Trump turns up the heat on red-state Republicans blocking new congressional maps

The Indiana Senate reconvened on Monday, three days after the state House approved a new map championed by Trump that would create two more right-leaning congressional districts in the solidly red Midwestern state, where the GOP currently controls seven of Indiana's nine U.S. House seats.

And it marks the latest front in Trump's aggressive national campaign to reshape congressional districts ahead of the 2026 midterms, when Republicans will likely face traditional political headwinds as they defend their razor-thin House majority.

Indiana Senate Republican leader Rodric Bray has repeatedly said there wasn't enough support in the chamber to move forward with redistricting. The state Senate split 19-19 last month in a proxy vote.

"A RINO State Senator, Rodric Bray, who doesn't care about keeping the Majority in the House in D.C., is the primary problem. Soon, he will have a Primary Problem, as will any other politician who supports him in this stupidity," Trump warned in a recent social media post.

Bray, in announcing that the state Senate would reconvene to take action on redistricting, said "the issue of redrawing Indiana's congressional maps mid-cycle has received a lot of attention and is causing strife here in our state."

A final vote by the state Senate is likely on Thursday.

Trump this weekend took to social media twice to keep up the pressure.

"Why would a REAL Republican vote against this when the Dems have been doing it for years??? If they stupidly say no, vote them out of office - They are not worthy - And I will be there to help! Thank you Indiana!" he warned.

And in a separate post, Trump highlighted nine state Senate Republicans who have yet to announce their position on the new map, saying they "need encouragement to make the right decision." The president added, "The Indiana Senate must now pass this Map, AS IS, and get it to Governor Mike Braun's desk, ASAP, to deliver a gigantic Victory for Republicans in the "Hoosier State," and across the Country."

Trump has also taken some jabs at Braun, arguing that the governor "perhaps, is not working the way he should to get the necessary Votes."

While Trump recently called Braun "a good man," he has warned he "must produce on this, or he will be the only Governor, Republican or Democrat, who didn't."

But Braun, pointing to the president, has touted that he is "committed to standing with him on the critical issue of passing fair maps in Indiana to ensure the MAGA agenda is successful in Congress."

Meanwhile, the Trump-aligned conservative outside political group the Club for Growth Action and other groups have dished out big bucks to run ads in Indiana supporting redistricting, and along with Turning Point Action, will target Republican state lawmakers opposed to the new map.

Club for Growth President David McIntosh sent out a "FINAL WARNING" to Bray, warning that "failure to get this done means you and any other opposition will be defeated and removed from office in your next election."

And Turning Point Action on Friday held a rally at the state Capitol, where Braun spoke, to put pressure on Indiana Senate Republicans to support redistricting.

"We must keep the Majority at all costs," the president wrote recently.

Trump, by championing rare but not unheard of mid-decade redistricting, is aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterm elections.

Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio have drawn new maps as part of the president's push. State lawmakers in GOP-dominated Florida this week took the first steps towards passing a redistricting measure, and right-leaning Kansas is also mulling redrawing its map.

Two federal judges in Texas last month delivered a blow to Trump and Republicans, by ruling that the state couldn't use the newly drawn map in next year's elections. But the Supreme Court on Thursday gave a big thumbs up to the Lone Star State's new congressional map.

Democrats are fighting back.

California voters a month ago overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, a ballot initiative which will temporarily sidetrack the left-leaning state's nonpartisan redistricting commission and return the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democrat-dominated legislature.

That is expected to result in five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, which would counter the passage earlier this year in Texas of a new map that aims to create up to five right-leaning House seats. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is considered a likely 2028 Democratic presidential contender, steered his state's push for redistricting.

Illinois and Maryland, two blue states, and Virginia, where Democrats control the legislature, are also taking steps or seriously considering redistricting.

And in a blow to Republicans, a Utah district judge last month rejected a congressional district map drawn up by the state's GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved an alternate that will create a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.