The Indiana Senate voted against a new Republican-drawn congressional map Thursday, rejecting a bid led by President Donald Trump aimed at boosting the party in next year’s midterm elections.
The vote was a rare and stunning instance of elected Republicans rebuking Trump, who had pressured Indiana lawmakers for months to pass new district lines. The GOP leaders of Indiana’s Senate had long resisted joining the unusual mid-decade redistricting battle playing out across the country, saying there wasn’t enough support in the chamber for a new map that was designed to dismantle the state’s two Democratic-controlled districts.
They ultimately agreed to hold a vote to settle the issue, as Trump and national Republicans pledged to back primary challengers to those who opposed the map, and as a growing number of Indiana lawmakers faced violent threats and harassment.
But even after the state House approved the new map last week, it failed overwhelmingly in the state Senate by a vote of 31-19, with 21 Republicans joining 10 Democrats in opposing it.
Over the past several months, Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other national Republicans and political groups placed phone calls, made in-person visits in Indiana and Washington and posted on social media to urge Indiana lawmakers to take up a map that they hoped would help shore up the party’s narrow U.S. House majority.
On several occasions, Trump called out the Indiana Republican lawmakers who were against or undecided on the map, including Rodric Bray, the GOP leader of the Senate.
“Anybody that votes against Redistricting, and the SUCCESS of the Republican Party in D.C., will be, I am sure, met with a MAGA Primary in the Spring,” Trump wrote Wednesday night on Truth Social. “Rod Bray and his friends won’t be in Politics for long, and I will do everything within my power to make sure that they will not hurt the Republican Party, and our Country, again.”
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump again name-checked Bray, but brushed off the state Senate vote, saying he “wasn’t working on it very hard.”
Bray is one of 11 Republicans who voted against the map who won’t be on the ballot again until 2028. The other 10 will face re-election in 2026.
After Thursday’s vote, Republican Gov. Mike Braun said he would work with Trump to support primary challengers to the Republicans who opposed the map.
“I am very disappointed that a small group of misguided State Senators have partnered with Democrats to reject this opportunity to protect Hoosiers with fair maps and to reject the leadership of President Trump,” Braun said in a post on X.
It was an “all hands on deck” effort among Republicans in Washington to get Indiana lawmakers on board, according to a senior GOP congressional leadership source familiar with the matter.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and members of his leadership team were calling state lawmakers to urge them to support the new map earlier this week, the source said.
Johnson told reporters in Washington on Thursday that the result was “disappointing” but that he was still “very, very bullish about the midterms.”
“I know that we are going to win and grow this majority because they have a great record to run on. We have better candidates, better message, and we have a lot to show the people, so we’ll continue our momentum,” he said.
Most other Republican-led states Trump had pushed to pursue redistricting, which typically occurs at the beginning of each decade with new census figures, this year fell in line. Republicans in Texas, Missouri and North Carolina passed new maps to further favor the party, while others in states like Florida may soon join them.
Without new congressional boundaries in Indiana, Republicans may not be able to achieve the advantage they had initially hoped for through redistricting. Voters in California approved a Democratic-drawn map last month, and Democrats in Virginia have taken steps toward redistricting. A court-ordered map in Utah resulted in a new solidly Democratic district. And while a new map in Ohio will boost Republicans, it did not go as far as some Democrats feared.
The saga in Indiana took a particularly alarming turn. At least 12 elected Republicans in the state faced violent threats and swatting attempts, which are when people make false reports in an attempt to instigate frightening police responses, since Trump called on them to pass a new map. State Rep. Tim Yocum, who voted against the redistricting proposal last week, was the latest, saying he received a pipe bomb threat at his home Wednesday night.
State Sen. Michael Crider, the majority whip one of the victims of the violent threats, said, “This is my 14th year, and I’ve not seen this kind of tactics.” Crider voted against the map proposal.
State Sen. Dan Dernulc, another Republican who opposed the map, said he received the same pipe bomb threat as Crider, which particularly alarmed his wife. He was swatted twice, and pizzas have repeatedly been sent to his home, another intimidation tactic. He said police stationed a squad car outside his home to ensure his and his family’s safety.
“It doesn’t affect the way I’m going to vote,” he told NBC News on Wednesday. “But it’s still unnerving. I don’t want to be killed.”
State Sen. Greg Goode, a Republican whom Trump has singled out on social media, said he was the victim of a swatting attempt when someone claiming to be Goode told police he’d murdered his wife and child.
“My front door was kicked in. I had weapons pointed directly at me. I am so grateful that I was home. My wife and son were in the basement getting Christmas decorations,” he recalled.
During a debate on the state Senate floor, Goode said he spent months listening to his constituents and understood they didn’t support a mid-decade redistricting effort that would divide communities. He had not stated his position prior to Thursday before ultimately voting against the map.
“I’m a Christian first, then an American, then a conservative, then a Republican — in that order,” he said, invoking a phrase often used by former Vice President Mike Pence, the former governor of Indiana. “I’m confident that my vote reflects the will of my constituents.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Credit: Yahoo News