Violent threats pile up as Indiana Republicans face pressure from Trump over redistricting

Spencer Deary’s son was getting ready to go to school when someone tried to provoke police into breaking into his home by reporting a fake emergency.

Linda Rogers said there were threats at her home and the golf course that her family has run for generations.

Jan Lessing experienced a pipe bomb scare that was emailed to local law enforcement.

The three are among nearly a dozen Republicans in the Indiana State Senate who have seen their lives turned upside down as President Donald Trump seeks to redraw the state’s congressional map to expand the party’s power in the 2026 midterm elections.

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

It’s a bewildering and frightening experience for lawmakers who consider themselves loyal party members and never imagined they would be doing their work under the same violence that has darkened American political life in recent years. Lessing described it as a “very dangerous and stressful process.”

Redistricting typically occurs once every decade after a new national census is taken. Trump wants to speed up the process in the hope of protecting the slim Republican majority in the US House of Representatives next year. His allies in Texas, Missouri, Ohio, and North Carolina had already approved his plans for new political lines.

Now the Trump campaign faces its biggest test yet in a stubborn pocket of conservatives in the Midwest. Although Indiana Gov. Mike Braun and House members have approved the proposal, the proposal may not resonate with senators who value their civic traditions and independence over what they fear will be short-term partisan gains.

“When the president of the United States and the governor of your state send signals, you want to listen to them,” said Rogers, who has not announced her position on the redistricting campaign. “But that doesn’t mean you’ll compromise your values.”

On Friday, Trump posted a list of senators who “need encouragement to make the right decision,” and took to social media on Saturday to say that if “lawmakers stupidly say no, vote them out of office — they’re not worthy — and I’ll be there to help!” Meanwhile, conservative campaign organization Turning Point Action said it would spend large sums to sack anyone who votes no.

Senators are scheduled to meet on Monday to consider the proposal after months of unrest. The resistance could signal the limits of Trump’s unquestioned dominance of the Republican Party.

Shadow Redistricting Hearing Threats

Derry considers himself lucky. Police in his hometown of West Lafayette knew the senator was a potential target of a “swatting,” a dangerous type of hoax when someone reports a fake emergency to provoke an aggressive response from law enforcement.

So when Derry was targeted last month while his son and others were waiting for their daily bus ride to school, officers didn’t rush to the scene.

“There could have been SWAT teams driving their guns while there were children in the area,” he said.

Deere was one of the first senators to publicly oppose redistricting in the middle of the decade, arguing that it interfered with voters’ right to hold lawmakers accountable through elections.

“The country is going to be an uglier place for it,” he said a few days after Vice President J.D. Vance visited the state in August, the first of two trips to talk with lawmakers about approving the new maps.

Republican leaders in the Indiana State Senate said in mid-November they would not hold a vote on the issue because there was not enough support for it. He criticized Trump on social media, calling the senators weak and pathetic.

“Any Republican who votes against this important redistricting process, which will likely have an impact on America itself, should be the first to vote,” he wrote.

The threats against the senators began shortly thereafter.

Sen. Sue Glick, a Republican who was first elected in 2010 and previously served as a local prosecutor, said she had never seen “this kind of rancor” in politics in her entire life. She opposes redistricting, saying it is “tainted by gerrymandering.”

Even the plan’s supporters are not immune to the threats.

Republican Sen. Andy Zay said his car rental company was targeted in a pipe bomb scare on the same day he learned he would face a primary challenger who accuses Zay of being insufficiently conservative.

Zai, who spent a decade in the Senate, believes the threat is related to his criticism of Trump’s efforts to pressure lawmakers. But the White House did not respond to his suggestions to build public support for redistricting through a media campaign.

“When you push us into a corner, we will not change because you are chasing us and threatening us,” Zai said. “For those who have made the decision to defend history and tradition, persuasion tactics discourage them from changing their point of view.”

The White House did not respond to messages seeking a reaction to Zay’s comments.

Trump sees mixed support from Indiana

Trump has easily won Indiana in all of his presidential campaigns, and its leaders are undoubtedly conservative. For example, the state was the first to impose abortion restrictions after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

But Indiana’s political culture has never been imbued with the sensibilities of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement. About 21% of Republican voters supported Nikki Haley over Trump in last year’s presidential primary, even though the former South Carolina governor had already suspended her campaign two months ago.

Trump also holds a grudge against Mike Pence of Indiana, who served the state as a congressman and governor before becoming Trump’s first vice president. Pence, a devout evangelical, understood Trump’s indiscretions and scandals, but refused to agree to Trump’s attempt on January 6, 2021, to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.

“Mike Pence did not have the courage to do what was necessary,” Trump wrote online after an angry mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol.

Pence has not taken a public position on redistricting efforts in his state. But his predecessor, Republican Mitch Daniels, recently said that was “plainly wrong.”

The proposed map, released Monday and approved by the state House of Representatives on Friday, attempts to dilute the influence of Democratic voters in Indianapolis by gerrymandering the city. Parts of D.C. will be vaccinated in four different Republican-leaning districts, one of which will stretch all the way south to the border with Kentucky.

Rogers, the senator whose family owns the golf course, declined to discuss her feelings about redistricting. A soft-spoken businesswoman from suburban South Bend, she said she was “very disappointed” by the threats.

On Monday, Rogers will take the lead as a member of the Senate Elections Committee, the first member in that chamber to consider a redistricting bill.

“We need to do things civilly and have a polite discourse,” she said.

Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa, and Vollmert reported from Lansing, Michigan.