by Misty Severi
Indiana GOP Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith this week said that President Donald Trump threatened to strip the state of federal funding if Republicans did not approve a redrawn congressional map that favored Republicans in all nine of the state’s districts.
The state Senate voted down the map redraw on Thursday, leading Trump allies to announce primary challenges to every Republican that opposed the plan. Beckwith (pictured above, right) revealed that Trump had ramped up the pressure ahead of the vote in a now-deleted post.
“They told many lawmakers, Cabinet members and [Gov. Mike Braun] and I that this would happen,” he said, according to The Hill. “The Indiana Senate made it clear to the Trump Admin today that they do not want to be partners with the WH. The WH made it clear to them that they’d oblige.”
Several Republican-led states have moved to redraw their congressional maps amid pressure from the Trump administration to give the GOP an edge in the 2026 midterms.
The redistricting proposal had the support of Gov. Mike Braun and cleared the state House. It did not secure enough support in the Senate.
After the redistricting effort failed in the state, Braun said he was “disappointed” in 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. ”
“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,” he stated.
Besides Indiana, Kansas was another state that had considered redistricting its congressional map, but it failed to get enough votes to call a special session.
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Misty Severi is a reporter for Just the News. Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network and contributed to this story.
