The Indiana state House has decided to pursue redistricting to gain a GOP seat in the U.S. House after President Donald Trump pushed the matter, and the Senate plans to reconvene if the House passes a newly drawn map.
Senate GOP leader Rodric Bray said two weeks ago that there wasn't enough support to move forward with redistricting, but reversed course when Trump threatened to primary GOP state senators if they did not act.
"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," Trump posted on social media after Bray's initial refusal.
Last week, State House Speaker Todd Huston announced, "House Republicans will gavel in on Monday, Dec. 1, reconvening the 2026 regular session. All legislative business will be considered beginning next week, including redrawing the state’s congressional map."
Subsequently, Bray posted, "The issue of redrawing Indiana's congressional maps mid-cycle has received a lot of attention and is causing strife here in our state. To resolve this issue, the Senate intends to reconvene as part of the regular 2026 session on Dec. 8."
The House now has a razor-thin GOP majority, and is trying to preserve it in the midterm elections.
So far, signs have pointed toward GOP losing some seats, which would quickly deny them the majority.
California will be moving forward with redistricting in the opposite direction, while Texas could gain a significant number of GOP seats if it can overcome legal challenges to its plan.
Meanwhile, Trump is scrapping for every single seat he can possibly get, knowing that a Democrat House will pretty much kill his agenda outside of getting GOP-leaning judges appointed.
In Indiana, seven of nine seats are already Republican-controlled, but it's a solid GOP state, so what's one more?
In California, 25% of voters are registered Republican, but only 17% of districts are currently held by Republicans. If the gerrymandering efforts there are successful, up to five more seats could go to Democrats, making things even more lopsided there.
Every seat could be important in 2026, and Trump knows full well that he won't get much accomplished if he can't pass any of his bills in Congress.
Of course, Democrats have a massive advantage between California redistricting and the historical loss of seats for the ruling party in the midterms.
The bloodbath could be massive, and it seems likely that Republicans will not control the House in 2027, the way things are going.
