The people of Indiana are friendly, reasonable, neighborly and generally slow to pick a fight.
But there are some things that Hoosiers just won’t stand for. They don’t like being told what to do. And they don’t like being played as pawns by outsiders.
That helps explain why 21 of Indiana’s 40 Republican state senators defied the demands of President Donald Trump on Thursday by voting against congressional redistricting. Trump fumed, threatened political reprisal and called some of them out by name before the vote.
He was desperate to reshape the map in an attempt to gain two of Indiana’s nine seats and maintain the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in next year’s election. Currently, Republicans hold a 7-2 advantage in Indiana’s congressional delegation and a 219-213 edge over Democrats in the U.S. House.
The gerrymandered map had passed the Indiana House last week by a 57-41 vote.
But those 21 GOP Hoosier senators refused to pass it, refused to be pushed around. They held firm and they held together as the state senate rejected an unprecedented attempt at mid-term redistricting. All 10 Democratic state senators joined them to vote down the proposed map, which had been concocted by a conservative national redistricting group with deep Republican Party connections. The final vote was 31-19 against the proposed map.
The proposal had stretched the imagination, with districts spanning vast swaths of the state and four of the nine converging in Marion County in a blatant attempt to split up Democratic voters, who comprise about 40% of Hoosiers.
But the 21 GOP state senators saw the redistricting effort for what is was: gerrymandering at its worst, a power grab that threatened to disenfranchise millions of Hoosiers and establish a dangerous precedent for mid-term redistricting in Indiana.
So, whether you’re a Republican, a Democrat, a Libertarian or an independent, the courageous bloc of Republican state senators deserves your gratitude for doing the right thing, the Hoosier thing.
For the record, they are: Rodric Bray, Eric Bassler, Mike Bohacek, Vaneta Becker, Brian Buchanan, James Buck, Ed Charbonneau, Brett Clark, Michael Crider, Spencer Deery, Dan Dernulc, Blake Doriot, Susan Glick, Greg Goode, Travis Holdman, Jean Leising, Ryan Mishler, Rick Niemeyer, Linda Rogers, Greg Walker and Kyle Walker.
Collectively, this group faced down Trump’s wrath and endured the slings and arrows — and swattings — of Trump loyalists who would do the president’s bidding regardless of the impact on Americans. Notably, 10 of the 21 senators who voted against the proposed map Thursday are up for reelection next year, meaning that they had much to lose — but perhaps much to gain as well — by defying President Trump in Republican-leaning districts.
Bray, president pro tempore of the Indiana Senate, is not up for reelection in 2026. Still, he stood strong in the face of enormous pressure from Trump and led his GOP Senate colleagues by both words and example.
But state Sen. Greg Goode, who lives in Terre Haute, might have provided the simplest explanation of the group’s rationale.
“The forces that define (the) vitriolic political affairs in places outside of Indiana have been gradually and now very blatantly infiltrating the political affairs in Indiana,” he said on the floor of the Senate chamber before Thursday’s vote.
“Misinformation, cruel social media posts, over-the-top pressure from within the Statehouse and outside, threats of primaries, threats of violence, acts of violence. Friends, we’re better than this.”
Hoosiers are indeed better than the purveyors of political vitriol in Washington and across the country. Twenty-one brave and stubborn Republicans proved it again Thursday.
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