Republican Gov. Mike Brown remains confident his party can pass new maps to take control of the Legislature.
Tucker Carlson discusses redistricting at Indiana University event
Former FOX talk show host Tucker Carlson discusses redistricting at the Turning Point USA event at Indiana University in Bloomington on October 21, 2025.
Indiana Senate Republicans don’t have the votes to pass mid-decade redistricting despite a months-long campaign by the White House to keep two more Republican seats open.
The pressure culminated in a phone call from President Donald Trump on October 17th, and a dial-in poll was conducted. According to Politico, a majority of Republicans who participated in the call indicated they support redistricting, and there are many resistance groups in the Senate leadership.
But to pass new maps without Democratic support, Republicans would simply need a majority of their members to support redistricting.
“The votes are not for redistricting,” said Molly Swigert, press secretary for Senate President Pro Tempore Roderick Bray, R-Martinsville. He did not respond to questions from the USA Today Network seeking confirmation whether a majority of Republican lawmakers support redistricting or whether efforts are underway to change their minds.
But Indiana Gov. Mike Brown is still moving forward with redistricting efforts.
“I continue to have positive conversations with members of Congress,” Brown, a Republican, wrote in an Oct. 22 post about X. “I am confident that the majority of Republicans in the Indiana General Assembly will support efforts to ensure fair representation for all Hoosiers in Congress.”
Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith shared even stronger sentiments, calling the Senate “the place where conservative ideas in the House go to die” and urging his colleagues to “find their backbone.”
Some Republican lawmakers and observers told USA TODAY NETWORK that their reluctance to redistrict comes from common-sense Hoosier values and believe Indiana politics is above the partisan rancor that characterizes the national debate.
But not all Senate leaders are hesitant about redistricting. Assistant Majority Leader Sen. Liz Brown (R-Fort Wayne) made this clear in an Oct. 22 post about X.
Other supporters describe Indiana’s redistricting as part of a larger fight for the nation and see the Republican Party’s wide control in the state as a mission to strengthen the party’s slim majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Trump won 58% of the state in the last presidential election, and seven of Indiana’s nine U.S. House members are Republicans. The White House wants redistricting to dilute Democratic votes in the bluest parts of the state, namely Indianapolis and northwest Indiana.
Meanwhile, redistricting opponents seized the opportunity to thank the Senate.
“We are grateful to the senator for listening loud and clear to Hoosiers across the state that mid-decade redistricting is unnecessary, unpopular and unfair,” Indiana Conservation Voters Director Megan Robertson said in a press release.
Nearly 20,000 Hoosiers contacted their legislators to urge them to oppose the map redrawing, according to a press release. Multiple polls show a majority of Hoosiers do not support mid-cycle redistricting.
Contact Marissa Meador at mmeador@gannett.com or find @marissa_meador on X.
