TN Republican rejects Trump’s election scheme following slur against the disabled

U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as he walks to board Marine One to depart for Joint Base Andrews, from the South Lawn at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 22, 2025. REUTERS/Aaron Schwartz

After Democrats enjoyed a wide range of victories in 2025's off-year elections — from gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey to three Pennsylvania Supreme Court retention elections — President Donald Trump and his MAGA allies doubled down on their gerrymandering/redistricting efforts in red states. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, meanwhile, is encouraging fellow Democrats to fight "fire with fire" by doing some gerrymandering of their own.

One of the red states where Trump and other MAGA Republicans are trying to make the congressional map as gerrymandered as possible is Indiana. But according to The Independent's Eric Garcia, one Republican they won't be able to count on is Indiana State Sen. Mike Bohacek.

Garcia, in a late November article, reports that Bohacek "said he would oppose President Donald Trump's overtures to redraw the state's congressional district lines after the president used a slur often made against people with disabilities.

Attacking Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Trump used the R-word and described him as "seriously r-------." And Bohacek was offended.

Bohacek announced, "Many of you have asked my position on redistricting. I have been an unapologetic advocate for people with intellectual disabilities since the birth of my second daughter. Those of you that don't know me or my family might not know that my daughter has Down Syndrome. This is not the first time our president has used these insulting and derogatory references, and his choices of words have consequences."

Garcia notes that Bohacek "said that that Trump needed to be worthy of having a Republican majority" in the U.S. House of Representatives.

"Trump has, in the past, mocked people with disabilities or used ableist language calling his political rivals 'low-IQ,'" Garcia observes. "Most famously, he mocked Serge Kovaleski, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist with a disability, in 2015…. Trump has aggressively pushed for redistricting ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Polling shows that the president is increasingly unpopular and the president's party typically loses control of the White House during the midterm election."

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