A "band of stubborn Indiana state Senate Republicans" are poised to threaten what Politico calls President Donald Trump's "mid-cycle redistricting scheme" this week.
Indiana Republicans will meet Monday to decide on a map, passed Friday by the Indiana House, "that supporters say would all but guarantee a 9-0 Republican congressional delegation and would be in effect for next year’s pivotal midterm elections," Politico reports.
"Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray, who — along with roughly half his 40-member Republican majority — has resisted a four-month White House pressure campaign to redraw the congressional lines," Politico explains.
Present maps give the GOP a 7-2 advantage, but there's a problem as Trump's influence has waned within the ranks of Indiana's Republican state legislators, they note.
“The MAGA movement hasn’t permeated down to the state legislative level,” according to an Indiana Republican allied with Trump’s redistricting mission.
“Some people think Trumpworld is bluffing or doesn’t have any juice left and this will just go away if the state Senate rejects the maps,” the anonymous Republican tells Politico.
“The reality is that will only be the start of a long and brutal campaign to purge the state of anyone who opposed Trump on this issue. And there will likely be collateral damage that hurts even those who supported Trump.”
The pressure campaign has been intense, they report, but, according to Mike Murphy, a former Republican member of the Indiana House of Representatives, it may backfire.
"These guys and ladies are under intense, 24-hour-a-day pressure and I don’t know if they can withstand it, ultimately — we will see,” Murphy tells Politico.
“I feel badly for them and their families, primarily. They came to be public servants, and instead they are pawns in really what I consider to be Trump’s strategy to avoid a third impeachment and potentially set himself up a third term," Murphy adds.