The turmoil over proposed mid-decade redistricting of Indiana’s congressional maps has roiled state party politics.
At the same time, it is shining a spotlight on the practice of gerrymandering voting districts and how political parties can manipulate electoral maps when in power to enhance their positions in congressional delegations and legislatures.
Redistricting happens in all states in accordance with their constitutions. Indiana’s constitution calls for redistricting to occur every 10 years, coinciding with its census count. Mapmakers use those census figures to update legislative and congressional districts. The next constitutionally scheduled statewide remapping would occur in 2031.
Gerrymandering is the term used to describe how mapmakers for the party in power creatively redraw district lines to maximize electoral strength. In Indiana, the Republican Party has mastered the practice with impressive results.
Republicans hold seven of the state’s nine congressional seats. In the legislature, they hold super majorities in both chambers; 40-10 in the Senate and 70-30 in the House of Representatives.
Democratic Party influence on legislative proceedings hovers between slim and none. The General Assembly can do normal business even if every Democratic member is absent. GOP super majorities have been in place for well over a decade.
Indiana historically is a Republican-leaning state. But prior to this current 15-year run of total dominance, Hoosiers chose Democrat Barack Obama for president in 2008, and that same year gave Democrats control of the Indiana House. And it’s instructive to note that the governor’s office was held by Democrats for 16 years between 1988 and 2004.
More recently, Republicans have controlled the governor’s office by winning about 56% of the vote in statewide elections. Those are healthy margins and similar to what GOP presidential candidates have garnered in the state.
But those are not super-majority margins. Not even close. And that shows clearly how gerrymandering legislative seats can enhance a party’s power and tilt the scales more heavily in its favor even though the state’s electoral results in races for governor or president reveal closer political divisions.
The unbalanced political landscape in state politics skews reality. Electoral results in elections don’t justify the dominance Republicans enjoy in the legislature or the congressional delegation.
Despite that, Gov. Mike Braun wants more. At the prodding of President Trump, he called for a special legislative session to adopt new congressional maps mid-cycle in an attempt to eliminate the remaining Hoosier Democrats holding seats in Congress. In his mind, a 9-0 delegation of Republicans is fair representation.
Despite significant resistance from the public as well as from some within the Hoosier GOP, it appears Braun and Trump may get their way. A wave of threats of retaliation and intimidation from both elected leaders and some of their most ardent supporters have caused some resistors to cower. The Indiana House will convene its 2026 session early in order to act on the redistricting push on Monday. The Senate, which had balked repeatedly, succumbed to the pressure this week and will meet on Dec. 8.
What would have been unlikely a few months ago is now on the brink of becoming reality. Hoosiers must be clear-eyed about what is happening. A sitting president, fearful of losing control of the U.S. House of Representative in the mid-term elections next November, has coerced his party into a partisan power grab in hopes of preserving a majority of seats and deflecting accountability for his actions and policies.
Indiana’s governor, in order to appease and serve the president, is complicit in the effort. If successful in extracting enough votes for a new congressional map, he will have been joined by legislators.
Voters have a right to expect their elected officials to serve the interests of all Hoosiers with fairness and integrity. In this redistricting push, they are being overtly betrayed.
© 2025 Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.