As Texas Republicans continue their efforts to hand President Donald Trump five more House seats through its redistricting campaign, speculation grows that Indiana’s GOP lawmakers may soon follow suit — and under the threat of being ousted from office, a White House insider has revealed.
Speaking with Politico on Monday, a person described as “familiar with the White House’s thinking” said that plans for Indiana to arbitrarily redraw its congressional districts to bolster GOP numbers in Congress – and five years ahead of schedule – are already well underway.
And to any Indiana Republican lawmakers considering not going along with the redistricting plan, the insider said that the Trump administration has a powerful coercion tool at its disposal: well-funded primary challenges.
“Politics is a team sport, and they prefer to do things with the team,” the insider told Politico. “But if Republicans refuse to play team ball, they will very likely begin to focus on upgrading players.”
The new revelation is just the latest development in what has been described by some as the ‘redistricting wars,’ kicked off by Texas last month when Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott called a special session to redraw the state’s districts. Texas Democrats have resisted the efforts, denying Texas Republicans a quorum in the Legislature by fleeing to other states, though Trump and Texas Republicans have remained persistent.
California responded in kind with its own plan to redraw its congressional districts, a plan that Republican House leadership has vowed to halt.
On Indiana, the insider said that funding primary challengers for dissenting Republicans would be no issue, given the “mountain of cash” at Republican leadership’s disposal.
“They have a mountain of cash and even more motivation to win the redistricting wars Democrats started long ago,” the insider said.
Indiana Republicans have remained tight-lipped about the redistricting plans, with Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, a Republican, telling reporters Monday that he remains undecided on calling a special session to enact any redistricting plans. Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston
told the Indiana Capitol ChronicleMonday that, on the matter of redistricting, House Republicans were “still talking.”