Texas, which has been the epicenter of Trump’s push to gerrymander congressional maps to shore up Republicans’ narrow House majority in 2026, The Associated Press reported.
On Saturday, the Texas Senate gave final approval to a new, Republican-leaning congressional voting map, sending it to Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature, according to wire reports.
Abbott, a Republican, is expected to quickly sign it into law, though Democrats have vowed to challenge it in court.
At a time when competitive House districts number just several dozen, Democrats are three seats short of a House majority under the current maps. Trump has said he is “entitled” to five more seats out of Texas to potentially avoid a repeat of the 2018 midterms, when Democrats reclaimed the House and proceeded to thwart his agenda and impeach him twice.
In the meantime, the fight has spread to Democratic-run California and now seems to be mushrooming, according to wire reports. The dynamics could embroil the 2026 midterm campaign in legislative and court battles testing Trump’s power over the Republican Party, Democrats’ ability to mount opposition and the durability of the U.S. system of federalism that balances power between Washington and individual states.
Last week, California lawmakers advanced legislation calling a special election in November to decide to approve a redrawn congressional map designed to help Democrats win five more U.S. House seats next year in response to the redistricting effort in Texas, according to wire reports. Newsom quickly signed the legislation.
Republicans have filed a lawsuit, called for a federal investigation into the plan and promised to fight the measure at the ballot box as well.
In Indiana, Republican U.S. representative outnumber Democrats 7-2. So far, Braun — a staunch Trump ally — has been noncommittal on early redistricting, even after Trump recently dispatched Vice President JD Vance to Indianapolis to meet with the governor and other Republican leaders.
