INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Gov. Mike Braun is noncommittal on calling a special session to mid-decade redistricting despite pressure from the White House, but said the issue could come up when Vice President JD Vance visits the Hoosier state.
Asked whether he would call a special session to redistrict, Braun said “whatever we discuss there, if that topic comes up, is exploratory. So there’s been no commitments made other than that.”
Braun, who is a constitutionally weak governor working with a more powerful legislature, said redistricting “will be a broad conversation with the speaker and president pro tem.”
“Folks raising the most Cain about it are the ones that have gerrymandered their own states, where it looks like maybe the tentacles of an octopus," he told reporters at the Indiana Statehouse, adding: "We’ll see what happens."
Vance’s visit on Thursday comes as President Donald Trump leans heavily on states where Republicans control the legislature and the governor’s seat to redraw congressional maps mid-cycle. That effort has triggered a fierce battle in Texas, where Republicans are hoping to create five new favorable districts — if they can overcome Democrats’ efforts to prevent the legislature from having a quorum.
Republicans currently control seven of the nine seats in Indiana’s congressional delegation, but some Trump allies are hoping the state will draw new maps to squeeze Democratic Rep. Frank Mrvan out of his northwest Indiana district.
Trump has said he hopes to gain as many as five additional seats through redistricting beyond the new Texas map. That means more states besides Texas and Ohio — which is legally required to redraw its maps and could net Republicans up to three more favorable seats — may join the redistricting wars.
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