INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Senate decisively voted against a redistricting bill that was designed to add two Republican seats to the state’s congressional delegation, defeating House Bill 1032 by a 31 to 19 margin.
Sen. Greg Walker, R-Columbus, voted against the redistricting bill.
Sen. Eric Koch, R-Bedford, voted for the redistricting bill.
President Pro Tem Rodric Bray, who weeks earlier said there were not enough GOP votes to pass the bill, voted against the bill Thursday.
The vote was at 4:40 p.m., following more than three hours of testimony.
The Senate has adjourned and will not return to resume the session until January.
Republican Indiana governor Mike Braun rebuked the Senate after the vote and issued this statement: “I am very disappointed that a small group of misguided State Senators have partnered with Democrats to reject this opportunity to protect Hoosiers with fair maps and to reject the leadership of President Trump. Ultimately, decisions like this carry political consequences. I will be working with the President to challenge these people who do not represent the best interests of Hoosiers.”
Common Cause Indiana Executive Director Julia Vaughn issued a statement in response to the Indiana Senate stopping mid-decade redistricting maps from moving forward. “Our state senators have been harassed, bullied, and intimidated, and yet they stood tall to support a majority of Hoosier voices that said no mid-decade redistricting. We may not see eye to eye on everything, but those who stand up for the people will always be celebrated for doing so,” said Vaughn.
This from the Associated Press:
Twenty-one senators from the Republican supermajority and all 10 of the chamber’s Democrats voted down the redistricting proposal, which would have split the city of Indianapolis into four districts and potentially eliminated the districts of the state’s two Democratic congressional representatives.
While Republican-led states like Texas, Missouri, Ohio and North Carolina have answered the redistricting call, many Indiana Republicans have hesitated over the idea of partisan gerrymandering.
The state Senators faced months of pressure from the White House, and the redistricting defeat marks a distinct break from the president by members of a party that has largely bowed to his wishes in his second term.
Indiana’s House, which also has a Republican supermajority, passed the map last week. Many Republicans are already committing to support primary opponents of the defecting senators in order to force them out of office.
From the Indiana Capital Chronicle
Indiana Capital Chronicle
INDIANAPOLIS — The Republican-dominated Indiana Senate voted 19-31 on Thursday against redrawing the state’s congressional districts — spurning months of demands from President Donald Trump.
The final outcome remained uncertain until 21 Republicans joined all 10 Democratic senators in rejecting the redistricting plan.
With that tally, Indiana became the first Republican-led state Legislature to vote down Trump’s wish to squeeze out more GOP-friendly congressional seats in hopes of improving the party’s chances of keeping its slim U.S. House majority after the 2026 midterm elections.
The Indiana House last week approved the new maps crafted by the National Republican Redistricting Trust to produce a 9-0 Republican delegation. It did so by carving up the two districts currently held by Democratic Reps. André Carson in Indianapolis and Frank Mrvan in the area along Lake Michigan near Chicago.
But the Senate’s Republican leader, President Pro Tem Rodric Bray, has said repeatedly that too few GOP senators supported the mid-decade redistricting for it to pass.
Thursday’s Senate outcome came even with Trump, Gov. Mike Braun and other redistricting supporters continuing to cajole — and politically threaten — Bray and other senators who opposed the move.
Trump was calling individual senators this week seeking support and took to social media Wednesday night to seethe over Bray and other Indiana Republicans who weren’t following his demands.
“Unfortunately, Indiana Senate ‘Leader’ Rod Bray enjoys being the only person in the United States of America who is against Republicans picking up extra seats, in Indiana’s case, two of them,” Trump’s post said. “He is putting every ounce of his limited strength into asking his soon to be very vulnerable friends to vote with him.”
Indiana House Republicans pushed the proposed maps through that chamber last week by a 57-41 margin, with 12 GOP members joining Democrats in voting “no.”
Several Republican senators against the redistricting plan cited what they described as overwhelming public opposition. Others said they didn’t believe it was proper to overhaul the Republican-drawn maps approved in 2021 for such blatant political purposes, with some objecting to the overt gerrymandering of Indianapolis among four districts spanning as far away as the Ohio River.
Trump started the national redistricting fight by pushing Texas Republicans to redraw its congressional map this summer, followed by Republican redistricting moves in Missouri, Ohio and North Carolina. An attempt by Kansas Republicans for a special session on redistricting stalled this fall.
Democrats responded with their own redistricting in California and possible moves in Illinois and Virginia.
Trump’s Wednesday night post appeared to foreshadow the outcome of the Indiana Senate vote.
“Rod Bray and his friends won’t be in Politics for long, and I will do everything within my power to make sure that they will not hurt the Republican Party, and our Country, again,” the post said. “One of my favorite States, Indiana, will be the only State in the Union to turn the Republican Party down!”
Bray isn’t up for election until 2028.
The Indiana Capital Chronicle covers state government and the state legislature. For more, visit indianacapitalchronicle.com.
This story will be updated.
