'Find your backbone!' Red state GOP leaders infighting over Trump's vote-rigging plot

Indiana Republican leadership has descended into mudslinging at each other over frustration at getting the votes to pass President Donald Trump's election-rigging scheme to eliminate two Democratic districts in the state.

On Wednesday, Politico reported that the state Senate President Pro Tempore, Rodric Bray, believes that chamber still doesn't have the votes to do a mid-decade gerrymander as was done in Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina, with a number of Republican lawmakers resisting pressure from Trump as well as party leaders. A spokeswoman for Bray said, “The votes aren’t there for redistricting.”

The entire state's GOP congressional delegation has endorsed the proposal, as well as Gov. Mike Braun, and Trump has sent Vice President JD Vance to the state multiple times to lobby for them to move ahead.

In response to the news, allies of Trump in the state are pushing back, insisting they can, in fact, get the votes. Braun's office said he “is still having positive conversations with members of the legislature and is confident the majority of Indiana statehouse Republicans will support efforts to ensure fair representation in Congress for every Hoosier.”

But one of the most heated responses came from Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, who issued a lengthy statement attacking the Republicans holding up the effort.

"The people of Indiana did not elect a Republican supermajority so our Senate could cower, compromise, or collapse at the very moment courage is required," wrote Beckwith. "The Indiana Republican-controlled Senate is failing to stand with President Trump, failing to defend the voice of Hoosier voters, and failing to deliver the 9-0 conservative map our citizens overwhelmingly expect. For years, it has been said accurately that the Indiana Senate is where conservative ideas from the House go to die. As President of the Senate, I am no longer willing to let that reputation stand unchallenged. We are not elected to fail. We are elected to show up and speak on behalf of our constituents."

"I am calling on my Republican colleagues in the Indiana Senate to find your backbone, to remember who sent you here, and to reclaim Indiana's rightful voice in Congress by drawing a 9-0 map," Beckwith thundered.