JUST IN: Trump dealt major blow as Indiana Senate rejects redistricting map that would’ve added 2 GOP House seats

Trump dealt major blow as Indiana Senate rejects redistricting map that would’ve added 2 GOP House seats

Indiana’s Republican-dominated state Senate holds a high-stakes vote on new congressional maps fiercely supported by President Trump

Supreme Court clears way for Texas’ new redistricting map
Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss the Supreme Court ruling in favor of Texas’ new ‘red’ redistricting map and New York Attorney General Letitia James avoiding fraud charges.

After months of arm-twisting by the president, top allies and aligned groups, the Indiana Senate voted down a new map championed by Trump that would have created two more right-leaning congressional districts in the solidly red Midwestern state, where the GOP controls seven of Indiana’s nine U.S. House seats.

The districts of Democratic Reps. Frank Mrvan and Andre Carson would have been eliminated.

The vote in the chamber was 31-19, with 21 Republicans joining 10 Democrats in voting against the new map.

Indiana Senate votes down congressional redistricting
Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith announces the results of a vote to redistrict the state’s congressional map, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, at the Statehouse in Indianapolis. (Michael Conroy/AP Photo)

The showdown in Indiana came a week after the Supreme Court cleared the way for Republican-dominated Texas to use its newly redrawn map, which creates five more right-leaning House seats.

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

And for Trump, who recently emphasized “we must keep the majority at all costs,” the vote was viewed as a key test of his immense clout over the GOP.

Following the vote, Indiana Democratic Party Chair Karen Tallian emphasized in a statement, “The Indiana General Assembly has rules. Redistricting happens every ten years. These rules are not obstacles. They are safety nets. Upholding the rules is not an act of weakness – it is an act of responsibility: maintaining the integrity of the process and preserving the legitimacy and credibility of the institution. Today, that’s what my former colleagues did by rejecting this partisan sideshow.”

The redistricting bill last week passed the Indiana House 57-41, with a dozen GOP lawmakers voting against the measure. But the stakes were much higher in the state Senate, where the GOP also holds a super majority, and Republican leaders in the chamber had resisted Trump’s efforts to draw new congressional maps.

Indiana Senate Republican leader Rodric Bray had repeatedly said there wasn’t enough support in the chamber to move forward with redistricting. The state Senate split 19-19 last month in a proxy vote.

RED STATE MOVES FORWARD ON TRUMP CHAMPIONED CONGRESSIONAL MAPS

Trump repeatedly blasted Bray, warning in a recent social media post, “A RINO State Senator, Rodric Bray, who doesn’t care about keeping the Majority in the House in D.C., is the primary problem. Soon, he will have a Primary Problem, as will any other politician who supports him in this stupidity.”

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

State Senator Rodric Bray answers reporter questions
State Sen. Rodric Bray, the Indiana Senate Republican leader, speaks to members of the media at the Statehouse in Indianapolis Dec. 8, 2025. (Kaiti Sullivan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Trump kept up the pressure on Bray and others on the fence, highlighting in a social media post this past weekend the nine state Senate Republicans who have yet to announce their position on the new map, saying they “need encouragement to make the right decision.”

And on the eve of the vote in the state Senate, the president, in a lengthy post, once again blasted Bray as “either a bad guy, or a very stupid one!” He also vowed to “do everything within my power” to oust Bray and others who vote against the redistricting bill in GOP primaries next year.

“And you had one gentleman, the head of the Senate, I guess, and Bray or whatever his name is,” President Trump said during an Oval Office press spray Thursday after the redistricting bill failed. “I heard he was against it. Probably lose his next primary, whatever that is. I hope he does because he’s done a tremendous disservice—I mean, think of it. It’s a great place. I love the people there. They love me.”

And apparently downplaying his involvement, the president said, “I wasn’t very much involved.”

TRUMP TARGETS RED STATE REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS IN PUSH FOR CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING

The latest attacks were part of a months-long effort by Trump to twist elbows in his attempt to make Indiana the latest Republican-controlled state to change congressional maps. The president called state lawmakers, and Vice President JD Vance visited the state twice earlier this autumn to discuss redistricting.

President Donald Trump wearing a dark suit and red tie as he walks with his arm raised in a gesture
President Donald Trump walks across the South Lawn of the White House Nov. 2, 2025, in Washington. He has repeatedly warned that Indiana state lawmakers who oppose his redistricting push will face GOP primary challenges. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a top Trump ally, also called Indiana lawmakers as part of the full-court press.

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

HOUSE GOP CAMPAIGN CHAIR WANTS TRUMP ‘OUT THERE ON THE TRAIL’ IN MIDTERM BATTLE FOR MAJORITY

By championing rare but not unheard-of mid-decade redistricting, Trump is aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterm elections.

Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio have drawn new maps as part of the president’s push. State lawmakers in GOP-dominated Florida recently took the first steps toward passing a redistricting measure, and right-leaning Kansas is also mulling redrawing its map.

Two federal judges in Texas last month delivered a blow to Trump and Republicans, ruling the state couldn’t 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.

Gavin Newsom Prop 50 victory
Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during an election night press conference at a California Democratic Party office Nov. 4, 2025, in Sacramento. (Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP Photo)

California voters a month ago overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, a ballot initiative which will temporarily sidetrack the left-leaning state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and return the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democrat-dominated legislature.

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

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, considered a likely 2028 Democratic presidential contender, steered his state’s push for redistricting.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

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

Opponents of redistricting in Missouri submitted thousands of petition signatures calling for a statewide referendum vote on the new maps.

And in another blow to Republicans, a Utah district judge last month rejected a congressional district map drawn up by the state’s GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved an alternate that will create a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.