Republicans in the Indiana House on Monday released a draft map that aims to deliver the state’s nine congressional seats to the GOP but it’s unclear whether the Trump-backed plan has the votes to pass in the state Senate, which is also controlled by Republicans.
Democrats currently hold two congressional seats in Indiana, but both would become more favorable to the GOP under the proposed map.
Marion County, a Democratic stronghold and home to the state’s largest city of Indianapolis, would be split among four districts under the proposal. Democratic Rep. André Carson’s 7th District, which is anchored in Marion County and backed Kamala Harris by more than 41 points last year, would be dismantled. President Donald Trump would have carried the proposed new version of the 7th District, which would stretch to the Ohio border, by 38 points, according to calculations by Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales.
Meanwhile, Democrat Frank J. Mrvan’s 1st District, which is centered on the heavily Democratic city of Gary in the state’s northwest corner, would shift from a seat Trump lost by less than half a percentage point to one he would have carried by 12 points. Mrvan’s battleground seat is already a GOP target this cycle.
Under the proposed lines, Trump would have carried every House district in Indiana by double-digit margins, according to Inside Elections.
The Indiana House gaveled in on Monday to begin the process, as demonstrators gathered at the state Capitol in protest. The state Senate is scheduled to take up the issue next week.
“The issue of redrawing Indiana’s congressional maps mid-cycle has received a lot of attention and is causing strife here in our state,” Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray said in a statement, adding that his chamber would “make a final decision that week on any redistricting proposal sent from the House.”
Bray had initially resisted the redistricting effort, declaring that there weren’t enough votes in the state Senate.
That prompted an angry reaction from Trump, who referred to Bray and state Sen. Greg Goode as RINOs, or Republicans in name only, and signaled he would support primary challengers against Republican state senators opposed to the effort.
But it remains unclear whether sufficient support now exists in the Indiana Senate, with several prominent members already declaring they will oppose the measure. Republicans hold supermajorities in both legislative chambers.
Meanwhile, NBC News reported that at least 11 elected Republicans in the Hoosier State have been targets of swatting incidents after the state Senate’s initial decision to forgo mid-decade redistricting drew public criticism from Trump.
They included GOP state Sen. Jean Leising, who said over the weekend that her house was the target of a pipe bomb. Leising said last week that she remained opposed to redrawing Indiana’s congressional lines.
“It is disappointing that redistricting is taking attention away from issues relevant to my constituents,” she said in a statement. “I will not cave on my position against redistricting but will stay focused on the needs of my seven-county district and the state of Indiana.”
The White House had been pushing for Indiana to join other GOP-controlled states in redrawing their House district lines ahead of the 2026 midterm elections in an effort to help Republicans pick up additional seats and maintain their majority.
The effort has spread across the nation to both red and blue states.
Texas Republicans kicked off the process with a new map that could help the GOP gain up to five seats. That map awaits a ruling from the Supreme Court ahead of the state’s Dec. 8 filing deadline.
California responded with a map, approved by state voters via a ballot measure last month, that could flip an identical number of seats for the Democrats. Republicans could see one-seat gains in Missouri and North Carolina under those states’ new lines. A new map in Ohio could help Republicans flip two seats in Ohio, while Utah’s new map gives Democrats a clear shot at gaining a Salt Lake City-anchored seat.
Other states pursuing mid-decade redistricting include Democratic-controlled Maryland and Virginia, and GOP-led Florida, where a redistricting committee in the state House is expected to meet this week.
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