By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
August 8, 2025
U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan, thought to be the Hoosier Democrat most vulnerable to a possible mid-decade redistricting in Indiana, told a crowd of protesters in Indianapolis on Thursday that he is certain state lawmakers will convene to redraw the congressional maps this year.
“I know very confidently and I believe humbly that this is a done deal,” Mrvan said.
The third-term congressman was among Democrats who joined a protest at the Statehouse against a potential call to redistrict in order to garner more Republican-held congressional seats. Since Gov. Mike Braun confirmed on Tuesday that Vice President JD Vance was going to be visiting Indiana, Democratic lawmakers and voting rights advocates have suspected President Donald Trump is pressuring the state’s GOP leadership to follow Texas’ lead and draw new congressional districts ahead of the 2026 election.
While Vance was at the Statehouse meeting with Braun, hundreds of Hoosiers gathered on the main floor to fight against redistricting before the next decennial census. Seven of Indiana’s nine congressional seats are held by Republicans, while Reps. Mrvan, of the 1st Congressional District, and Andre Carson, of the 7th Congressional District, are the lone Democrats.
Of the two Democrat-held districts, Mrvan’s seems more likely to be the focus of any GOP effort to reconfigure the boundaries to give Republicans the advantage. Carson’s district covers most of Indianapolis, a solidly Democratic city, and would be much more difficult to flip from blue to red.
Some are speculating that the Trump administration is leading effort to redistrict mid-decade in states like Indiana with GOP-controlled legislatures in order to prevent a possible “blue wave” in the 2026 mid-term elections that would give control of the U.S. House to Democrats.
John Bisognano, president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, called Vance’s meeting with Indiana Republican leaders part of a “clear attempt to rig federal elections and cheat the American people out of a voice.”
With the sleeves of his blue dress shirt rolled up, Mrvan stood before the protestors and hammered at the policies and actions of the Trump administration. He slammed the White House, accusing it of cutting health care and veterans’ services, diminishing the country’s manufacturing base and taking away jobs, and eliminating legal due process and women’s reproductive rights while giving a tax cut to the wealthiest Americans
“Today, JD Vance and Donald Trump brought the circus to Indianapolis,” Mrvan told the boisterous group. “They brought the circus to Indianapolis and the chaos. And why did they do that? Because they are afraid of checks and balances and they are afraid that they know that their policies have hurt individuals … so now they want to redistrict.”
Neither Braun nor the Statehouse leadership has announced any plans to call the General Assembly into a special session to remap the state’s congressional districts in the coming months. Legislative and congressional districts are traditionally redrawn by law every 10 years after the national census, but as Texas Republicans are attempting to redistrict mid-cycle in order to put more GOP lawmakers in Congress, other Republican and Democratic states have indicated they are going to follow suit.
In confirming Vance’s trip to Indiana, Braun downplayed the conjecture that Indiana would be redrawing its maps and said the GOP leaders would be discussing a variety of subjects. House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers, and Senate President Pro Tem Rod Bray, R-Martinsville, participated in the meeting with the vice president and afterward released statements that did not mention redistricting.
“We had a productive meeting and discussed several topics that are important to Indiana,” Bray said in a statement. “I appreciated the opportunity to hear from the Vice President on a variety of issues, which we will continue to talk through in the days ahead.”
Vance met with Braun and legislative leaders Thursday morning at the Statehouse. The vice president left the meeting and exited the building through the lower level, thereby avoiding most of the protesters, about 11:30 a.m. As he rounded the corner, he waved and thanked one of the Indiana State Police troopers who was securing the hallway.
On social media, Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith highlighted Vance’s visit and endorsed redistricting.
“Redistricting isn’t just politics – it’s about ensuring the voice of We the People is heard loud and clear,” Beckwith wrote on X. “Indiana is proud to play a key role in shaping a stronger, freer future for our nation and as Lt. Governor I fully support this effort!”
Protesters who gathered at the Statehouse were adamantly opposed to any mid-cycle altering of Indiana’s congressional districts. They arrived early with handmade signs denouncing Republicans and gerrymandering – the manipulation of an electoral district’s boundaries to favorone party over another –and shouted their opposition to the vice president.
Emmerson Oskay, 19, of Indianapolis, and Justin Deem Loureiro, 21, a student at Butler University, took part in the protest to show their frustration with what they see as elected officials “ripping away the right to vote.” They said they keep hearing about the importance of voting and the need to have more young people go to the polls, but, they noted, barriers are increasingly being erected to block access to the ballot box.
Oskay and Loureiro said a mid-cycle redistricting would devalue Hoosiers’ votes. The pair pointed out that such a maneuver would just add to the apathy among citizens who already choose not to participate in elections, believing their votes do not matter and their voices will not be heard.
“It is wrong and immoral,” Loureiro said of efforts to curtail voting.
Ed Russell and his adult son, Ben, from Carmel, relaxed and checked their phones during a lull in the activity, before Mrvan and other Democrats spoke at the afternoon rally and press conference. The father and son listed their alarm over the Trump administration’s policies on Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, higher education and legal due process. At the state level, the Russells said they believe Hoosiers are being shortchanged because the Republicans’ prolonged grip on power as the supermajority in the Statehouse has led to an increase in government corruption with people being elected who are self-serving and self-dealing.
The possibility of Indiana legislators redistricting before the next census spurred Ed and Ben to go to the Statehouse and protest. They described the push to redraw Indiana’s maps as a “power grab” by Trump in order to retain Republican control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Ed Russell said he hoped his participation in the Statehouse protest would show others that they can join rallies and marches to let lawmakers know their concerns.
Asked if protesting would stop the push for redistricting, Ben Russell was unsure. “I hope so,” he replied. “I don’t know, but I can’t just sit at home.”
MADVoters Indiana worked quickly to organize Thursday’s “No Cheaters in Democracy” sit-in at the Statehouse and had about 400 people RSVP for the event. Amy Courtney, executive director of the Indiana chapter, said the turnout reflected a growing “pro-democracy movement” that is attracting people from across the political spectrum. Hoosiers are waking up, she said, and pushing back against the “authoritarian takeover” of the country and the state.
Courtney also sees an echo of history in current events. She remembered attending the rally held by the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus during Braun’s first State of the State address in January and feeling that Indiana was repeating its history from the 1920s, when the Ku Klux Klan infiltrated the state government.
“This is serious,” Courtney said. “Gov. Braun talks a good game about, ‘Oh, we can’t have diversity, equity and inclusion. Everything has to be merit based.’ Well, guess what? Leave it to the voters. Let it be merit based. You don’t need to cheat if you can win on merit.”
The vice presidential visit and corresponding protest came one day after the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 being signed into law. Seeking to expand access to the polls, the law outlawed discriminatory practices, such as literacy tests, that many southern states used to block Blacks from voting.
Both Carson and the Rev. David Greene, president of the Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis, told the protesters the attempt to redistrict now harkens back to a time when minorities faced more obstacles to voting. Greene compared mid-decade redistricting to “Bloody Sunday,” when civil rights marchers, advocating for voting rights, were brutally attacked by law enforcement officers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama on March 7, 1965.
“Here we are in 2025, we’re watching efforts to reverse what they marched for, not with billy clubs and hoses, but with mouse clicks and map software,” Greene said. “Let’s be real. This is an attempt to silence the Black vote.”
The Indiana Black Legislative Caucus released a statement Thursday that decried the potential for redrawing the congressional districts. The caucus pointed out that the two Democratic districts cover some of the largest minority populations in the state and called the GOP’s effort to redistrict “a direct attack on Black and minority voters in Indiana.”
Speaking after the press conference, Rep. Earl Harris Jr., chair of the IBLC, said redistricting would disenfranchise voters in Black and brown communities. Democratic lawmakers, he said, were going to continue to pound on the message to voters that their voice is going to be eliminated if the maps are redrawn.
“I hope that our constituents, I hope that our voters, understand what this means for their future, what this means in terms of taking away their ability to choose the people that represent them,” Harris, D-East Chicago, said. “We shouldn’t be letting stuff in D.C. come into the state and have this negative, corrupt and chaotic influence on us.”
Michael Potter, Democratic candidate for House District 47, which includes portions of Johnson and Shelby counties, wore an bright yellow, inflatable rubber ducky costume to the protest to call attention to the shape of his legislative district. He pulled up the legislative map on his phone and showed that his district does, indeed, resemble the water fowl in profile.
Potter ran for the House seat in 2024 and, as part of his campaign, wore the duck costume to the Johnson County fair. He said he attracted so much attention that he had to deflate and remove the duck suit in order to stave off the crowd so that he and his 5-year-old daughter could go home.
Even so, Potter is doubtful that Democrats and advocates will be able to get enough protests, phone calls, and emails to dissuade state Republican leaders from redistricting now. He said in his experience from the fair, once people found out he was wearing the duck to spotlight gerrymandering, about half lost interest and did not stay to learn more.
“I think President Trump and his protégé, Gov. Braun, want to govern like dictators,” Potter said, noting that despite the outcry against cutting Medicaid, the legislature still slashed funding for the health-care program. “I don’t think they’re interested in listening. I hope I’m wrong.”
Carson said he would “fight much harder” in the 2026 race for Congress if Indiana legislators redraw his district. Serving on Capitol Hill since 2008, he said he is disappointed that Braun is considering a mid-cycle redistricting to please Trump, and he noted some Republicans in Congress have reservations about upending the districts mid-decade.
“I have a lot of Republican friends and even they agree, when they try to get too cute with these things, they end up hurting themselves,” Carson said.
From the podium, Mrvan called on “state legislators and the moderates of Indiana and those who believe in checks and balances” to resist Trump’s pressure to redistrict. However, if the state GOP does reconfigure the 1st Congressional District, he gave no indication that he was going to give up his seat easily.
“I am Frank J. Mrvan,” the congressman said, as the crowd exploded in applause, cheers and whistles, “and no matter what district they put me in, I will fight for working-class people.”
Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.
