The Indiana Senate on Thursday failed to pass a new House map, dealing a blow to President Donald Trump’s plan to see Republicans win additional seats in next year’s midterms by redistricting in red states.
Indiana state senators voted against the new map in a 31-19 vote, with 21 Republicans joining 10 Democrats to reject it. The new congressional map would have added two more likely-Republican seats and comes as many states reconsider their maps in a mid-decade redistricting frenzy.
The Indiana effort came after closed-door meetings, public pressure from Trump, and Vice President JD Vance’s travel to the state. However, the vote Thursday showed how resistant the Republican lawmakers were to the pressure campaign from top GOP officials.
Trump, speaking from the Oval Office Thursday evening, bashed the state lawmakers and pointed to the successful redistricting efforts in other states. He noted that in previous elections he won in Indiana and “wasn’t working on it very hard.”
“Would have been nice. I think we would have picked up two seats,” Trump said.
The failed measure has worried some of Trump’s allies. Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon said on his podcast that the vote in Indiana was “a blowout” and “a huge defeat for the president of the United States.”
Ahead of the vote, conservative think tank Heritage Action suggested that if the measure failed, federal funding would be cut off to Indiana.
“Roads will not be paved. Guard bases will close. Major projects will stop,” the group said online. “These are the stakes and every NO vote will be to blame.”
Redistricting nationwide
Earlier this year, Trump told Texas’ Republican congressional delegation that the state should look to add five new seats that the GOP could win through redistricting.
Trump’s efforts in Texas kick-started an ongoing push by other states to redistrict, as well as legal challenges. In Texas, where Republicans are hoping to gain five more House seats following the 2026 election, legal challenges hoped to stop the state from implementing the new map.
The Supreme Court, however, issued a brief, unsigned opinion that allowed Texas to move forward with the map. The court said Texas was likely going to succeed in its claim that the district court committed errors when it sought to block the new map from being used in upcoming races.
Other states joined the fray, including California. Californians voted in early November on Proposition 50, which overrode a state law that made the redistricting process less partisan. It paved the way for a new map to be used in the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections and to draw five likely-Democratic seats to counteract the move in Texas.
Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia all moved forward with redistricting plans of their own. Other states, including New York, Maryland, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Illinois, Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas, have all also signaled willingness to join the battle.
Trump wading into the Texas redistricting plan was the first sign that he did not want a repeat from his first presidency, when Democrats flipped the House majority just two years into his term. Historically, the party that controls the White House usually loses ground in the House during midterm elections.
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has enjoyed the support of a slim Republican majority in both the House and the Senate. During his first term, Republicans lost 40 seats in the House during midterms.
Trump shared ahead of Indiana’s vote that the state had a chance to “make a difference” in Washington, D.C.
“Every other State has done Redistricting, willingly, openly, and easily,” he said online. “There was never a question in their mind that contributing to a WIN in the Midterms for the Republicans was a great thing to do for our Party, and for America itself.”
“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,” he later added.
As it stands, the nationwide redistricting efforts are still in the early stages.
With the GOP’s slim majority in the House, they are looking to gain upward of 15 new seats through redistricting that could blunt Democratic efforts to retake the House. Still, current polling shows Democrats have a slight leg up on Republicans about a year out from the elections.