Republican state senators in Indiana have declined to pass a heavily gerrymandered redistricting map despite consistent pressure from President Donald Trump and top Republicans.
Hoosier State senators rejected the new maps on a vote of 19 in favor and 31 opposed on Thursday, with Republicans failing to get the 26 votes necessary to send the mid-decade redistricting plan to Gov. Mike Braun's (R) desk. The result is particularly noteworthy given that Republicans control 40 of 50 seats in the Indiana Senate, and that Republicans have been attempting to get the new maps signed into law since October. Sen. Mike Gaskill (R), who is the key sponsor of the maps, said "the second U.S. Civil War has already started" in his closing remarks.
"Big defeat for President Trump with 21 Republicans voting no," New York Sun correspondent Matt Rice wrote.
It remains unclear whether Trump will try again to push for the proposed new maps, which would change Indiana's U.S. House of Representatives delegation from a 7-2 Republican advantage to a 9-0 unanimous Republican map. Indiana's House of Representatives previously approved of the new maps by a 57-41 margin.
One of the senators who voted no was Michael Bohacek, who said in late November that he would not grant Trump's wishes for new maps in the Hoosier State due to Trump using a slur against developmentally disabled people to describe one of his political opponents. Bohacek mentioned in his announcement that he made the decision out of respect for his daughter, who has Down Syndrome.
Trump has pledged to fund primary challenges against every Hoosier State Republican senator who voted against the new district boundaries. Turning Point Action (the organizing arm of slain MAGA activist Charlie Kirk's group) promised to spend $10 million on Republican primary campaigns against senators who bucked Trump on redistricting.
Indiana Senate president pro tempore Rodric Bray has become a key target of Trump's ire, after saying in November that there were not enough Republican supporters to get the new GOP-friendly district maps across the finish line. The president assailed Bray in a post to his Truth Social platform on Wednesday night, accusing him of teaming up with "Radical Left Democrats" to vote down the new maps.
"One of my favorite States, Indiana, will be the only State in the Union to turn the Republican Party down!" Trump wrote.
