In major shock to Trump, Indiana Republicans reject his gerrymandering plan

An opponent of Trump's gerrymandering scheme celebrates as she walks outside the Indiana Senate Chamber after a bill to redistrict the state’s congressional map was defeated, Dec. 11, 2025, at the Statehouse in Indianapolis. | Michael Conroy / AP

INDIANAPOLIS—In a clear sign that some Republicans are starting to distance themselves from President Donald Trump, Indiana’s Republican-led Senate decisively rejected a redrawn congressional map Thursday that Trump ordered them to approve. It would have eliminated the two remaining Democratic congressional districts in the state, giving all of Indiana’s seats to seats to Republicans.

The defeat for Trump followed only by days the loss of Republicans in special elections in Florida and Georgia and the latest economic polls that show Trump’s management of the economy supported by only 32% of voters nationwide.

Twenty-one Republicans crossed party lines and voted with Democrats against the redistricting plan despite having been personally visited by Vice President JD Vance, who twisted their arms to no avail, and threatened by Trump that he will primary anyone who voted against the plan.

Republican State Sen. Mike Bohacek was a leader in the push against the Trump plan. He said on MSNBC Thursday night that he and others voted the way they did “because a job in the state senate lasts only a few years but what we do here, one way or the other, can last forever, and we want to make sure that we stand up for principle.”

Bohacek said he and the others who split from Trump realize that “big corporate money will be spent to unseat us,” but he said it wouldn’t be the first time corporate money would be used against him.

“Money isn’t always everything. I was re-elected by 19% despite the fact that the last time I ran they spent their money against me. Again, I emphasize, I will be in office only for a short time of my life, but I will have to live with what I do here for the rest of my life.”

The vote, which Democratic U.S. House Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries characterized as “a major rebuke to Trump,” was overwhelmingly against the proposed redistricting, with more Republicans opposing than supporting the measure, a worrisome sign for Trump.

“This shows that Trump can be defeated even in Indiana, a very conservative state,” said former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who went to Indiana to campaign against the redistricting bill. Before running for the Democratic nomination for president in the 2020 election and later joining the Biden administration, he was the mayor of South Bend, Ind.

Buttigieg noted that Republicans were also responding to “huge demonstrations against the redistricting plan that took place in Indianapolis last month.”

Trump has been urging Republicans nationwide to redraw their congressional maps to help ensure that the party keeps its tiny majority in the House of Representatives. Without such gerrymandering—often pursued along racial lines—his unpopularity is almost sure to bring massive GOP losses in 2026.

Although Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio fell in place, Indiana did not—despite cajoling from Vance and insults and threats of primary challenges from Trump.

“The federal government should not dictate by threat or other means what should happen in our states,” said Spencer Deery, one of the Republican senators who voted no on Thursday.

When the proposal failed 31-19, cheers could be heard inside the chamber as well as shouts of “Thank you!” Trump forces have employed more than just jawboning and visits form the vice president. Many of the Republicans said they have received threats of violence against themselves and members of their families.

The map Trump tried to shove down their throats would have given Republicans control of all nine of Indiana’s congressional seats, up from the seven they currently hold. It would have effectively erased Indiana’s two Democratic-held districts by splitting Indianapolis among four districts and would have also eliminated the northwest Indiana district outside Chicago.

An angry and worried Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, “If Republicans will not do what is necessary to save our Country, they will eventually lose everything to the Democrats.”

The president said anyone who voted against the plan should lose their seats. Half of Indiana’s state senators are up for re-election next year, and the conservative organization Turning Point Action, the late Charlie Kirk’s group, pledged to fund campaigns against them.

David McIntosh, president of Club for Growth, which had backed Trump’s plan, said the vote allowed disloyal Republicans to “stick their finger in the eye of the president of the United States.”

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CONTRIBUTOR

John Wojcik

John Wojcik is Editor-in-Chief of People's World. He joined the staff as Labor Editor in May 2007 after working as a union meat cutter in northern New Jersey. There, he served as a shop steward and a member of a UFCW contract negotiating committee. In the 1970s and '80s, he was a political action reporter for the Daily World, this newspaper's predecessor, and was active in electoral politics in Brooklyn, New York.