Trump’s redistricting push hits roadblocks in Indiana and Kansas as Republican lawmakers resist

For most of the president Donald Trump’s In the second term, Republicans bowed to his will. But in two Midwestern states, Trump’s plan to maintain control of the US House of Representatives by appointing Republicans in next year’s elections Redrawing congressional districts He encountered a roadblock.

Despite weeks of White House campaigning, Republicans in Indiana and Kansas say their party doesn’t have enough votes to pass new, GOP-friendly maps. That has made the two states outliers in the rush to redistrict where Republican-majority legislatures are unwilling or unable to heed Trump’s call and help maintain the party’s control of Capitol Hill.

Lawmakers in two states may still be persuaded, including pressure from the White House. Oval Office meeting Two trips to Indianapolis for Indiana lawmakers and by the Vice President J.D. Vanceis expected to continue. But for now, this is a rare setback for the president and his efforts to keep a cohesive GOP-held Congress after the 2026 midterm elections.

Typically, states redraw the boundaries of congressional districts every 10 years based on census data. But since midterm elections tend to favor the party that is not in power, Trump is pressuring Republicans to draft new maps that favor the GOP.

Democrats need to win just three seats to flip control of the House of Representatives, and the fight has become an abrasive back-and-forth.

Many Democratic states are moving to counter Republican gains with new maps of their own. The latter, Virginia, is expected to take up the issue in a special session starting Monday.

Hoosier state hesitates

Indiana, whose House delegation includes seven Republicans and two Democrats, was one of the first states the Trump administration focused on redistricting efforts this summer.

But a spokesman for State Senate Leader Rodric Bray’s office said Thursday that the chamber does not have the votes needed to redistrict. With only 10 Democrats in the 50-member Senate, that means more than a dozen of the 40 Republicans oppose the idea.

Bray’s office did not respond to multiple interview requests.

Consensus can come from several schools of thought. New political lines are poorly executedIt could make solidly Republican districts more competitive. Others believe that stacking the deck is completely wrong.

“We are being asked to create a new culture where it will be normal for a political party to elect new voters not just once a decade, but whenever it fears the consequences of an upcoming election,” Republican state Sen. Spencer Deery said in August.

Deery’s office did not respond to an interview request and said the statement was valid.

A common argument in favor of the new maps is that Democratic-run states like Massachusetts lack Republican representatives, while Illinois uses redistricting for partisan advantage — a process known as gerrymandering.

“Democratic states have gerrymandered under the cover of night for decades,” Republican state Sen. Chris Garten said on social media. “We can no longer sit idly by while our country is stolen from us.”

Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, who would vote to break a tie in the state Senate if necessary, recently urged lawmakers to move forward on redistricting and criticized them for not being conservative enough.

“It has been accurately said for years that the Indiana Senate is where conservative ideas in the House die,” Beckwith said in a social media post.

Indiana is deeply conservative, but Republicans tend to cultivate deliberate moderation.

“Hoosiers, it’s very difficult to predict us other than to say we’re very cautious,” former GOP state lawmaker Mike Murphy said. “We are not interested in trends.”

This vigilance reflects a certain independent streak among voters in both states and a willingness on the part of some to back down.

Writing in The Washington Post last week, Republican former Gov. Mitch Daniels urged Indiana lawmakers to resist redistricting pressure. “Someone has to lead the climb out of the mud pit,” he said.

“Hoosiers, like most Americans, place high value on justice and react badly to blatant violations of that justice,” he wrote.

Republicans are also having trouble finding votes in Kansas

In Kansas, Republican legislative leaders are trying to bypass the Democratic governor and call a special session for only the second time in the state’s 164-year history. Gov. Laura Kelly opposes mid-decade redistricting, arguing it could be unconstitutional.

The Kansas Constitution allows GOP lawmakers to force a special session with a petition signed by two-thirds of both chambers — plus supermajorities needed to override Kelly’s expected veto of a new map. Republicans hold four seats more than a two-thirds majority in the state Senate and House of Representatives. Either way, the defection of five Republicans would defeat the effort.

Weeks after state Senate President Ty Masterson announced he was pushing for a special session, GOP leaders were struggling to get the last few signatures needed.

Among those holding out is Rep. Mark Schreiber, who represents a district southwest of Topeka. He told the Associated Press that he “has not signed a petition to hold a special session and I have no intention of signing it.” Schreiber said he believes redistricting should only be used to reflect changes in population after censuses are conducted every 10 years.

“There should be no redistricting by any party in the middle of the cycle,” he said.

Republicans will likely target Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, who represents the Kansas City area’s 3rd Congressional District, which includes Johnson County, the state’s most populous district. The suburban district accounts for more than 85% of the vote and has trended left since 2016.

There are a fair number of moderate Republicans in Kansas, with 29% of the state’s 2 million voters registered as politically unaffiliated. Both groups are prominent in Johnson County.

Republican lawmakers had previously tried to thwart Davids’ re-election chances when redistricting, but he won It increased by more than 10 percent in 2022 and 2024.

“They tried once but they didn’t succeed,” said Jack Shearer, an 82-year-old registered Republican from suburban Kansas City.

But mid-decade redistricting has support among some Republicans in the district. State Sen. Doug Shane, whose district covers part of the county, said he believes his constituents would be willing to split the district.

“District splitting is not unprecedented and is occurring in some congressional districts across the country,” he said in an email.

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Volmert reported from Lansing, Michigan, and Hanna from Topeka, Kan. Associated Press writer Heather Hollingsworth in Lenexa, Kan., contributed to this report.