Crucial showdown in Indiana as state Senate votes on Trump-driven redistricting

president Donald Trump He suffered a major political setback Thursday in his quest to pass congressional redistricting in red states.

After months of arm-twisting by the president and top allies and allied groups, the Indiana Senate voted against a new map championed by Trump that would have created two additional right-leaning congressional districts in the solidly red Midwestern state, where the GOP currently controls seven of Indiana’s nine U.S. House seats. The districts of Democratic Reps. Frank Marvan and Andre Carson would have been eliminated.

The showdown in Indiana came a week later supreme court It paved the way for Republican-dominated Texas to use its newly redrawn map, which creates five more right-leaning seats in the House of Representatives.

Indiana was the latest battleground in Trump’s aggressive national campaign to remake congressional districts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, when Republicans, as the party in power, are likely to face traditional political headwinds as they defend their razor-thin House majority.

A big win for Trump as the Supreme Court gave the green light to the new congressional map in Texas

The Indiana State Building is seen in 2017. (Michael Conroy/AP Photo)

For Trump, who recently asserted that “we must maintain the majority at all costs,” the vote was seen as a key test of his enormous influence over the Republican Party.

The redistricting bill was approved Indiana House 57-41, with dozens of GOP lawmakers voting against the measure. But the stakes were much higher in the state Senate, where the GOP also holds a supermajority, and where Republican leaders in the chamber have resisted Trump’s efforts to draw new congressional maps.

Indiana Senate Republican Leader Roderick Bray has repeatedly said there is not enough support in the chamber to move forward with redistricting. The state Senate split 19-19 last month in a proxy vote.

The red state moves forward based on congressional maps that Trump supports

Trump has repeatedly criticized Bray, warning in a recent social media post: “Reno state Sen. Roderick Bray, who doesn’t care about maintaining his D.C. House majority, is the bottom problem. And soon, he will have a bottom problem, as will every other politician who supports him in this stupidity.”

In a change of tack, Bray announced last week that the state Senate would reconvene to vote on redistricting, adding that “the issue of redrawing Indiana’s congressional maps mid-session has received a lot of attention and is causing conflict here in our state.”

State Senator Roderick Bray, Republican leader in the Indiana State Senate, speaks to members of the media at the State House in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Monday, December 8, 2025. (Caity Sullivan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Trump has continued to press Bray and others on the fence, highlighting in a social media post last weekend the nine Senate Republicans who have yet to declare their position on the new map, saying they “need encouragement to make the right decision.”

On the eve of the state Senate vote, the president again criticized Bray, in a lengthy post, calling him “either a bad guy, or very stupid!” He also vowed to “do everything in my power” to unseat Wray and others who vote against the redistricting bill in next year’s Republican primary.

Trump targets red state Republican lawmakers in push for congressional redistricting

The latest attacks were part of a months-long effort by Trump to manipulate his bid to make Indiana the latest Republican-controlled state to change congressional maps. The President called on state legislators and the Vice President J.D. Vance He visited the state twice earlier this fall to discuss redistricting.

President Donald Trump, seen walking across the South Lawn of the White House, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Washington, repeatedly warned that Indiana lawmakers who oppose his redistricting push will face primary challenges from the GOP. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)

Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnsona major Trump ally, also called Indiana lawmakers as part of a full court press.

Meanwhile, the Trump-aligned conservative outside political organization Action Club for Growth and other groups have allocated significant funds to run ads in Indiana supporting redistricting and, along with Turning Point Action, have pledged to target Republican state lawmakers opposed to the new map.

House GOP campaign chairman wants Trump “right there down the road” in midterm battle for majority

By defending the rare but unprecedented mid-decade redistricting process, Trump aims to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats regained the majority in the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections.

Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio drew new maps as part of the president’s campaign. Lawmakers in GOP-dominated Florida recently took the first steps toward passing a redistricting measure, and right-leaning Kansas is also considering redrawing its map.

Last month, two federal judges in Texas dealt a blow to Trump and Republicans when they ruled that the state could not use the newly drawn map in next year’s elections. But the Supreme Court last week gave a big thumbs up to the Lone Star State’s new congressional map.

Democrats are fighting back.

Governor Gavin Newsom speaks during an election night news conference at the California Democratic Party office on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Sacramento. (Godofredo A. Vasquez/AP Photo)

California voters a month ago overwhelmingly approved Proposition 50, a ballot initiative that would temporarily disperse the state’s left-leaning nonpartisan redistricting commission and return the power to draw congressional maps to the Democratic-dominated Legislature.

That is expected to result in five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, which would counter the passage of a new map earlier this year in Texas aimed at creating up to five right-leaning House seats.

Governor of California Gavin Newsomconsidered a potential Democratic presidential contender in 2028, led his state’s redistricting campaign.

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Illinois and Maryland, blue states, and Virginia, where Democrats control the Legislature, are also taking steps or seriously considering redistricting.

Meanwhile, opponents of redistricting in Missouri submitted thousands of signatures on a petition calling for a statewide referendum to vote on the new maps.

In another blow to Republicans, a Utah County judge last month rejected a congressional district map drawn up by the state’s GOP-dominated Legislature, instead approving an alternative that would create a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.