Trump targets red state Republican lawmakers in push for congressional redistricting

Newsom thanks Texas for ‘inspiring’ California’s redistricting win

‘The Big Weekend Show’ panel discuss California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s victory lap after the state passed Prop 50, which is expected to add more Democratic representation.

President Donald Trump is turning up the heat on Indiana Republicans who have been resisting political pressure from the president to move forward with congressional redistricting.

Trump on Monday, for a second straight day, vowed to back primary challenges against state Republican lawmakers in the solidly red Midwestern state who didn't support his push to draw new maps in Indiana, which would create another GOP-leaning congressional district.

"I will be strongly endorsing against any State Senator or House member from the Great State of Indiana that votes against the Republican Party, and our Nation, by not allowing for Redistricting for Congressional seats in the United States House of Representatives," Trump wrote in a social media post.

Indiana is the latest battlefield in the high-stakes redistricting showdown pitting Trump and Republicans versus Democrats to shape the 2026 midterm landscape in the fight for the House majority.

INDIANA REPUBLICANS REJECT TRUMP-BACKED REDISTRICTING PUSH

President Donald Trump, seen pointing as he boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on Sept. 11, 2025, is targeting Indiana Republican lawmakers who are not supportive of the president's congressional redistricting push. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

Republicans currently control seven of Indiana's nine congressional districts, and any new map passed by the GOP supermajority in the legislature would likely shift the state's 1st Congressional District from blue-leaning to a red-leaning seat.

Despite pressure from Trump and his political team, Indiana Republican Senate leader Rodric Bray announced last week that there wasn't enough support in the chamber to move forward with redistricting.

Trump on Sunday lambasted Bray and another Republican state senator, calling for their ouster.

"Because of these two politically correct type ‘gentlemen,’ and a few others, they could be depriving Republicans of a Majority in the House, A VERY BIG DEAL!" the president charged.

RULING BY RED STATE JUDGE REDISTRICTING SETBACK FOR REPUBLICANS

Trump is twisting elbows in his attempt to make Indiana the latest Republican-controlled state to change their congressional maps. The president has called state lawmakers and Vice President JD Vance visited the state earlier this autumn to discuss redistricting.

And Fox News has confirmed that Trump has invited some of the Indiana Republicans who are holding out against redistricting to White House meetings in the coming days. The news was first reported by Politico.

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun speaks during a press conference at the Gary Chicago International Airport in Gary, Indiana, on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. He has called a special session to redraw the state's congressional map. (Michael Gard/Post-Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Trump, in his Sunday post, also took a jab at Republican Gov. Mike Braun of Indiana, arguing that the governor "perhaps, is not working the way he should to get the necessary Votes."

Braun on Monday wrote on social media that "I just had a great call with President Trump! I told him I remain committed to standing with him on the critical issue of passing fair maps in Indiana to ensure the MAGA agenda is successful in Congress."

And the governor claimed that "the Indiana State Senate is hiding behind closed doors and refusing to even bring redistricting to a vote. Hoosiers deserve to know where their legislators stand and expect them to show up for work, not walk out and hide in the dark."

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The push by the president in Indiana is part of a broad effort by Trump's political team and the GOP to pad the party's razor-thin House majority to keep control of the chamber in next year's midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.

Trump is aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterm elections.

Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio have drawn new maps as part of the president's push. And Florida and Kansas are also mulling redrawing their maps.

"We must keep the Majority at all costs," Trump wrote Monday.

But Democrats are fighting back.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during an election night press conference at a California Democratic Party office Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Sacramento, California. (Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP Photo)

California voters two weeks ago overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, a ballot initiative which will temporarily sidetrack the left-leaning state's nonpartisan redistricting commission and return the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democrat-dominated legislature.

That is expected to result in five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, which would counter the passage earlier this year in Texas of a new map that aims to create up to five right-leaning House seats.

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Illinois and Maryland, two blue states, and Virginia, where Democrats control the legislature, are also taking steps or seriously considering redistricting.

And in a blow to Republicans, a Utah district judge last week rejected a congressional district map drawn up by the state's GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved an alternate that will create a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in the swing state of New Hampshire. He covers the campaign trail from coast to coast."