Indiana House Republicans pass Trump-backed map, setting up high-stakes
Senate fight
[December 06, 2025]
By ISABELLA VOLMERT
Indiana state House Republicans passed a new state congressional map
Friday at the behest of President Donald Trump, advancing the
legislation to the state Senate, where it is unclear if enough lawmakers
will support its final passage.
Lawmakers in the Republican-majority House voted 57-41 in favor of the
map, which splits the city of Indianapolis into four districts to help
the GOP potentially win all nine Indiana congressional seats. While
Trump and many other Republicans are celebrating the passage, the map
faces its true test in the Senate, where many GOP lawmakers have opposed
mid-decade redistricting.
Democrats in the House minority decried the new map, with many
criticizing the swift timeline of the past week. The map was introduced
on Monday. By contrast, when the current congressional district map was
passed in 2021, lawmakers held multiple public hearings around the state
over several months beforehand.
Democratic state Rep. Greg Porter, who represents Indianapolis, railed
against the proposal on the House floor, saying it would dilute the
power of Black Hoosiers. U.S. Rep. André Carson, who has represented
Indianapolis for the past 17 years and stands to lose his seat, is the
state’s only Black member of Congress.
“What we’re doing today with this proposed legislation is taking away
the rights of Black and brown people in Indiana,” Porter said. “It
cracks Marion County!”
State under pressure from White House
While redistricting is typically done at the beginning of a new decade
with the census, Trump has pushed Republican-led states to redistrict
this year to give the GOP an easier path to maintaining its majority in
the U.S. House. Democrats only need to flip a handful of seats next
November to overcome the GOP’s current margin, and midterm elections
typically favor the party opposite the one in power.
Indiana lawmakers have been under increasing pressure from the White
House to follow the lead of Republicans in Texas, Missouri, Ohio and
North Carolina, which have all passed new maps in recent months ahead of
next year’s midterms. To offset the GOP gains, Democrats in California
and Virginia have moved to do the same.
Republicans currently hold seven of Indiana’s nine U.S. House seats.
The author of Indiana's legislation, Republican state Rep. Ben Smaltz,
said on the floor Wednesday that the map and bill language were provided
by the National Republican Redistricting Trust, the GOP’s primary
redistricting entity that was also involved in drawing Texas’ new map
this year. Smaltz said the trust gave Indiana Republicans one option for
the statewide map.
Smaltz said Friday the tit-for-tat mid-decade redistricting between
Democratic and Republican states may continue for the next several
cycles and “may be the new normal.”
Republican Todd Huston, Indiana’s House speaker, took to the floor
Friday to defend the redistricting proposal in light of the partisan
power balance across the country, saying “we don’t operate in a vacuum.”
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Annette Groos holds a sign before the start of a rally featuring
former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg at the Statehouse in
Indianapolis, Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025 for Indiana Democrats amid
pressure from President Donald Trump on Republicans who control the
state's legislature to redistrict congressional seats. (AP
Photo/Michael Conroy, File)
The Indiana House vote ups the pressure on Senate Republicans to approve
the new map for final passage.
Gov. Mike Braun, a first-term Republican and ally of Trump, praised the
House vote Friday.
“I urge the Senate to move quickly next week and adopt this map so
Indiana can move forward with confidence,” he said.
Trump pushed senators to pass the proposal “AS IS,” in a social media
post Friday evening. He also named nine individual senators he described
as needing “encouragement to make the right decision.”
“Let your voice be heard loud and clear in support of these Senators
doing the right thing,” Trump wrote.
Map advances to state Senate
The immediate next hurdle for the new map will come in a Senate
committee, which is scheduled to meet Monday afternoon.
The top Republican of the state Senate, Rodric Bray, has previously said
there were not enough votes to support redistricting, but it is unknown
where the vote count stands now. In the 50-member Senate, Republicans
need at least 25 votes to pass the legislation. A 26th tiebreaking vote
could come from Republican Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith.
The issue has sharply divided Republicans in the Hoosier state. Senators
on both sides of the issue have been subject to threats and swatting
attempts in recent weeks.
Trump has also said he will back primary opponents against any GOP
senator who opposes redistricting. But half the chamber, including Bray,
is not up for reelection until 2028.
The map approved by House Republicans splits the Democratic city of
Indianapolis — which currently makes up the entirety of the 7th
Congressional District — into four quadrants divided among four rural
districts. The new map also groups the cities of East Chicago and Gary
with several Republican counties in northern Indiana, potentially
ousting Democratic U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan, who represents the current
district in the state’s northwest corner near Chicago.
In the ballooning redistricting battle, the U.S. Supreme Court handed a
win to Texas Republicans on Thursday by allowing the state to conduct
next year’s elections under the new congressional map that favors the
GOP and could give the party five more seats.
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