The Indiana Senate on Thursday voted down a Republican bill to redistrict congressional districts, in a major blow to President Donald Trump.
Trump had successfully pushed partisan gerrymanders in statehouses across the country as the GOP tries to hold on to its razor-thin House majority.
The new map, passed by the Indiana House, could have netted Republicans two additional seats in the House.
The president and his top aides banketed Indiana in a pressure campaign to push the House-passed map, including visits from Vice President JD Vance. Trump took to social media on Wednesday night to personally blast Indiana House Speaker Rod Bray for opposing redistricting.
"He is putting every ounce of his limited strength into asking his soon-to-be very vulnerable friends to vote with him. By doing so, he is putting the Majority in the House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., at risk and, at the same time, putting anybody in Indiana who votes against this Redistricting, likewise, at risk," Trump wrote.
Sen. Greg Goode, a Republican and a key swing vote who would not divulge his leaning under immense pressure from the White House, voted against the bill.
"We have to redirect our focus to what really matters, I believe, to Hoosiers," Goode said in a speech on the floor before the vote.
"The forces that define this vitriolic political affairs in places outside of Indiana have been gradually and now very blatantly infiltrated the political affairs in Indiana," Goode said, citing instances of misinformation, pressure campaigns and threats of primaries and violence. Goode was swatted earlier this year after Trump accused him of "not wanting to resdistrict" in a TRUTH Social post.
Supporters of the new map argued that delivering the new maps was critical to safeguarding the Republican House majority in Washington, a brazen acknowledgement that the goal of the redistrict is partisan advantage. States across the country have pushed redistricting for partisan advantage after the Supreme Court barred maps drawn for partisan advantage to be challenged.
"If we fail to secure a governing majority in the House that supports this agenda, we risk handing the keys back to the very people who destabilized the world in the first place," said Sen. Chris Garten, a Republican who supports the gerrymander.
Trump's brazen push for gerrymanders that benefit Republicans has kicked off a nationwide war between states controlled by Republicans and Democrats. The maps that create each state's congressional districts are typically only drawn once every 10 years by state legislators after a census.
Republican-controlled Texas adopted a map in August to net the Republicans five additional seats. Democrat-controlled California then responded, adopting a new map in a November referendum that would net Democrats five additional seats. Other states like Missouri, North Carolina, Florida, Maryland and Virginia have joined the fray.