Another State Leans Into Redistricting: This Time, It's Indiana

Elections are a serious business, and the Constitution gives state legislatures pretty broad powers in managing those elections. Of course, Congress does have the power to set overarching regulations, but things like establishing congressional districts are in the states' wheelhouses.

Republican states are doing just that, with Texas leading the way. It looks now like Indiana, a pretty reliably Republican state these days, will be the next one to pick up the red and blue pens and take a good look at the map. Maybe.

One by one, Indiana's Republican U.S. representatives are coming out in support of redistricting in Indiana, weeks after Vice President JD Vance's visit to Indianapolis.
The pressure campaign on X mounted at the same time that state House Republicans met privately off Statehouse grounds to discuss President Donald Trump's push to redraw maps mid-decade, which to date has proven unpopular among the state lawmakers.
Gov. Mike Braun, who has the power to call a special session to redistrict, told reporters Aug. 18 he is still undecided and leaning on the will of the legislature.
"I'm not going to call them unless there is going to be general agreement that we need to," he said.

It would be interesting to see how that map would be altered, given that Indiana has, at present, only two Democratic districts, the 1st and the 7th, which contain the urban enclaves of Gary and Indianapolis, respectively. The other seven districts are represented by Republicans.

That may be changing.

An hour before the House caucused, U.S. Rep. Marlin Stutzman of the 3rd District was the first to post on X that "it's time to redraw Indiana's congressional map." The rest of his Republican colleagues in the Indiana delegation followed suit over the next few hours, some posting on campaign accounts and some on their official ones: U.S. Reps. Victoria Spartz of the 5th, Rudy Yakym of the 2nd, Mark Messmer of the 8th, Erin Houchin of the 9th, Jim Baird of the 4th and Jefferson Shreve of the 6th.
All of their posts followed the same formula, framing the desire to redistrict as a response to Democrats' gerrymandering in blue states.

And a response it is, histrionic disclaimers by Democrats notwithstanding. All one has to do is cast their optics on neighboring Illinois to see how a Democrat-dominated legislature carves up the district maps; pay special note to Districts 13 and 17, which wind through Illinois like a couple of venomous snakes.

If that's not gerrymandering, there's no such creature.

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Here's what Indiana's map looks like now.

HAPPENING: Indiana is moving to redraw its Congressional maps for 2026, with lawmakers backing President Trump’s push pic.twitter.com/SJO0bORbcF
— Election Wizard (@ElectionWiz) August 19, 2025

At the moment, there's no new proposal on the table. But take another look at that map; at the moment, Indiana may be one of the least gerrymandered states. That district map is pretty sensible; yes, there are two districts centered on the state's major urban areas, but overall, it's a fair bet that these districts fairly represent the people who live in them.

In normal times, there wouldn't be much reason to look too hard at redistricting Indiana. But these are not normal times. The Democrats in places like Gavin "A Little Dab'll Do Ya" Newsom's California, they're looking at even more redistricting, to try to push Republicans off the map. Blue states like Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, and Illinois have been gerrymandered to a fare-thee-well for a long time now.

The message for national Democrats from national Republicans seems clear: "If you people want to play, we'll play." And we have quite a few more cards on the table than they do.

In a re-redistricting war, Republicans would win pic.twitter.com/PG9vuh3Lzv
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) August 16, 2025

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