The Indiana Senate will not convene in December for redistricting, stopping President Donald Trump’s push to redraw the state’s congressional maps.
Senate Republicans still do not have the votes to successfully pass a bill to redistrict, as Gov. Mike Braun has called for them to do, so they will simply not try, Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray announced last Friday.
“Over the last several months, Senate Republicans have given very serious and thoughtful consideration to the concept of redrawing our state’s congressional maps,” he said Friday. “Today, I’m announcing there are not enough votes to move that idea forward, and the Senate will not reconvene in December.”
Lawmakers had been called on by Gov. Braun to meet in special session during the first two weeks of December to consider redistricting. Without the participation of the Senate, the Indiana General Assembly can’t pass legislation.
Braun expressed dismay at Senate Republicans’ decision.
“I called for our legislators to convene to ensure Hoosiers’ voices in Washington, DC are not diluted by the Democrats’ gerrymandering,” he said. “Our state senators need to do the right thing and show up to vote for fair maps. Hoosiers deserve to know where their elected officials stand on important issues.”
Trump has been waging a redistricting campaign in an effort to shore up the Republican majority in Congress ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, despite the tradition of redistricting directly after a decennial census. Indiana’s current congressional map has seven seats held by Republicans and two by Democrats; the push from the White House was to draw a new map that would favor Republicans in all nine districts.
For Indiana’s supermajority Republican legislature to reject Trump’s push is extraordinary, given Trump has found success in at least three other states— Texas, Missouri and North Carolina—where Republicans have slimmer majorities
With the Indiana House Republican caucus already on board, and assuming all Democrats would vote no, the Senate Republicans needed 25 “yes” votes to make redistricting happen. There are 40 Republican senators.
Counting the vote has been a largely closed-door process, with only a portion of Republican senators ever making their position clear publicly. Thirteen senators have indicated their support for it, eight made clear their opposition, another eight hadn’t decided, and 11 said nothing.
The following GOP senators have come out in support of redistricting:
Sen. Scott Alexander
Sen. Ron Alting
Sen. Scott Baldwin
Sen. Liz Brown
Sen. Justin Busch
Sen. Gary Byrne
Sen. Chris Garten
Sen. Mike Gaskill
Sen. Tyler Johnson
Sen. Eric Koch
Sen. Randy Maxwell
Sen. Daryl Schmitt
Sen. Andy Zay