President Donald Trump has escalated the pressure against Indiana Republicans for defying his will on redistricting, and lawmakers in the Hoosier State are increasingly facing terroristic threats — but it only seems to be strengthening their resolve to stand firm, said a reporter covering the issue.
“They seem to be holding fast,” said Politico’s Adam Wren in a post to X on Monday. “A lot could change in 6 days, of course, but all of the body language and public comments point toward a hardening of senate republicans’ position against this.”
Trump and his allies have demanded that Indiana Republicans rig their congressional map with a mid-decade redraw to delete the Democratic districts centered in Indianapolis and Gary, giving the GOP all nine seats — part of a wave of new gerrymanders that includes redraws in Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina.
But despite pressure from Trump, who has sent Vice President JD Vance to the state multiple times in a lobbying campaign, and endorsement of the plan by Gov. Mike Braun and the state’s entire GOP congressional delegation, a handful of Republican state senators have refused to sign off on the plan, depriving it of the votes needed to pass.
State Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray, who has repeatedly warned the White House they don’t have the votes, was pressured into holding a vote later this month on whatever redistricting plan the state House passes. As that vote draws near, at least nine Republican lawmakers who either oppose or have not publicly taken a stance on redistricting have been targeted for violent threats, including swatting attacks on their homes, and a pipe bomb threat against one state senator.
That senator, Jean Leising, put out a statement saying that she hopes her colleagues “will not cave” in the face of violence.
This saga is not the first time that Republican politicians from Indiana have ended up as an obstacle to Trump’s agenda. The president famously ended his first term by sitting by as violent MAGA rioters stormed the Capitol and chanted for the lynching of Mike Pence, his first vice president, who previously served as the governor of Indiana. Pence did not cooperate with an unlawful scheme to obstruct the tally of electoral votes in the 2020 election.
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