Indiana’s Republican legislature leaders announced Tuesday that they will be reconvening next week to consider a redistricting plan that could deliver two more GOP congressional seats, eliminating Democrats from the state’s congressional delegation.
Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston, reversing course after a months-long dispute, said Tuesday that the lower chamber would reconvene Monday to take up redrawing the state’s congressional map. State Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray announced Tuesday that the Senate would reconvene on Dec. 8 to “make a final decision” on “any redistricting proposal from the House.”
President Trump congratulated Indiana Republicans, posting on social media, “I am glad to hear the Indiana House is stepping up to do the right thing, and I hope the Senate finds the Votes.”
Indiana, a state Mr. Trump won by 19 points, has become the latest battleground in the redistricting wars. The state is currently represented by seven Republicans and two Democrats, and Mr. Trump and his allies have sought to redraw the state’s congressional districts to make the two districts represented by Democrats more favorable to Republicans.
Mr. Trump and others in the administration have pressed Indiana Gov. Mike Braun on the issue, and the governor said last month that he’d call on the legislature to reconvene for a special session in November to consider it. But Bray insisted publicly that the votes weren’t there, and when the legislature convened, they simply agreed to meet again in January for the regular session.
The president and his allies stepped up attacks on Republicans in the legislature, with Mr. Trump calling some out by name on social media and promising they’d face primaries.
In recent days, Indiana Republicans have said they have been victims of harassment and swatting attempts. State Sen. Andy Zay confirmed a bomb threat was called in to his business. Braun said last week “these threats to lawmakers, including those received by me and my family in recent days, need to stop.”
Bray acknowledged “the issue of redrawing Indiana’s congressional maps mid-cycle has received a lot of attention and is causing strife here in our state.”
Redistricting normally occurs every 10 years after the conclusion of the decennial census. But since Republicans hold such a narrow majority in the House going into the 2026 midterm elections, Mr. Trump has been pushing GOP-led states to undertake mid-decade redistricting to draw more Republican districts. Texas Republicans convened this summer to redraw the state’s congressional maps to garner up to five more seats for the GOP.
The effort gained national attention, leading California Gov. Gavin Newsom to push forward with a ballot initiative that would redraw the state’s map to net up to five seats for Democrats, which the state’s voters overwhelming approved on Nov. 4. Other states scrambled to redraw their own maps, although some states require independent commissions to redraw their congressional map while others can be redrawn simply by state lawmakers.
But lawmakers face increasingly tight time limits ahead of the 2026 midterm elections as filing deadlines loom for candidates. Candidates will also need to get to know their new districts during the primary season. Other races could be impacted as well. Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas is now mulling a Senate run, since her district was redrawn to be more friendly to Republicans.
Redistricting plans are being challenged in court, though. A federal court in El Paso ordered Texas to return to the 2021 map earlier this month, and Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton immediately appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. The high court temporarily halted the lower court’s ruling, effectively letting Texas return — at least for now — to the maps it passed over the summer.
