Some Indiana Republicans are resisting the White House pressure campaign to redraw the state's congressional maps in their own favor.
Vice President JD Vance has visited the state twice since August in an effort to force GOP legislators to create new congressional maps in an unusual mid-decade redistricting, as Republicans have done in Texas and other states, but MAGA loyalists haven't been able to whip up enough votes to do President Donald Trump's bidding, reported Talking Points Memo.
“Indiana should be leading the nation, not apologizing for being a strong conservative state, while radical Democrat Marxists wage war on our Constitution, our children, and the future of this Republic,” said Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith in a warning to unsupportive Republicans. “Washington is being overrun by an anti-American agenda, and instead of joining President Trump in reclaiming our voice, too many in our own Senate choose the path of weakness and political convenience.”
GOP legislators have been publicly threatening their colleagues in the state Senate who have opposed Trump's gerrymandering effort to help maintain Republican control of the U.S. House next year, but former Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels published an op-ed in the Washington Post encouraging them to stand strong.
“I don’t underestimate the pressure Indiana’s leaders are under, and I empathize with them in the predicament they face, but I hope they’ll quietly and respectfully pass on this idea," Daniels wrote. "Their duty is to the citizens and the future of our state, not to a national political organization or a temporary occupant of the White House, and doing the right thing, by the way, really would be its own reward.”
Redistricting typically takes place once a decade after the Census has been completed, but Trump and his MAGA allies in GOP-controlled state legislatures have passed new maps in an effort to lock in their control of Congress.
“Republicans drew this map and have no unfairness to complain about; with about 60 percent of the state’s total congressional votes cast, they won seven out of nine House seats,” Daniels wrote.
The former governor, who has rarely made political statements since leaving office, argued there was no way to revise lines around Indianapolis, which the White House is pressuring Republicans to redraw, to dilute the influence of Democratic voters in the state's capital and largest city.
“No amount of line-drawing artistry can turn that area into a Republican seat, so that leaves the state’s northwest corner, where the Democratic margin has been in the mid-50s,” Daniels wrote. “Conceivably some computer could carve out a winnable GOP district. The attempt, which might not even work, would, I’m convinced, come at the expense of public disgust; Hoosiers, like most Americans, place a high value on fairness and react badly to its naked violation.”