By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
August 26, 2025
Indiana state Democratic lawmakers and voter-rights advocacy groups turned up the heat in the political kitchen Tuesday to remind Republican legislators of the potential firestorm that a mid-decade redistricting may bring.
The day began with Democratic senators and representatives holding a news conference Tuesday morning at Indianapolis International Airport to call attention to the meeting Indiana GOP lawmakers were having on the same day with President Donald Trump, where they were expected to discuss redrawing the state’s congressional districts. Entitled “Sayonara, Sellouts,” the press event was held at baggage claim and billed as a sendoff for the Hoosier Republicans headed to Washington, D.C.
In the evening, Common Cause Indiana will be leading a redistricting protest at the Statehouse. Civic and democracy groups, elected officials and private citizens were expected to attend the rally to tell Gov. Mike Braun and the Republican supermajority to not convene a special legislative session for gerrymandering the maps.
Also, MADVoters Indiana has unveiled anti-redistricting billboards that are being placed this week in the 1st and 7th congressional districts, which are held by Democratic representatives Frank Mrvan and Andre Carson, respectively. The outdoor advertising signs describe the mid-cycle redistricting as cheating and urge Hoosiers to take action by posing for a selfie with the billboards and posting it to social media under the hashtag #nocheaters.
“When the rules are changed mid-game, that’s called cheating,” Amy Courtney, MADVoters executive director, said in a press release. “It’s simple: There can be no cheaters in a democracy.”
Chad Kinsella, associate professor of political science and managing director of the Bowen Center for Public Affairs at Ball State University, noted that while political redistricting mid-decade is unusual, the tactics being used to fight it are familiar.
Indiana Democrats are at a distinct disadvantage because they are a superminority in the legislature and, unlike their colleagues in Texas, they cannot delay or stop any redistricting special session by fleeing the state, Kinsella said. So, they are trying to attract as much attention as possible and make people aware of what is happening by sending messages such as “democracy is under threat” and Republicans are “stealing elections.”
“The only way they can fight is to make as much noise about it (as possible) and get people riled up,” Kinsella said. “There may be the hopes that maybe this will be an issue in 2026 that could get them out of the superminority.”
Pressuring the Hoosier State to redistrict this year – instead of waiting for the traditional time of once a decade when the U.S. Census is taken – may seem bewildering since Indiana is solidly red with Republicans holding all statewide elected offices, both U.S. Senate seats and seven of the nine congressional districts. Moreover, a reconfigured congressional district map might net Republicans only one more seat in the U.S. House, since Carson’s seat in heavily Democratic Indianapolis is considered fairly safe.
However, Kinsella pointed out Trump is trying to keep the GOP in power in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, where the current difference between the majority and minority in both chambers is fewer than 10 seats. Although the Republicans regained control of the lower chamber in the 2022 midterm election, the red wave that many thought would sweep Democrats from Capitol Hill did not materialize as the GOP failed to win the Senate – something they could not do until the 2024 election – and gained only a slim majority in the House.
Midterm elections are not always kind to the party holding the White House, Kinsella said. In addition, Trump likes working with his “own people,” because he knows he can advance his policies even further with a Republican Congress. The president remembers what happened during his first term and does not want a repeat of 2018, when Democrats took over and his agenda stalled, Kinsella said.
As a result, fights are now breaking out in unlikely places.
“It seems like much ado just to get that one congressional district in Indiana,” Kinsella said, “but, you know, that one might matter.”
Braun’s public schedule this week does not include any mention of a redistricting announcement but instead says the governor will be talking about the dollars saved under his administration’s initiatives and recognizing student entrepreneurs at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Still, opponents to a mid-decade redistricting are keeping the spotlight on Indiana Republicans.
State Rep. Maureen Bauer, D-South Bend, issued a statement on Tuesday calling attention to the price – literally – that Indiana taxpayers will pay for any redistricting effort.
“If Republicans call a special session to do Trump’s bidding, Hoosiers will be the ones footing the bill,” Bauer said. “That’s money that should be invested in tackling the real challenges families face every day such as strengthening our schools, lowering property taxes, improving health care and making the cost of living more affordable. Instead, Republicans are tossing Hoosier priorities aside for Trump’s political agenda.”
Indiana Republicans could face consequences if they proceed with mid-decade redistricting. Kinsella said the outrage burning around the issue could be sustained through the 2026 election and cause some red seats to flip to blue in the Indiana General Assembly. Also, adjusting the boundaries on the existing congressional districts might make a few safe Republican seats vulnerable to upsets by Democratic challengers.
Even so, the wild cards in any scenario are the voters. Kinsella said voter turnout and changing voter attitudes have, in the recent past, overcome political advantages that were drawn into congressional and legislative maps in other states. At some point, the “numbers just don’t add up or the trends go against you,” so gerrymandering might be negated at the ballot box, but, he said, the redistricting opponents in Indiana will have to work to keep the voters focused on the topic, because November 2026 is more than a year away.
Kinsella said trying to maintain the anger surrounding redistricting so voters are motivated to show their discontent at the polling place is like “trying to catch lightning in a bottle.” He pointed to reproductive rights and noted how the outrage over the legislature’s passage of a near-total abortion ban during a special session in August of 2022 failed to put a Hoosier Democrat into the governor’s office or eat into the Republicans’ grip on the General Assembly in 2024.
“The hope for (Democrats) is they’ll strike a chord with enough voters that there will be an electoral price to pay for doing this,” Kinsella said of mid-decade redistricting. “But, again, we’ll have to see. It’ll be tough to know exactly what will happen and how people will respond and if people remember come election next year.”
If Indiana Republicans decide not to redistrict this year, Kinsella suspects they will let the issue fizzle out rather than tell Trump, “No, we’re not going to do this.” Instead, the Hoosier GOP might point to candidate filing deadlines and say they cannot get the maps redrawn and passed in time.
However, Democrats and nonprofits are not likely to turn down the heat.
“They’re going to fight it tooth and nail the whole way,” Kinsella said. “If it stops tomorrow or continues to a special session, they’re going to fight it tooth and nail.”
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.
