Indiana Senate Rejects Redistricting Bill Favoring Republicans

The vote was 19–31, with 21 senators from the Republican supermajority voting against the bill.

Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith announces the results of a vote to redistrict the state's congressional map, at the Statehouse in Indianapolis on Dec. 11, 2025. Michael Conroy/AP Photo

The Indiana Senate on Dec. 11 rejected a bill that would revise the state’s electoral district boundaries for elections to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2026, dealing a blow to efforts backed by President Donald Trump to obtain more seats for Republicans in that body.

The bill failed by a vote of 19–31. Twenty-one Republicans joined all 10 Democrats to defeat the measure.

Even though Republicans have a two-thirds majority in Indiana’s Senate, the bill was not assured of passage because of opposition to the idea from some Republican state senators, who either felt uncomfortable about the partisan exercise of redistricting or anticipated that the effort would fail amid legal challenges.

“Today, the Indiana Senate casts a vote of epic proportion,” Indiana Sen. Chris Garten, the majority floor leader, wrote on X before the vote.

“Look at Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Delaware, Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, and New Mexico—states with ZERO Republican representation because they play to win. Why should Indiana fight with one hand tied behind its back?”

“I’m voting YES to send reinforcements to Washington,” he wrote. “I’m voting YES for a 9–0 delegation that reflects Hoosier values.”

The Indiana Democratic Party wrote on X: “57 Republicans rammed through this redistricting scheme despite the overwhelming majority of Hoosiers being opposed to any new maps. When the time came, remember that Republicans sided with their DC Party bosses over their own constituents.”

For weeks, Trump had urged Indiana’s senators to pass the bill. The state House of Representatives passed it on Dec. 5.

Trump had criticized the leader of Indiana’s Senate Republicans on social media and threatened to withhold federal funding from the state if the bill wasn’t approved.

“Indiana Senate ‘Leader’ Rod Bray enjoys being the only person in the United States of America who is against Republicans picking up extra seats, in Indiana’s case, two of them,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “He is putting every ounce of his limited strength into asking his soon to be very vulnerable friends to vote with him. By doing so, he is putting the Majority in the House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., at risk.”

“I will be voting NO on redistricting,” Republican state Sen. Michael Bohacek wrote on Facebook on Nov. 28, referencing comments by Trump that he considered to be “insulting and derogatory.”

“Perhaps he can use the next 10 months to convince voters that his policies and behavior deserve a congressional majority.”

The vote is the latest in a series of partisan redistricting actions by states to advantage parties in the U.S. House of Representatives. Elections to the House will be held on Nov. 3, 2026.