Craig Hames, a soft-spoken 47-year-old resident of southern Indiana, stepped up to the microphone at a town hall on Wednesday night and faced Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, a Republican.
“Will you give us your word tonight that you will oppose redrawing congressional lines?” Mr. Hames, a democratic socialist, asked.
“I can’t do that,” Mr. Beckwith said, before the crowd quickly drowned him out with angry boos and even louder applause.
The push by President Trump to redraw political maps and add more Republican seats in Congress has landed in Indiana.
It has quickly become a heated political issue even in small communities far from the state capital. In Newburgh, a southern riverfront town that hugs the Kentucky border, dozens of residents crowded into an event center this week to meet and question Mr. Beckwith, one of the highest-profile elected officials in Indiana to announce strong support for redistricting. That effort could flip one or both of the two congressional seats now held by Democrats.
Whether enough Republicans in Indiana will immediately join the push is far less certain.
Many have responded with silence. Others have been ambivalent, huddling behind closed doors to decide whether to support a call from the Trump administration to redraw their maps.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The post The White House Wants Indiana to Redistrict. Republicans There Are Split. appeared first on New York Times.
