Indiana Senate pulls plug on redistricting. How local senators voted

Deery among 21 Senate Republicans to reject maps pushed by President Trump

The votes were, in fact, not there in the Indiana Senate.

After months of being pushed toward a plan President Donald Trump said was needed to shore up Republican control in the U.S. House – even as leadership in the Indiana Senate repeatedly there wasn’t much excitement for mid-decade redistricting – senators rejected proposed maps Thursday afternoon.

The vote: 31-19.

Going into Thursday’s debate, Sen. Ron Alting and Sen. Spencer Deery – the two Republicans who represent districts that include parts of Tippecanoe County – stuck with votes they’d announced before the special session. Alting, a Lafayette Republican, voted yes, Deery, a West Lafayette Republican, voted no.

The promises of primary challenges for Republicans who did not back maps designed to pick up the eighth and ninth seats in the U.S. House came immediately after the vote, including from Gov. Mike Braun.

“I am very disappointed that a small group of misguided state senators have partnered with Democrats to reject this opportunity to protect Hoosiers with fair maps and to reject the leadership of President Trump,” Braun said. “Ultimately, decisions like this carry political consequences. I will be working with the president to challenge these people who do not represent the best interests of Hoosiers.”

Trump weighed in the night earlier, reiterating on social media his support for challengers in May 2026 primaries to make Republicans pay for voting no. Donald Trump vowed that he’d “be spending a lot of time in Indiana next year campaigning against every single one of them” and looking to root out “these RINO consultants sabotaging MAGA.”

Heritage Action, a pro-redistricting lobbying group, had floated that Trump had “made it clear” to senators that “all federal funding will be stripped from the state” if they failed to come through.

But after more than three hours of floor speeches – in which supporters called on Indiana to answer Trump’s call and to counter other states who “played for keeps” when drawing, and in some cases redrawing, maps that leaned blue – 21 Republican senators joined the Senate’s 10 Democrats to vote down House Bill 1032.

For more from the floor debate and the scene at the Statehouse, this is from the Indiana Capital Chronicle: “Senate Republicans reject Trump’s plea for gerrymandered maps.”

Deery already faces a primary challenge from Paula Copenhaver, a former Fountain County clerk who said last month her run for the District 23 seat was motivated by Deery’s opposition to redistricting.

Sen. Spencer Deery speaks Thursday on the Indiana Senate floor against new maps for Indiana’s nine U.S. House seats.

“My bottom line is that after considering all the arguments offered in support of mid-cycle gerrymandering, I see no justification that outweighs the harms it would inflict upon the people’s faith in the integrity of our elections and our system of government,” Deery said during an eight-minute speech from the Senate floor before Thursday’s vote.

“No one benefits when we shield those who hold power from the will of the voters,” Deery said. “Over the long run, this accountability keeps us relevant, and it keeps us in power.”

During his speech, Deery acknowledged those outside the state who were pressing on Indiana, calling into questions the conservative credentials of those who were skeptical. He

“Make no mistake, I, like many of those who will join me in voting no today are constitutional fiscal and religious conservatives,” Deery said. “As long as I have breath, I will use my voice to resist a federal government that attempts to bully, direct and control this state or any state. Giving the federal government more power is not conservative, nor is the idea that any single election or branch of the government should determine the fate of the country. ... As long as we stay true to the Constitution, no single election result will determine the destiny of the nation.”

Alting did not speak from the floor Thursday. He did not immediately respond after the Senate

After last week’s 57-41 vote in the Indiana House, Alting told BiL: “I remain troubled that these maps split apart long-standing communities in Tippecanoe County that share schools, employers and daily life. I will support advancing the bill when it comes to the Senate, but nothing I’ve seen suggests the votes exist to make it law.”

The maps would have split Tippecanoe County between the 4^th District, where it is now represented by Republican Jim Baird, and the 5^th District, which is represented by Victoria Spartz. It did so by splitting Lafayette in half; dividing up Purdue’s campus; leaving Lafayette, Tippecanoe and West Lafayette school districts with schools in different congressional districts; and splitting some West Lafayette neighborhoods.

Redistricting’s jagged lines in Lafayette/West Lafayette

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The local delegation reacts

Rep. Matt Commons, a Williamsport Republican, had been among the earliest proponents of the Trump plan and voted for it in the House last week.

“I’m disappointed on the Senate’s vote,” Commons said Thursday. “Under the Biden-Harris administration we saw record inflation, out-of-control energy costs and an open southern border. President Trump is fighting to correct the decades of bad Democrat policies. But Senate Republicans handed the keys to D.C. Democrats to implement their socialist agenda, impeach President Trump, and stop the America First agenda.”

Rep. Mark Genda, a Frankfort Republican whose District 41 includes southeastern Tippecanoe County, was among a dozen Republicans in the House who voted against the bill. He’d announced he was against the plan weeks before the special session because he said his constituents were overwhelmingly against it.

“I would like to think that the senators voted the way their constituents wanted them to vote,” Genda said. “I didn’t move (my vote), because the matter didn’t move my constituents. There was a strong majority of people that were in contact with me – people that I know, not just phone calls from obscure numbers, from obscure places, obscure names – people at the Rotary Club, it was people at my church, it was people on the street, it was people calling me, texting my office. These were people that voted for me. It was a very easy vote, because they told me how they really felt about it.”

Rep. Sheila Klinker, a Lafayette Democrat, said: “I am grateful that our friends in the Senate made the right decision for our communities. Tippecanoe County will remain whole, preserving our ability to work cohesively. Thank you to those in my community who called, emailed and participated in this issue. I deeply value your input and the important role you play in our democracy.”

Rep. Chris Campbell, a West Lafayette Democrat, said: “I am proud of our senators today who stood up for fairness for Hoosier voters over politics.”

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