Imagine the city of Terre Haute and northern Vigo County being in one congressional district, and southern and eastern Vigo County in another.
It sounds strange. But this is 2025. Is anything actually strange anymore?
In this anything-goes era, the vice president of the United States was dispatched to Indiana on Thursday to talk with Gov. Mike Braun and the two most powerful state legislators to discuss redrawing Indiana’s congressional boundaries before the 2026 midterm election.
Why? Isn’t the redrawing of congressional districts across the U.S. only done every 10 years, immediately following the federal census? Yes, normally.
But, again, this is 2025. On Tuesday in a CNBC interview, President Donald Trump encouraged Texas and other GOP-controlled states to redraw their legislative districts to allow Republicans to gain five more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm. “We are entitled to five more seats,” he said.
Currently, Trump’s Republican Party holds a slim 219-212 majority in the House, with four seats vacant. Historically, the party in control of the White House loses congressional seats in midterm elections. If that held true and Democrats regained the House majority, Trump’s agenda could stall.
So, Texas Republicans and Gov. Greg Abbott began working to redraw the districts. Democrats in the state legislature left the Lone Star State, attempting to thwart the Republicans’ plan by denying the quorum necessary to conduct a session. A hunt for the absent lawmakers and political mayhem ensued.
Other states joined the mess. Republican-controlled states, like Indiana, are being nudged to follow Texas’ lead. Democratic-led states, like Illinois, are threatening to redraw their boundaries to add Democratic seats in Congress.
The redrawing of legislative districts to keep the ruling party in power is known as gerrymandering. Both Republicans and Democrats gerrymander. It’s like a baseball team loaded with lefthander power hitters moving the right-field wall 30 feet closer to home plate. Eleven states have admirably abandoned the practice and given that duty to independent commissions. State lawmakers still draw the legislative maps in Indiana and Illinois.
So, Vice President J.D. Vance came to Indiana to discuss a mid-decade redrawing of Indiana’s districts with fellow Republicans Braun, House Speaker Todd Huston (R-Fishers) and Senate Pro Tem Roderic Bray (R-Martinsville). Already, Republicans hold seven of Indiana’s nine U.S. House seats, including the 8th District, which encompasses Vigo, Vermillion, Parke, Clay, Sullivan and Greene counties. The aim would be to flip Indiana’s 1st District in northwest Indiana and 7th District in Indianapolis, held by Democratic Reps. Frank Mrvan and Andre Carson, respectively.
In time for the 2026 election. That would be “a large gamble,” said Rhonda Wrzenski, associate professor of political science and pre-law advisor at Indiana University Southeast.
“The Indiana Constitution calls for redistricting to take place once every 10 years based on the decennial census data. This would be a violation of that principal, and generally mid-cycle redistricting takes place as a function of court orders due to gerrymandering,” Wrzenski told the Tribune-Star on Wednesday.
Braun would have to call a special legislative session to redistrict, just as Texas is trying to do.
“This would cost the taxpayers a great deal of money and would likely not be viewed favorably especially given that seven of the nine congressional districts are currently held by members of the Republican party in Indiana anyway,” Wrzenski said. “I also suspect that any changes made during a potential special session would be challenged legally either on the basis of their constitutionality or on the basis of partisan gerrymandering.”
Following his meeting with Vance in the Statehouse, where protesters shouted at the politicians, Braun didn’t say whether the Indiana leaders reached an agreement with Vance, the Indiana Capital Chronicle reported. “We listened,” Braun said.
But at least one what-if map of redrawn Indiana districts has circulated in political circles. It shows Vigo County split, with Terre Haute and the north end in a would-be 4th District and southern and eastern Vigo County in a would-be 6th District, with both extending eastward into the Indianapolis region. That map indicates Republicans would occupy all nine Hoosier seats in the U.S. House.
Their races might be closer than in the past, though.
“The seven incumbent Republicans won’t be thrilled, because their very, very safe districts will become less safe,” said Bill Moreau, co-founder of the nonpartisan Indiana Citizen Education Foundation. “In [the 2024 election], the seven took an average 64% of the vote by an average margin of 31%. The draft maps would reduce the average predicted margin to 19%, still a safe seat by any standard.”
Last November, Republican former state legislator Mark Messmer won the 8th District seat formerly held by Larry Bucshon, taking 68% of the vote.
Messmer’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment on a potential mid-decade redistricting.
Dave Crooks, the Indiana Democratic Party’s 8th District chairman, did respond, saying, “It is shameless for Governor Mike Braun and Indiana Republican leaders to try and rig the 2026 national election with a mid-decade redistricting scheme. When leaders are choosing their voters instead of voters choosing them, what else are they doing to harm Hoosiers?”
Julia Vaughn, executive director of the ethics advocacy group Common Cause Indiana, said a redistricting plan aimed at northwest Indiana still could affect the Terre Haute area.
“Although [the 1st] District is hundreds of miles from Terre Haute, any changes there could certainly impact other districts because the process is like squeezing a balloon — the population that you take from one district has to go somewhere else,” Vaughn told the Tribune-Star on Wednesday. “So, the specifics are really unknown. What we do know is that this is a partisan power grab coming straight from the White House. Governor Braun should remember he works for Hoosiers, not the president. A special session is not needed and maps drawn mid-cycle would undermine fair representation and democracy in this state.”
The 2021 redraw of Indiana left only two districts touching the Ohio River, instead of the previous three. “Using this example, one could easily imagine our current map of three congressional districts touching Illinois to increase, or decrease,” said Matthew Bergbower, political science professor at Indiana State University. “That would likely impact the 8th Congressional District.”
Speaking of Illinois, there Gov. J.B. Pritzker has threatened to pursue redrawing that state’s congressional districts of which his Democratic Party holds 14 of 17 seats. One of Illinois’ three Republican districts is the 15th, which includes Clark, Edgar and Crawford counties. Any attempt to boost that edge to 15 Democratic seats would be difficult, Brian Gaines, professor of political science at the University of Illinois, said Wednesday by email.
Gaines finds “Pritzger’s sabre rattling and indignaton a bit amusing.” Gaines called the governor’s threat “idle,” given that Illinois Democrats already benefit from their own “very successful gerrymander.”
“I am not sure that Democrats could cook up a map to get 15-2 even with the cleverest drawing,” Gaines said.
The loudest voices calling for an abnormal mid-decade redrawing of congressional maps seem to be centered in the White House and Texas.
“Gerrymandering is a civic sin that’s bad enough when it’s practiced once every 10 years,” Moreau of the Indiana Citizen said. “Practicing it whenever the party in power chooses to can easily lead to the possibility of map-drawing every time a state legislature convenes.”
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