President Donald Trump privately pushed Indiana’s top GOPlawmakers to redraw their state’s congressional maps this week, while outside allies lodged a pressure campaign, part of an increasingly urgent effort to help Republicans preserve their narrow majority in next year’s U.S. House elections.
Indiana’s Republican lawmakers remain divided. But Trump’s direct input appears to be making a difference, with at least one critic who attended meetings at the White House on Tuesday, which also included Vice President JD Vance, softening his position.
State Rep. Jim Lucas (R) told the Indianapolis Star that he was more open to redistricting after hearing from Vance, a sharp turn in rhetoric from just weeks ago, when he questioned on X whether it was worth “putting many good state elected officials at risk because of a political redistricting stunt!”
The Indiana debate shows how closely every seat is being fought. Republicans already hold seven of nine U.S. House seats and it’s possible new maps would yield them only a single new favorable district. But that couldmake a difference in a Congress where Republicans now hold a narrow advantage, 219-212, with four vacancies. A loss of GOP control would let Democrats thwart some of Trump’s agenda and investigate his administration…