Indiana Governor Mike Braun says he was never really sold on redistricting. But he was certain of one thing: crossing President Donald Trump on the issue would come with consequences.
“I agreed with the reasons for doing it, didn’t know that it was absolutely necessary,” Braun said. “Then you can make a decision: are you going to be with it or against it? And are there going to be repercussions that follow? And that was clear to me that there were going to be.”
The comments came June 11 on the “Shively & Shoulders” program on WNIN public television in Evansville, where Braun described the redistricting push as part of a larger national strategy to counter what he sees as years of Democratic advantages in blue states.
Braun tied the effort directly to Trump.
“I’m sure the protagonist for that, being the Trump administration, I agreed with it, because I feel that we were trying to even the playing field,” he said.
Braun argued that Democratic-leaning states such as Massachusetts, California, Illinois and New York have benefited from favorable maps and population counts for years, saying some of those states “have been gerrymandered for 20 years.” He also pointed to how the census counts “whoever’s living here in this country” when apportioning congressional seats — an approach he said has produced “an uneven playing field,” with blue states gaining seats while smaller, more conservative states like the Dakotas, Wyoming and Alaska hold fewer. The Constitution, it should be noted, requires the census to count all persons residing in the country, not just citizens.
By contrast, Braun said Indiana has traditionally avoided aggressive partisan tactics.
“Indiana, again, is a state that kind of plays by the rules and likes to do things pro forma,” he said. “There hasn’t been much pro forma about national politics for a long time.”
He said Republicans nationally have been “flat footed” while Democrats have treated politics as both their “growth business” and their “cathedral,” pursuing it with more intensity and sophistication.
Braun’s “never fully sold” framing is notable given his posture at the time. It was Braun who called the General Assembly into special session last fall specifically to take up new maps, and after the effort died, he blasted the senators who killed it as “misguided” and vowed to work with Trump to challenge them.
The redistricting fight consumed the Statehouse for the better part of five months. House Bill 1032 — a map drawn to produce a 9-0 Republican congressional delegation — passed the Indiana House 57-41 in early December. But on December 11, the Senate rejected it 31-19, with 21 Republicans, including President Pro Tem Rodric Bray, joining all 10 Democrats in voting no. It marked the first time a Republican-led legislature had turned back the Trump-driven national redistricting campaign.
The repercussions Braun anticipated arrived on schedule. In the May 5 primary, six Republican senators who voted against redistricting — Travis Holdman, Jim Buck, Linda Rogers, Rick Niemeyer, Dan Dernulc and Greg Walker — lost renomination to challengers backed by Trump and allied groups tied to Braun, U.S. Sen. Jim Banks and others, who together spent an estimated $8 million to $9 million on the races. Only Greg Goode of Terre Haute survived outright, while Spencer Deery of West Lafayette held on by three votes — a margin that survived a June recount of ballots across six counties, though challenger Paula Copenhaver’s contest of the results remains pending before the Indiana Recount Commission. Lawmakers on both sides of the fight expect the issue to return in the 2027 session.
During the WNIN interview, Braun was pressed on whether redrawing the maps would effectively disenfranchise Black voters in heavily Democratic areas. The proposed map would have split U.S. Rep. André Carson’s Indianapolis-based 7th District into four pieces, pairing Democratic city voters with rural Republican counties, and carved up U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan’s 1st District in Northwest Indiana.
“Don’t we disenfranchise the black voters in Gary, and the black voters internally in Indianapolis?” he was asked.
“No, and I never would want to do that,” Braun replied. “Bigotry, racism can’t be tolerated. We can’t have any of that.”
