By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
October 10, 2025
As Vice President JD Vance returned to the Indiana Statehouse on Friday to convince state Republican lawmakers to redraw Indiana’s congressional district map, protesters and Democratic legislators gathered, again, to tell the GOP supermajority to “Just say no.”
The supermajority met with Vance for a couple of hours in the Indiana State Library, but they remained tight-lipped afterward about the nature of the conversation and where the House and Senate’s Republican caucuses stand on possibly reconfiguring the congressional boundaries.
Following the meeting, Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers, issued a statement that confirmed redistricting was discussed but did not indicate whether lawmakers wanted to redraw the maps.
“I thank Vice President Vance for again talking with our caucus members and facilitating an open dialogue on this important topic,” Huston said in his statement, adding Vance answered questions from the Republican legislators. “We had another productive conversation today and we’ll keep discussing this within our caucus and with the Hoosiers we represent as we come to a decision soon.”
Indiana Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, did not release any comment about the Friday conference with Vance.
Meanwhile Democratic legislative leaders rallied at noon with a crowd of protesters squeezed together on the third floor of the Statehouse. In their speeches, the lawmakers struck a populist note by highlighting what they see as Hoosiers’ struggle to pay for basic necessities at the same time that the Trump administration has cut federal funds and programs that helped working families.
“They can fly in Vice President Vance to twist arms again but can’t fund research, food programs or our schools?” Senate Minority Leader Shelli Yoder, D-Bloomington, said, referring to the Trump administration sending Vance back to Indiana to press Republican legislators. “They’re burning taxpayer dollars to protect their own power while leaving hard-working Hoosiers in the dust.”
In response, the protesters cheered, waved signs and chanted, “Shame, shame, shame.”
Indiana has been under pressure from President Donald Trump to do a rare mid-decade redistricting since Vance first visited on Aug. 7. The White House has been pushing Republican-controlled states to reconfigure their congressional districts to create more safe GOP seats and fend off any potential Blue wave from sweeping through the U.S. House in the 2026 midterm election.
Although the GOP-dominated legislatures in Texas and Missouri have already passed new maps, Indiana Republicans, so far, have not budged. Gov. Mike Braun, a Republican, has not called a special session of the legislature and GOP lawmakers have not unveiled any drafts of potential redrawn congressional districts or held any meetings to take public comments.
Time to redistrict and prepare for the 2026 election is slipping away. Individuals running in that midterm election have between Jan. 7 and Feb. 6, 2026 to file their declarations of candidacy with the Indiana Election Division. Before the filing start date, county clerks would have to adjust their precinct lines to comply with the new boundaries if new maps are adopted by the legislature.
Several voting-rights organizations had representatives at the protest. Julia Vaughn, Common Cause Indiana executive director, and Megan Robertson, Indiana Conservation Voters executive director, spoke to the crowd. Also, Amy Courtney, MADVoters Indiana executive director, gave brief remarks while some of her colleagues, dressed as Trump, Vance and Braun, pantomimed a puppet show.
House Minority Leader Phil GiaQuinta, D-Fort Wayne, told the protesters the Trump administration was focused on redistricting in order to avoid answering for its policies, including those that have impacted health-care insurance by causing some Hoosiers to lose their coverage altogether while others face skyrocketing premiums if the tax subsidies in the Affordable Care Act are not extended before the end of the year.
“Vance is here today because he and our federal Republican lawmakers know that consequences are coming at the ballot box next November,” GiaQuinta said. “They would rather cheat by rigging our maps against Democrats and Independents than do the simple thing, which is pass laws that Americans actually want. They would rather cheat than do the work of compromising and negotiating with Democrats to reopen the federal government.”
Concerns about the Republican agenda brought Scott Johnson and Kayla McGuire to the Statehouse to protest redistricting. Johnson, who was wearing a black T-shirt with the words “unpaid protester” on the front, and McGuire, who was dressed in light-blue Pokemon pajamas to show her solidarity with the people protesting the deportation actions by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said they are worried that if the GOP retains control of the U.S. House, Trump will become more emboldened to violate the U.S. Constitution, federal laws and democratic norms.
“This is not left v. right as much as right v. wrong,” Johnson said.
Seated on the interior marble steps of the Indiana Statehouse, Navy veteran Dan Beeker saw himself as fighting for his country.
The Bloomington native had enlisted in the Navy as a young man during the Vietnam War to avoid being drafted, completed basic training in San Diego and served for six years. Then he returned home and settled into Hoosier life.
Traveling to Indianapolis to join the Friday protest, Beeker used stark language to describe mid-decade redistricting, calling it unethical, immoral and “one more step toward dictatorship.”
“It disgusts me,” Beeker said. “I didn’t spend six years fighting for democracy just to lose it at home.”
Of Indiana’s nine congressional districts, the 1st in northwest Indiana and the 7th covering most of Indianapolis are held by Democratic Reps. Frank Mrvan and Andre Carson, respectively. These are the two districts that Republican lawmakers would hope to flip by redoing the congressional maps.
State Sen. Andrea Hunley, D-Indianapolis, said the intent of redistricting is not just to claim two Democratic seats but also to dilute the votes of the large minority populations in those districts.
“They are targeting Marion County and Lake County and that is not by mistake, that is by design,” Hunley said during her speech to the protesters. “By design, they are working hard to silence Black voters, to silence Latino voters and to silence voters who are willing to stand up for their neighbors. … So let us not forget, this is also about race.”
After the speeches in the Statehouse, the protesters went outside and continued their anti-redistricting rally at the corner of Ohio Street and Senate Avenue, about half a block from the entrance to the state library, where Vance and GOP lawmakers continued to huddle. They stood on the street, which was blocked by officers and patrol units from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police and Indiana State Police, waving signs and chanting such sayings as “JD go home” and “JD just stop it, put people over profits.” One man repeatedly banged a wooden drum stick against a small black metal pot.
When the vice president’s motorcade of police cars and large black SUVs suddenly exited from the opposite side of the building and sped away from downtown Indianapolis, the protesters erupted in a loud and long boo.
Dan Sassano of Indianapolis was among those protesting outside the state library. He held a handmade sign, which said, “Redistricting Bad for Indiana,” and chanted with the other protesters. Afterward, he thanked the IMPD officer who had been standing by the crowd and shook her hand.
A former Republican who said he shifted to the left as he matured into adulthood, Sassano said his message to Vance would be to get out among Hoosiers and listen to their worries and fears.
“He is in a position to make the country better, but what he’s doing is dividing us,” Sassano said of the vice president. “We’re falling into a civil war.”
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.
