Indiana Senate committee advance redistricting legislation backed by Trump toward final floor vote

State senators in Indiana advanced a proposal to redraw the state's congressional boundaries Monday, although it is not clear if it has the support to become law in a final vote expected later this week even after months of pressure from President Donald Trump.

The legislation was designed to favor GOP candidates in the next year's midterms. Republicans control the state Senate, but many have been hesitant or openly opposed to the idea of mid-decade redistricting. About a dozen have been threatened over their stance or refusal to immediately declare support over the past several weeks.

Still, the Senate's elections committee voted 6-3 to advance the measure, with one Republican and two Democrats lawmakers opposing it.

The final vote of the whole chamber is expected Thursday and could test Trump's typically iron grip on the Republican Party.

During committee debate Monday night, state Sen. Greg Walker, an Indiana Republican who is against redistricting and voted against it in committee, spoke about threats made against him in recent weeks.

''I refuse to be intimidated,'' Walker proclaimed in an impassioned speech during the committee meeting. ''I fear for all states if we allow intimidation and threats to become the norm.''

The map, introduced just last Monday and passed by the Republican supermajority in the state House on Friday, would split the city of Indianapolis into four districts distributed across other Republican-leaning areas. It also groups the cities of East Chicago and Gary with a broad rural region.

Republicans currently hold seven of the state's nine districts.

Why redistricting?

Democrats are hoping to flip control of the U.S. House in the 2026 elections and they like their odds, since midterms tend to favor the party out of power.

Redistricting usually happens once a decade after the census, but Trump has pushed Republican-led states to create more GOP-leaning districts. Texas, Missouri, Ohio and North Carolina have followed suit, while Democrats in California and Virginia have moved to draw their own favorable maps.

Not many states, outside of those with smaller or single-member congressional delegations, are represented solely by one party.

But the idea of redrawing a congressional map last approved just four years ago has made many Republicans in Indiana uneasy. The Senate's leader, a Republican, previously said there were not enough votes to support redistricting.

A few of the Republican senators who voted to move the legislation forward Monday said it deserved to be debated by the full Senate, but indicated they may vote against it's final passage.

''I reserve my right to change my vote on the floor,'' said state Sen. Linda Rogers, a Republican on the committee.

The Senate elections committee heard testimony on the legislation from about 100 people Monday for more than four hours, the vast majority who spoke against the bill.

Kandy Baker told lawmakers she worries about her 5-year-old granddaughter's future since the new map, she fears, would dilute the political power of nonwhite voters.

Before he voted in favor of moving the legislation forward, GOP State Sen. Mike Gaskill, chair of the elections committee, called political gerrymandering an ''uncomfortable'' practice. But he said the Republican Party has act to stop Democratic policy in Congress and act against gerrymandering in Democratic states.

''This is a very small part that we can play and rebalance the scales on a national basis,'' he said.

After Senate leader Rodric Bray said the chamber would reject the governor's call for a special session on redistricting last month, Trump attacked Bray and other senators on social media and vowed to endorse primary challengers against any lawmaker who opposes redrawing the map.

In the following weeks, about a dozen state lawmakers were targeted by threats and swatting incidents, in which a hoax call attempts to prompt a police response to a private home.

Redistricting proponents need at least 25 votes in the Senate, where Democrats are vastly outnumbered and hold just 10 seats, to give final passage to the map. That would trigger a tiebreaking vote from Republican Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, who supports redistricting.

National redistricting battle

A federal judge in Missouri on Monday dismissed a lawsuit backed by Republican state officials seeking to block a referendum on a new congressional map. The decision clears the way for opponents to submit petition signatures Tuesday that could put the map on hold until a statewide vote can be held next year.

In Utah, lawmakers on Tuesday will try to reassert authority over congressional redistricting by convening a special legislative session.

A judge ruled in November that a map advanced by state lawmakers earlier this year ''unduly favors Republicans and disfavors Democrats.'' The judge imposed an alternative map that would keep Democratic-leaning Salt Lake County almost entirely within one district rather than split between the four Republican-leaning districts.

The legislative session's agenda includes pushing back next year's filing deadlines from January to March, buying time until after a potential ruling on redistricting by the state Supreme Court.

___