Indiana Republican senators put up a roadblock to Trump’s redistricting push
By Eric Bradner, Fredreka Schouten, CNN
(CNN) — In the latest sign of resistance to President Donald Trump’s push to redraw congressional lines, the Republican leader of Indiana’s state Senate on Friday said his chamber won’t meet for a special session to create additional GOP seats.
Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray said there aren’t enough votes to pass a new map.
“Over the last several months, Senate Republicans have given very serious and thoughtful consideration to the concept of redrawing our state’s congressional maps,” 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.”
However, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun – who had called the special session at the behest of Trump, Vice President JD Vance and the president’s political allies – indicated he would not relent from his demand that lawmakers gather to vote on new lines.
“I called for our legislators to convene to ensure Hoosiers’ voices in Washington, DC are not diluted by the democrats’ gerrymandering,” Braun said in a statement. “Our state senators need to do the right thing and show up to vote for fair maps. Hoosiers deserve to know where their elected officials stand on important issues.”
Indiana is the latest stumbling block in Trump’s high-stakes quest to remake congressional districts ahead of next year’s midterm elections. Republican lawmakers in Kansas also have resisted calls to open a special session to redraw the state’s congressional map, although Kansas lawmakers could weigh new lines targeting the state’s lone congressional Democrat when legislators return for their regular session early next year.
Democrats need to gain just three seats in the US House after next year’s midterms to take control of the chamber and potentially block parts of Trump’s agenda during the final two years of his White House term.
Indiana Republicans hold supermajorities in the state House and Senate. They also hold seven of the state’s nine congressional districts — but Trump had eyed the Democratic-held 1st District in northwestern Indiana and the 7th District in Indianapolis as possible avenues to add Republican-leaning districts and bolster his party’s narrow House majority.
Trump’s political operation instigated the mid-decade redistricting arms race this year when they persuaded Texas to create five additional GOP-friendly seats. So far, GOP-led mapmaking efforts have redrawn seats in four states – Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio – to add a total of nine potential seats to the Republican column.
Last week, Californians voted by a large margin to approve five additional Democratic-friendly districts, which represents the largest tranche of seats Democrats can secure through a map change in a single state. On Thursday, the Trump administration’s Justice Department joined a legal challenge that seeks to block the California map from going into effect.
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