{"id":1724,"date":"2025-12-05T10:29:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T16:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/?p=1724"},"modified":"2026-06-07T12:44:50","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T17:44:50","slug":"indiana-redistricting-bill-goes-the-republicans-way-in-the-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/?p=1724","title":{"rendered":"Indiana redistricting bill goes the Republican’s way in the House"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

But 12 Republicans crossed the aisle and joined Democrats opposing the bill<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After failing twice in November to convene Indiana\u2019s state legislators for a redistricting session, Indiana\u2019s House of Representatives, dominated by Republicans, have met twice this week attempting to fulfill President\u2019s Trump request to give his party a larger majority of representatives in the U.S. House<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans want to control all 9 of Indiana\u2019s U.S. House seats, where they now hold seven. The remaining 2 seats are held by Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All 9 congressional seats will be on the ballot in the 2026 primary and general elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans are targeting the two districts held by Democrats. By redrawing congressional district boundaries, they hope to change those districts from blue to red.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday, HB 1032, a redistricting bill authored by Rep. Ben Smaltz (R-Auburn) was introduced and assigned to the House Committee on Elections and Apportionment for its first hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, the committee approved the bill and its draft map showing new boundaries for all of Indiana\u2019s 9 Congressional Districts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Carolyn Jackson (D-Hammond) offered an amendment in committee to require public hearings to be held across the state since that was not included in the bill, but Republican committee members shot it down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Rep. Earl Harris (D-East Chicago) described it as a map that looked like a kid had colored it using crayons, the proposed map looks more like a jigsaw puzzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of work went into counting to put Indiana\u2019s population equally distributed across its 9 congressional districts. Smaltz said the House and Senate GOP worked with the National Republican Redistricting Trust to draw the new boundaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Side by side maps of the current congressional boundaries and HB 1032 proposed congressional boundaries<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Currently, the First Congressional District, represented by Democrat Frank Mrvan, includes all of Lake and Porter counties, and 6 townships in the northwest corner of LaPorte County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The redrawn border of Republican-held Congressional District 2 pushes west, taking in the 6 townships in LaPorte County\u2019s northwest corner and the townships in the northern half of Porter County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The redrawn boundary for District 1 includes all of Lake County, the townships in the southern half of Porter County, and 4 townships in southern LaPorte County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

District 1 expands further, taking in 7 counties south of LaPorte and St. Joseph counties. Cass County, Fulton County, Marshall County, Miami County, Pulaski County, Starke County, and Wabash County are Republican strongholds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the current Indiana congressional map, most of Marion County is in District 7. The district is represented by Andre Carson, a Democrat. Under the proposed map, the county would be divided between the 4th, 6th, 7th and 9th districts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indianapolis, the state\u2019s largest city and the state capitol is in Marion County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A second reading of the bill was held Thursday before the full House where members could propose amendments to HB 1032. All amendments offered by Democratic members were voted down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third and final House reading was held today, Friday, resulting in passage of HB 1032 by a vote of 57-41; 12 Republicans crossed the aisle and joined Democrats opposing the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill next goes to the Indiana Senate for passage, repeating the hearings held by the House. The senate will take up the bill on Monday, December 8. A final vote is expected on December 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But 12 Republicans crossed the aisle and joined Democrats opposing the bill After failing twice in November to convene Indiana\u2019s state legislators for a redistricting session, Indiana\u2019s House of Representatives, dominated by Republicans, have met twice this week attempting to fulfill President\u2019s Trump request to give his party a larger majority of representatives in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1724"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1746,"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1724\/revisions\/1746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}