A campaign to redraw Indiana’s congressional map to boost Republicans seemed to meet its end last week when a top Senate Republican said his chamber did not have the votes to pass new boundaries. But President Trump was not willing to let the issue go, and Republican infighting that had played out largely behind closed doors was spilling into public view, as Indiana lawmakers gathered on Tuesday at the Statehouse.
Over the weekend, Mr. Trump said he would support primary opponents against Indiana Republicans who bucked him on remapping. Gov. Mike Braun, a Republican, soon issued a statement pledging to “support President Trump’s efforts to recruit, endorse and finance primary challengers.” And when legislators held their annual organizational meeting in Indianapolis, House and Senate Republicans were publicly at odds about how to move forward.
The split in Indiana has laid bare the political crosscurrents playing out nationally, as Republicans and Democrats consider joining off-cycle redistricting efforts. Some officials have described next year’s midterm elections in near-existential terms, arguing that any effort to pry a congressional seat from the other party would be worthwhile. Other leaders have questioned the potential costs, practical and philosophical, of drawing new districts to gain an advantage in Congress.
“I want to be abundantly clear that our Senate Republican Caucus wants to see a Republican-held House in 2026 so that President Trump can continue making progress on important issues like fighting illegal immigration and crime in our country,” Rodric Bray, the president pro tem of the Indiana Senate, said in a statement on Tuesday. “However, many in my caucus, myself included, do not feel that redrawing our Congressional districts mid-cycle is the best way to achieve that goal.”
Mr. Bray’s statement came two days after Mr. Trump singled out him and another senator in a social media post, labeling them as RINOs, or Republicans in name only.
“Any Republican that votes against this important redistricting, potentially having an impact on America itself, should be PRIMARIED,” Mr. Trump said in the post on Sunday. In another post on Monday, Mr. Trump pledged to support primary challengers in Indiana.
“We must keep the Majority at all costs,” Mr. Trump wrote in that post. “Republicans must fight back!”
Redistricting, which usually happens once a decade after the census, began to sweep across the country this summer after Texas Republicans passed a new map aimed at adding five Republican seats in Congress. California Democrats responded with new maps of their own, which voters approved this month. Republicans in Missouri and North Carolina forged ahead, too. Virginia Democrats have also taken steps toward passing new district lines.
Some of those new maps have faced legal challenges, including in Texas, where a federal court on Tuesday blocked the new boundaries from taking effect.
Lawmakers in both parties have become increasingly skeptical about redrawing district boundaries outside the usual schedule. Maryland Democrats are divided over the issue, and some Republicans in Kansas scuttled remapping plans by declining to agree to a special session.
Indiana, which Mr. Trump carried last year by 19 percentage points, emerged as an early redistricting target for Republicans. Vice President JD Vance visited the state twice to pitch lawmakers on the idea, and Mr. Trump spoke with legislators on conference calls.
But despite large Republican majorities in both chambers, the White House struggled to build support for new boundaries that would position Republicans to sweep Indiana’s nine U.S. House districts. Republicans now hold seven of those seats.
Mr. Braun and other Republicans have argued that redistricting in Indiana was necessary to counter gerrymandering by Democrats in other states.
Todd Huston, the Republican speaker of the Indiana House, indicated on Tuesday that he supported the White House plan.
“Ultimately, I hope Congress takes action to prohibit mid-decade redistricting to ensure every state is operating under the same rules,” Mr. Huston said. “But until that happens, Indiana cannot bury its head in the sand,” adding that “the choice is whether we choose to unilaterally disengage or use every legal tool at our disposal to win and ensure Republicans have a fair chance in upcoming federal elections.”
Mr. Huston said he hoped that members of the State Senate would “embrace this political reality” and return for a vote in December. Mr. Braun said he would “explore all options at my disposal to compel the State Senate to show up and vote.”
But Mr. Bray, the Senate leader, argued that Republicans would be better served by trying to win an additional seat in Congress the old-fashioned way. He suggested that his party focus on campaigning to unseat a Democratic congressman in a purplish district in the state’s northwest corner.
“We don’t believe the choice to redistrict is a binary choice where we will either keep a 7-2 map or draw one that automatically becomes 9-0,” Mr. Bray said. “Candidates in these hypothetical districts have not walked a parade, attended a county fair or raised a dollar.”
Mitch Smith is a Chicago-based national correspondent for The Times, covering the Midwest and Great Plains.
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