A group of Republicans in Indiana delivered a sharp rebuke to President Donald Trump on Thursday by rejecting his months-long push for the state to redraw its congressional map.
Trump, 79, has been frantically urging the deep red state to deliver as he tries to keep his party in power by helping Republicans keep their House majority in next year’s midterms.
Republicans in the state Senate controlled 40 of the 50 seats in the chamber, but the passage of the maps was not assured as GOP senators remained deeply divided on the issue despite Trump calling out GOP lawmakers by name.
In the end, the Senate voted 31-19 to reject the maps that would have redrawn the state’s congressional districts in a way that was expected to eliminate the state’s two blue districts.
It was the latest test suggesting that Trump’s power over the party has shifted, with 21 GOP members willing to defy him despite his threats of political consequences.
On Wednesday evening, Trump delivered his final ultimatum with a post on Truth Social, where he blasted the Indiana Senate President Pro Tempore Rod Bray as the “only person in the United States of America who is against Republicans picking up extra seats.”
He called Bray either a “bad guy, or a very stupid one!” and raged that MAGA supporters will primary every Republican who voted against the maps.
The president was actively urging GOP lawmakers to support the bill. Republican State Senator Greg Goode got at least two calls from the president on redistricting, including one on Monday, he told the Indiana Capital Chronicle. Goode spoke with other White House officials Wednesday but remained undecided ahead of the vote. He ended up rejecting it.
“I am confident that my vote reflects the will of my constituents,” he said in a statement.
Bray, who also voted against it, told reporters after the vote that the Indiana Senate would not be able to revisit the issue next year.
The Indiana House voted for the maps last week, but not every Republican backed it. The Senate was seen as a steeper climb among Republicans, with some openly defying the president’s wishes with a series of fiery speeches and posts ahead of the vote.
“I refuse to be intimidated. I made a choice,” said GOP State Senator Greg Walker, who became visibly emotional in a committee hearing earlier this week.
Walker was the victim of a swatting incident as he openly opposed the redistricting effort, while it was unclear whether the state Senate would even return to session to consider it, as leaders indicated the plan did not have the votes.
“I will not let Indiana or any state become subject to the threat of political violence in order to influence legislative product,” he argued.
The bill needed a simple 26-vote majority to pass. 16 Republican senators said they would support it, but 14 opposed it leading up to the vote. Another ten would not share how they planned to vote, even while some helped advance it out of committee.
Officials with conservative Turning Point USA have already vowed to back challengers of the state senators who voted against the move.
The Democratic congressional campaign arm immediately celebrated the Indiana Senate vote, calling it a victory for Hoosiers.
“Indiana voters can rest assured that they retain the ability to select their representatives, rather than D.C. Republicans who are desperately reaching for power,” said DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene. “The pressure campaign from national Republicans to gerrymander in Indiana is only further proof that they don’t care about voters.”
Democratic Rep. Andre Carson, whose district would have been carved up by the new maps thanked everyone who showed up to protest and made calls.
“Indiana is not a rubber stamp for the Trump administration,” Carson wrote. “We are our own state, with our own values and priorities.”
The vote came after Texas Republicans redrew districts earlier this year at Trump’s urging in an attempt to benefit the GOP in next year’s midterms. The move set off a dramatic scramble by both red and blue states to carry out a series of mid-decade redistricting attempts before next year’s election.
Voters in California approved their own plan to temporarily redraw maps in response to Texas. Missouri and North Carolina both redrew districts in an effort to help the GOP. Virginia is in the midst of its own redistricting push.
