An Indiana Senate committee brings a Trump-backed redistricting proposal to a final floor vote

Indiana senators advanced a proposal to redraw the state’s congressional boundaries on Monday, though it’s not clear whether it will have support to become law in a final vote expected later this week even after months of pressure from President Donald Trump.

The legislation is designed to favor GOP candidates in next year’s midterm elections. Republicans control the state Senate, but many were reluctant or outright opposed to the idea of ​​redistricting in the middle of the decade. About a dozen of them have been threatened for their stance or refusal to immediately declare their support over the past few weeks.

However, the Senate Elections Committee voted 6-3 in favor of the bill, while a Republican lawmaker and two Democratic lawmakers opposed it.

A final vote in the full chamber is expected on Thursday, and could test Trump’s usual iron grip on the Republican Party.

During committee discussion Monday night, Sen. Greg Walker, an Indiana Republican who opposes redistricting and voted against it in committee, spoke about threats made against him in recent weeks.

“I refuse to be intimidated,” Walker declared in an impassioned speech during the committee meeting. “I fear for all countries if we allow intimidation and threats to become the norm.”

The map, which was introduced last Monday and approved by the House Republican majority on Friday, would divide Indianapolis into four districts divided among other Republican-leaning districts. It also combines the cities of East Chicago and Gary with a large rural area.

Read more: Indiana lawmakers meet with redistricting top of mind

Those lines would eliminate the districts of Indiana’s Democratic congressional representatives: Rep. Andre Carson of Indianapolis, the state’s only black member of Congress, and Rep. Frank Murvan, who represents northwestern Indiana near Chicago.

Republicans currently control seven of the state’s nine counties.

Why redistricting?

Democrats hope to flip control of the US House of Representatives in the 2026 elections, and they like their prospects, because midterm elections tend to favor the party out of power.

Redistricting typically occurs once a decade after the census, but Trump has pushed Republican-led states to create more partisan-leaning districts. Texas, Missouri, Ohio and North Carolina followed suit, while Democrats in California and Virginia moved to draw their preferred maps.

Many states, except for those with smaller or single-member delegations in Congress, are represented by only one party.

Republicans who favor making it easier for Republicans to gain all nine Indiana seats through gerrymandering often point to Massachusetts, where Democrats hold all nine seats, or Connecticut, where they hold all five. Republicans hold all five of Oklahoma’s seats and eight of Tennessee’s nine seats, while Democrats hold seven of Maryland’s eight seats.

But the idea of ​​redrawing a congressional map that was last approved just four years ago has made many Indiana Republicans uneasy. The Senate leader, a Republican, previously said there were not enough votes to support redistricting.

A few Republican senators who voted to move the legislation forward on Monday said it deserved to be taken up by the full Senate, but indicated they might vote against its eventual passage.

“I reserve the right to change my vote on the floor,” said state Sen. Linda Rogers, a Republican on the committee.

The Senate Elections Committee heard testimony from about 100 people about the legislation on Monday for more than four hours, the vast majority of whom spoke against the bill.

Candy Baker told lawmakers she’s worried about her 5-year-old granddaughter’s future because, she fears, the new map will dilute the political power of voters of color.

“I’m afraid she won’t have representation,” Baker said during her testimony against the bill, emotion choking her voice. “I don’t think what’s happening is a short-term thing.”

Before he voted to move forward with the legislation, Republican state Sen. Mike Gaskill, chairman of the Elections Committee, called political gerrymandering an “uncomfortable” practice. But he said the Republican Party has a move to stop Democratic politics in Congress and work against gerrymandering in Democratic states.

He said: “This is a very small role that we can play and rebalance the scales on a national basis.”

Read more: The Republican state lawmaker from Indiana who opposed Trump’s redistricting push has fallen victim to a beating

After Senate Leader Roderick Bray said the chamber would reject the governor’s call for a special session on redistricting last month, Trump attacked Bray and other senators on social media and pledged to side with primary challengers against any lawmaker who opposes redrawing the map.

In the following weeks, about a dozen state legislators were targeted with threats and swatting incidents, as a prank call attempted to prompt police to respond to a private home.

Supporters of redistricting need at least 25 votes in the Senate, where Democrats are vastly outnumbered and hold just 10 seats, to give final approval to the map. That would result in a tie-breaking vote from Republican Lt. Micah Beckwith, who supports redistricting.

If the Senate rejects the new districts, it will be very difficult for supporters to revive the issue. The filing deadline for congressional candidates in Indiana is early February, and the primary election is in early May.

The national redistricting battle

A federal judge in Missouri on Monday dismissed a lawsuit backed by Republican state officials seeking to block a referendum on a new congressional map. The decision paves the way for opponents to submit petition signatures on Tuesday that could put the map on hold until a statewide vote is held next year.

In Utah, lawmakers on Tuesday will try to reassert their authority over congressional redistricting by holding a special legislative session.

A judge ruled in November that the map presented by state lawmakers earlier this year “unjustifiably favors Republicans and disfavors Democrats.” The judge imposed an alternative map that would have kept Democratic-leaning Salt Lake County almost entirely within one district rather than dividing it among the four Republican-leaning districts.

The legislative session’s agenda includes pushing back next year’s filing deadlines from January to March, buying time until a possible ruling on redistricting by the state Supreme Court.

“I support the state’s appeal and have confidence that the Utah Supreme Court will hear the matter in a timely manner, so we have clarity about the 2026 election,” Republican Gov. Spencer Cox said Sunday.

Vollmert reported from Lansing, Michigan. Mead Grover in Fort Collins, Colorado, and David A. Lieb is from Jefferson City, Missouri.