If Trump's redistricting war comes to Indiana, Indiana Democrats will have few weapons

Yahoo

3 days ago

Amid a White House pressure campaign to redraw congressional district lines, Democrats in Indiana are vowing to fight back.
In their most recent fundraising email, Indiana House Democrats evoked their 2011 walkout over right-to-work legislation opposed by labor unions. Texas Democrats are using the same tactic to block the adoption of a new congressional map sought by President Donald Trump to help Republicans keep control of the U.S. House in the 2026 election.
"In 2011, our Hoosier Democratic legislators walked out of the General Assembly to fight for workers' rights. We were willing to put it all on the line to protect our state from extreme government overreach," the email says. "We know the fight our fellow Democrats are going through down south, and we know it may be only a matter of time before Indiana is next."
The fundraising pitch, however, omits a key fact: Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers of the Indiana General Assembly, meaning they have enough members for a quorum even without a single Democrat present.
The omission highlights a bleak truth for Indiana Democrats. Unlike their colleagues in Texas, they would be virtually powerless to stop a vote on new congressional maps.
"They don't have options," said Tip Kew, a former chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party. "They can't break quorum. All they can do is use rhetoric and protest."
Indiana will be in the spotlight when Vice President J.D. Vance flies to Indianapolis on Aug. 7 to meet with Gov. Mike Braun and Republican legislative leaders about the possibility of redrawing the state's congressional maps. Republicans already control seven of Indiana's nine congressional districts, but they believe they could flip at least one of the other seats if they redraw district boundaries.
Making such changes mid-decade is highly unusual. Typically, state lawmakers only redraw maps for Congress and the General Assembly to account for population shifts after the decennial census. The process is notoriously political.
Trump is pushing red states to make changes now to give Republicans a boost in the mid-term elections, which tend to favor the party outside of the White House. The redistricting process is already underway in Republican-led Texas where new congressional maps would give the GOP in that state five additional U.S. House seats. Texas Democrats fled to Illinois on Aug. 3 to disrupt legislative procedures.
Leaders of Democratic-controlled states have threatened to redraw, setting the stage for a redistricting arms race.
In Indiana, Republican Gov. Mike Braun has not ruled out the possibility of calling a special session to draw new maps. Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers, and Indiana Senate majority leader Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, are expected to meet with Vance as well.
The top Democrat in the Indiana House, Rep. Phil GiaQuinta of Fort Wayne, acknowledged his caucus's limitations in a statement to IndyStar.
"Unfortunately, with the breakdown of the Indiana House of Representatives as it currently stands, a walkout from our caucus would not hinder Indiana Republicans from meeting quorum and distorting Indiana's congressional maps to silence the voices of the people," he said.
Instead, Democrats will focus on advocating for fair maps, and encouraging constituents to call their elected officials and "participate in civil demonstrations to share their thoughts and concerns."
"Republicans are trying to rig the game at halftime because they know they're down," he said. "Hoosiers always lose when their elected officials abuse their power in a pathetic attempt to maintain it."
Democrats have attributed their weakened state in part to previous Republican-controlled redistricting. Democrats won 40% to 41% percent of the vote last year in Indiana's races for governor and president, but they have less than 27% of seats in the General Assembly and 22% of Indiana's congressional seats.
"They can take more power," Tew said, "because they have so much power."
The diminished strength of Democrats leaves them with few options. Even a legal challenge seems like a questionable tactic after a 2019 U.S. Supreme Court decision that partisan gerrymandering claims are "beyond the reach of the federal courts," said Indiana Democratic Party Chair Karen Tallian.
With no other strategies at their disposal, Democrats are hoping that what they see as a power grab by Trump and his allies at the Statehouse will stoke a massive response from voters, even if the topic of redistricting has failed to garner much passion from Hoosiers in the past.
"Public opinion is a big factor here," Tallian said. "If you get enough people mad, you can break a 60% Republican district."
Democrats are hoping to rally supporters during Vance's visit with a sit-in at the Statehouse on Aug. 7 beginning at 8 a.m. The two members of Congress likely to be targeted in any redistricting effort — Democratic U.S. Reps. Frank Mrvan and André Carson — are scheduled to speak at 12:30 p.m.
Contact IndyStar reporter Tony Cook at 317-444-6081 or [e-mail]. Follow him on X: @IndyStarTony.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: In Trump's redistricting war, Indiana Democrats will have few weapons