Trump privately pushed top state lawmakers to redistrict

President Donald Trump privately pushed Indiana’s top GOP lawmakers to redraw their state’s congressional maps this week, while outside allies lodged a pressure campaign, part of an increasingly urgent effort to help Republicans preserve their narrow majority in next year’s U.S. House elections.

Indiana’s Republican lawmakers remain divided. But Trump’s direct input appears to be making a difference, with at least one critic who attended meetings at the White House on Tuesday, which also included Vice President JD Vance, softening his position.

State Rep. Jim Lucas (R) told the Indianapolis Star that he was more open to redistricting after hearing from Vance, a sharp turn in rhetoric from just weeks ago, when he questioned on X whether it was worth “putting many good state elected officials at risk because of a political redistricting stunt!”

The Indiana debate shows how closely every seat is being fought. Republicans already hold seven of nine U.S. House seats and it’s possible new maps would yield them only a single new favorable district. But that could make a difference in a Congress where Republicans now hold a narrow advantage, 219-212, with four vacancies. A loss of GOP control would let Democrats thwart some of Trump’s agenda and investigate his administration.

The White House hosted Indiana Republicans in Washington as part of a series of visits with state legislators. And while the bulk of the day was not focused on redrawing maps, Trump privately pushed Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston and Senate President Rodric Bray on redistricting in a meeting in the Oval Office, according to a senior White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the closed meeting. Vance separately met with Indiana state lawmakers and spoke about redistricting in the last 30 minutes of the meeting, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversations.

Across the country, Republicans are attempting to protect their House majority through an aggressive overhauling of congressional maps before the 2026 midterm elections. The Texas state legislature approved a new map last week that would create five new Republican-favored seats in the state, and Republicans are also looking at changing the maps in Missouri and Florida.

Democrats, led by leaders in California, are attempting to retaliate by redrawing blue-state maps, but they control fewer state legislatures and have more procedural hurdles.

Vance previously discussed the issue with Indiana lawmakers during a visit to the state earlier this month, and White House staff have been calling state legislators, according to Republicans in the state. James Blair, the White House deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs, has led the effort.

Lawmakers have also faced outside pressure from Trump allies such as Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, who posted on X that his organization would back primary challenges to Republican state lawmakers “who refuse to support the team and redraw the maps.”

Club for Growth, an influential conservative group, ran a 30-second ad on Tuesday encouraging Indiana Republicans to call their local state representatives to urge them to vote in favor of changing the state’s map. Former Indiana congressman David McIntosh (R), the group’s president, said the club would spend at least $1 million nationally backing redistricting.

Last week, all seven GOP members of Indiana’s congressional delegation came out in support in a series of statements released over the span of six hours.

Rep. Jim Baird (R-Indiana) said that he and the other GOP members of the delegation did not coordinate their statements. In an interview last week, he downplayed pressure from the White House and said he was not worried about a potential primary challenge.

State lawmakers, rather than members of Congress, “are going to have to make the decision, and so I’m not trying to influence them,” he said.

Some of those GOP state lawmakers have been more critical of mid-cycle redistricting than the state’s federal representation, and Gov. Mike Braun (R) has been noncommittal on calling a special session. Huston, who met with Trump on Tuesday, has been reluctant to redraw the map, according to a person familiar with the matter. A spokeswoman for Huston said before the meeting that he has not taken a position.

In a statement Wednesday morning, Huston remained noncommittal, saying “a wide range of topics were discussed” including redistricting, and that he looks “forward to Indiana continuing to have a strong partnership with the Trump Administration.”

“My sense is there is not a burning desire to re-redistrict Indiana,” said Pete Seat, a Republican political strategist who has worked extensively in the state.

“For 20 some years now, we have pointed to our maps and said we’re the gold standard for how you should do this across the country,” he added. “There’s a fear in undercutting our own messaging.”

“How many members want to expend the political capital for one seat?” Seat asked.

Some state Republicans expressed similar skepticism, including state Rep. Ed Clere (R), who did not attend the meeting but said prior that special sessions “should be reserved for emergencies,” and that Trump’s “desperation to maintain a U.S. House majority by stacking the deck in favor of Republicans does not constitute an emergency.”

And proponents of the redistricting plan acknowledge all 70 members of the Republican Caucus aren’t fully on board. State Rep. Matt Commons (R), who is personally supportive of the effort and attended the White House meeting, said in an interview before the meeting that public statements are enough to recognize “not everyone’s in the same spot.”

Democrats would be unable to stop any redistricting effort because Republicans hold a supermajority.

Democratic state representatives are planning town halls in their districts to discuss the possible impact of redistricting, according to a person familiar with the effort who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the plans.

“Even if Republican legislators are against this, I don’t see them walking out with their Democratic colleagues to stop a quorum,” said an Indiana Democratic strategist who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing developments. “That would be our only mechanism to stop it and I just don’t think there would be an appetite.”