Red State Advances New Congressional Map

The Indiana House of Representatives has passed a new congressional map that’s expected to give Republicans a 9-0 advantage in the state’s congressional delegation.

The map advances to the state Senate, where there’s uncertainty that it will pass the GOP-led chamber.

BREAKING: The Indiana House of Representatives has just PASSED the redrawn U.S. House maps, which ELIMINATES all Democrat Congressional districts in the state

The State Senate will convene on Monday to have their vote, so keep up the pressure! pic.twitter.com/VDtP7LSBuM

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) December 5, 2025

Indiana Capital Chronicle explained further:

House members voted 57-41 in favor of the new maps crafted to produce a 9-0 Republican delegation by carving up the districts currently held by Democratic Reps. André Carson in Indianapolis and Frank Mrvan in the area along Lake Michigan near Chicago.

Twelve Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the bill.

Democratic lawmakers denounced the proposed redistricting as a racial gerrymander for dividing Carson’s 7th District — the state’s most urban and racially diverse — among four new districts. Those extend far into rural heavily Republican counties, with two of the proposed districts stretching to the Ohio River and another nearly reaching Lake Michigan.

Republican Rep. Ben Smaltz, author of the redistricting plan in House Bill 1032, maintains the new districts were drawn “purely for political performance” of GOP candidates.

Attention will now turn to the state Senate, which is scheduled to take up the proposed maps beginning Monday.

The news follows the U.S. Supreme Court allowing Texas to use its new congressional map, which is expected to yield five additional GOP-held House seats.

JUST IN: Supreme Court Issues Ruling On New Texas Congressional Map

More from the Associated Press:

Republicans currently hold seven of Indiana’s nine U.S. House seats. Indiana lawmakers have been under increasing pressure from the White House to follow the lead of Republicans in Texas, Missouri, Ohio and North Carolina, which have all passed new maps in recent months ahead of next year’s midterms. To offset the GOP gains, Democrats in California and Virginia have moved to do the same.

Smaltz said Friday the tit-for-tat mid-decade redistricting between Democratic and Republican states may continue for the next several cycles and “may be the new normal.”

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The Indiana House vote ups the pressure on Senate Republicans to approve the new map for final passage.

While redistricting is typically done at the beginning of a new decade with the census, Trump has pushed Republican-led states to redistrict this year to give the GOP an easier path to maintaining its majority in the U.S. House. Democrats only need to flip a handful of seats next November to overcome the GOP’s current margin, and midterm elections typically favor the party opposite the one in power.

Republican Todd Huston, Indiana’s House speaker, took to the floor Friday to defend the redistricting proposal in light of the partisan power balance across the country, saying “we don’t operate in a vacuum.”