House Speaker Mike Johnson predicted Indiana Senate Republicans would “do the right thing” Thursday when they convene to render a final decision on a state House-passed map that President Donald Trump demanded to give their party two pickup opportunities in Congress.
It would be an improvement over their 7-2 seat advantage in the state’s current congressional map, and is being decided as part of a national redistricting arms race that Trump kicked off to influence next year’s midterms.
Johnson also acknowledged for the first time making individual phone calls to Indiana senators in recent days. The strategy, first reported by POLITICO, came on the heels of his larger post-Thanksgiving call with state House Republicans.
“Well, because they’re in the final stages of that process,” Johnson told POLITICO Wednesday night, explaining why he made the calls. “And I was told that there was some Indiana state senators who would like to talk to me and ask questions about the national perspective on it. And I shared that with them and told them I was encouraging them. I want everybody to make the decision that, you know, comports with their conscience, that they feel good about.”
The calls have represented a marked increase in Johnson’s involvement in the redistricting wars, which early on he sidestepped by saying states should decide whether to redraw the lines. But now he is racing to keep up with his counterpart, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who has been closely involved in the process to redistrict states across the map.
It’s also a marked difference from the White House, which has threatened and intimidated reluctant Republicans ahead of Indiana’s nail-biter vote.
The vote Thursday in the Republican-controlled Senate is expected by both sides to be a close one, and it remains unclear how many of the chamber’s 40 GOP senators have shifted since they stalemated at 19-19 last month on a determination that was a proxy for the gerrymandering fight. The map needs 26 votes to pass, and assuming all 10 Democrats oppose it, Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, long a proponent of mid-decade redistricting, can break a 25-25 tie.
“I had some great conversations there,” Johnson said of the calls. “They have some, some great patriots serving the people in the state of Indiana. And I enjoyed that. I met and talked with a lot of the House members when they were in their phase of that. So I believe they’ll do the right thing.”
In November, Johnson also addressed a growing list of elected Indiana Republicans who have faced swattings — false reports of danger that bring an aggressive law enforcement response designed to intimidate the target — and pipe bomb threats.
“I don’t think you can put the blame on the president for any of that,” Johnson said of Trump, who has publicly blasted the state’s GOP holdouts and not made efforts to tamp down the threats.
State senators have described Johnson as taking a lighter touch with Hoosier Republicans.
The post Johnson bullish on Indiana’s upcoming nailbiter of a redistricting vote appeared first on Politico.
