Gov. Mike Braun of Indiana called a special legislative session Monday to redraw his state’s congressional map to benefit Republicans, joining a national redistricting push. But it was not clear whether the governor would be able to muster enough support in the Republican-led legislature to pass a new map.

“The votes still aren’t there for redistricting,” Molly Swigart, a spokesperson for Rodric Bray, the Indiana Senate’s president pro tempore, said in an email after the governor’s announcement. Some members of the Senate were not given any advance notice that the special session would be called.

President Donald Trump’s administration has eyed Indiana for weeks as it pushed Republicans across the country to redraw their maps to boost the party’s odds of maintaining control of the U.S. House in next year’s midterm elections. Republican legislators in Texas, Missouri and North Carolina have fallen in line. But some Indiana lawmakers have remained skeptical of the plan to redraw maps outside the usual once-a-decade cycle.

Republicans Hold Majorities

Republicans hold large majorities in both chambers of the Indiana General Assembly as well as seven of the state’s nine congressional seats. Braun, a Republican, did not specify whether the proposed map would target one or both of Indiana’s Democratic-held U.S. House seats.

In a statement, the governor described the special session, set to begin next week, as an attempt to “protect Hoosiers from efforts in other states that seek to diminish their voice in Washington and ensure their representation in Congress is fair.”

Democrats have sought to counter Republican redistricting by proposing new maps in some states they lead. California voters will be asked next month to approve a new map that would make five more of its House districts Democratic-leaning. Virginia lawmakers are meeting in special session this week to consider a new map that would boost Democrats. More states, both Republican- and Democratic-led, could join the redistricting push soon.

In Indiana, Democrats immediately pushed back against the special session and urged their Republican colleagues to vote against the new map.

“This is not democracy,” said state Sen. Shelli Yoder, the Democratic leader in her chamber. “This is desperation.”

The special session announcement followed weeks of pressure from the Trump administration. Vice President JD Vance flew to Indiana twice to personally lobby Braun and legislative leaders to redraw their maps in a way that would make all nine of the state’s congressional seats likely to be won by Republicans. Each time, he left without a commitment from the governor.

“We listened,” Braun told reporters after the first meeting in August.

Trump Calls Indiana Republicans

Trump telephoned Republicans in the Indiana Senate this month to urge them to support redrawing the maps, a significant escalation in pressure from the White House.

Over the weekend, Trump continued his redistricting push with a phone call from Air Force One. He spoke with Indiana House Republicans, who have been broadly supportive of redrawing the maps, according to someone familiar with the call. The call ended with a private telephone poll that showed support in the lower chamber for redistricting.

But the Senate has indicated some resistance in Indiana.

Republican lawmakers in Indiana have been inundated with emails from conservative groups such as Turning Point USA, threatening to mount primary challenges against any who do not fall in line.

The push to redraw the maps was endorsed by Republicans in Indiana’s congressional delegation, who embarked on a social media pressure campaign in August.

Redistricting typically happens at the beginning of each decade, based on new census data that requires the reapportionment of House seats to match population shifts. Congressional Republicans currently hold a slim majority in the U.S. House and are determined to retain or expand it.

Dozens of protesters gathered in August at the Statehouse in Indianapolis to oppose the plans for new maps and loudly booed the vice president while he was in the building.

Rep. André Carson, one of Indiana’s two Democratic members of Congress, joined the group. “We will not accept our state being cut and sliced and maneuvered for a wannabe king, Donald Trump,” he said.

New boundaries might be drawn to place both Carson, whose current district is based in Indianapolis, and Rep. Frank Mrvan, a Democrat who represents the northwest corner of the state, into red-leaning districts.

—

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Julie Bosman, Nick Corasaniti and Mitch Smith/Anna Rose Layden
c. 2025 The New York Times Company