Indiana Senate Rejects Donald Trump-Backed Push To Erase Democratic Seats. Here's What Happened

(MENAFN- Live Mint) The Indiana Senate on Thursday voted down a proposed congressional map that would have strengthened Republicans' prospects of retaining control of the U.S. House in next year's midterm elections, delivering a setback to President Donald Trump 's broader effort to advance more GOP-favourable district maps nationwide, Reuters reported.

The vote represented a rare rebuke to Trump by members of his own party, which he has largely ruled with an iron fist as president.

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Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith awaits the final vote in an effort to redistrict the state's congressional map, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, at the Statehouse in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
(AP)

The tally was 31-19 against, with more than half of Republican senators joining all 10 Democrats in voting against the bill despite a months-long pressure campaign from the White House aimed at the holdouts.

Trump had threatened to support electoral challengers to any Republican senators who refused to vote in favour of the map, calling several out by name in a series of hostile social media posts leading up to Thursday's vote.

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Speaking to reporters after the vote, Trump said the new map“would have been nice” and could have resulted in two additional Republican seats. But he downplayed his role in the issue, saying he hadn't been“working on it very hard.”

Trump said he hoped Indiana Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray, who opposed the redistricting, lost his next primary“because he's done a great disservice.”

Why map matters?

The map, which passed the Indiana state House last week, would likely have given Republicans a 9-0 sweep of the state's U.S. House seats in next year's midterms, when control of Congress will be at stake.

The revised map would have reconfigured the two districts currently represented by Democrats, in part by carving Indianapolis - the state's largest city - into four separate districts, a change Democrats argued would especially disadvantage minority voters.

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Demonstrators opposed to redistricting at the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, US, on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. The Indiana Senate on Thursday rejected a congressional redistricting plan backed by President Donald Trump that would have given Republicans an advantage in all nine of the states House districts. Photographer: Kaiti Sullivan/Bloomberg
(Bloomberg)

Republican legislators who supported the measure on Thursday pressed their colleagues to approve it and bolster Trump's agenda in Congress, cautioning that a Democratic-controlled House would pursue harmful policies.

In a fiery speech, Senator Chris Garten said nothing less than the future of the country was at stake. The sponsor of the bill, Mike Gaskill, suggested the“second U.S. Civil War has already begun.”

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Senator Spencer Deery, one of three Republicans who spoke out against the bill during the floor debate, acknowledged he also did not want to see Democrats win a House majority.

“But that isn't for me to decide, and it isn't for anybody in this body to decide either,” he continued.“Living in a free constitutional republic means we empower voters to make those decisions, and we accept their will no matter what.”

Redistricting typically occurs at the start of each decade to incorporate new U.S. Census data. But Trump ignited a nationwide battle this summer, when he successfully urged Texas Republicans to draw a new congressional map taking aim at five Democratic incumbents.

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In response, Democrats in California proposed their own redrawn map intended to flip five Republican seats, a plan that was overwhelmingly approved by voters in November. Other states, both Republican- and Democratic-controlled, have initiated their own redistricting efforts.

Some state lawmakers have balked. Trump's push stalled in Kansas amid reluctance from some Republicans, and Democrats in Maryland are split on whether to advance a new map, Reuters reported.

Democrats must flip only three Republican seats in the 435-member House next year to win a majority.

(With inputs from Reuters.)

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