Indiana House Democrats join Texas House Democrats to stand against mid-decade redistricting

Chicago Tribune

3 days ago

Nine Indiana House Democrats joined Texas House Democrats in Chicago Wednesday to stand against mid-decade redistricting of congressional districts — which Texas Democrats are currently fighting against and Indiana Democrats could be fighting next.
Indiana Black Legislative Caucus Chair State Rep. Earl Harris Jr., D-East Chicago, said he was elected to serve his constituents 'not to help a guy in Washington D.C.' The move to redistrict mid-decade will disenfranchise voters, particularly minority voters, Harris said.
Indiana District 1, held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan, could be considered for redistricting if Indiana Republicans choose to do so, Harris said. District 1 has a large population of minority voters, Harris said, whose voices would be stifled.
'Why are we disenfranchising voters — Black and brown voters — who chose the person we want to represent us? We need to stand here and fight, be here in this fight,' Harris said.
Texas State Rep. Gene Wu said the state Democratic House Caucus left the state to stop 'a racist, unconstitutional and illegal gerrymandering effort in Texas.' Gerrymandering refers to politicians manipulating the boundaries of an electoral map in their party's favor.
Texas Democratic lawmakers are in Illinois for a second week as Republicans are trying to reconvene the state legislature in a special session to vote on redrawing congressional maps in their party's favor.
Redistricting occurs every 10 years following the release of census data. But the Trump administration has been pressuring states, most notably Texas, to redistrict ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
'(We're) stopping the D.C. swamp from dictating who we get to vote for. This is an effort to stifle Americans who have had enough because Republicans know that their agenda and what they have done is so unpopular … with all Americans,' Wu said. 'They need to cheat and rig the system so they can rig the system.'
State Rep. Cherrish Pryor, D-Indianapolis, said she was proud to stand with her Texas colleagues to 'protect our democracy.'
'While Texas is on the front lines of this fight, Indiana may be next in line,' Pryor said.
Last week, Vice President JD Vance met with Gov. Mike Braun and state Republican leaders to discuss redistricting in Indiana. After the meeting, Mrvan said during a news conference that the Trump administration 'brought the circus' of redistricting to Indiana and that he believed the decision to redistrict Indiana was 'a done deal.'
'JD Vance and Donald Trump brought the circus to Indianapolis,' Mrvan, D-Highland, said. 'They are afraid of checks and balances. They are afraid of the polling that they see, and they want to redistrict things.'
State Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis, said Vance 'is engaged in Congressional-level shoplifting.'
'Never in my life did I think that the vice president of the United States would come to my state and ask our legislature to shoplift for Congressional districts — steal them off the shelf, run outside and wave them in front of the country,' DeLaney said.
On Tuesday, Braun told the Indiana Capitol Chronicle that he hasn't decided if he'll call a special session on redistricting Indiana's congressional map, but that he and Republican legislative leaders are 'considering it seriously' as they watch what happens in Texas.
'It'll be interesting to see what Texas does because they don't have a supermajority, so … if that gets tripped up, it's gonna probably impact what happens elsewhere, because the rest of it doesn't add up to much,' he told the Capital Chronicle on Tuesday.
'I think mostly what happens here is going to depend on where Texas goes, because I think they've got five seats in play,' he said.
Indiana was last redistricted in 2021, which left Congressional Republicans with seven seats and Democrats two seats.
Pryor said Republicans want to redistrict early because they want to hold onto power despite policies like the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Pryor called a 'Big Beautiful Mess,' hurting Americans.
'This behavior that we're seeing today, we would not expect that from this country. We would expect that from a dictatorship, not the United States of America,' Pryor said. 'Their greatest fear is that Americans are waking up and realizing that the Republican Party might not be making them better off; it's making them bankrupt.'
Indiana Democratic Party Chairwoman Karen Tallian said in a statement that mid-decade redistricting attempts 'prove the GOP knows it is losing support among voters.'
'This is a clear power grab by a Republican Party that knows it can't win the next election without changing the rules,' Tallian said. 'After 21 years of Republican rule in Indiana, utility bills and grocery prices are skyrocketing and our healthcare system is hanging by a thread — no wonder they'd rather cheat than face the voters fair and square.'