Jeffrey Blehar — a staff writer for the conservative National Review — praised Indiana Republicans for holding firm on Thursday and refusing President Donald Trump’s mid-decade gerrymander that would have given Indiana Republicans a clean sweep of all nine of its seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“… [A]s a conservative of the older school, I … want to salute the men and women of the Indiana State Senate for finding the steel in their spines today,” said Blehar, adding that Republican’s refusal did not come without cost and threat.
Donald Trump Jr. announced on X that he would be campaigning against disloyal Indiana legislators in their primaries next year. And mere minutes before the final Thursday vote in the Indiana senate, Blehar said Heritage Action — the lobbying arm of the Heritage Foundation — tweeted: ‘President Trump has made it clear to Indiana leaders: if the Indiana Senate fails to pass the map, all federal funding will be stripped from the state. Roads will not be paved. Guard bases will close. Major projects will stop. These are the stakes and every NO vote will be to blame.’
“The Trump administration turned the screws,” said Blehar, but the November elections had “provided the entire political world — and elected Republicans especially — with an electrical shock of voter feedback.”
“After ten months of the economic chaos of The Trump Show (and three months of the redistricting circus), the lopsided Democratic margins in every race hit a bit like an uppercut from reality, knocking Republicans out of their confident daze and forcing them to reckon with both the massive unpopularity of Trump’s economic agenda as well as their own political mortality,” said Blehar. “If the pro-Democratic shift in November 2026 tracks with that of November 2025 in any way, the GOP is going to lose its House majority by a margin well beyond the ability of redistricting to save.”
“Why,” asked Blehar, “should Indiana Republicans fritter away a well-balanced map to gain two House seats — and in so doing deny the state any sort of seat at the table in an upcoming Democratic administration?”
Blehar called it “a sucker’s bargain” that would have hurt both Indiana and the GOP in the near future, “and all … for the ephemeral political needs of an ingrate president whose power will inevitably be broken after the midterms regardless.”
“I credit the Indiana GOP for having more wisdom and foresight than that, and for looking after their state’s interests — and the likely shape of the political world a mere few years from now — rather than the panicked desires of a president whose sole need for a Republican Congress is as armor-plating to protect him from pushback to his executive overreach.”
Read Blehar's full National Review article at this link (subscription required).