INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (AP) — As President Donald Trump ramps up pressure on Republican-run states to redraw congressional boundaries, he has dispatched Vice President JD Vance to Indiana and called for a new federal census — moves reflecting his intent to maximize the GOP's partisan advantages in coming elections.
Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Thursday that FBI Director Kash Patel had granted his request for the agency to get involved in corralling Democratic state lawmakers who left Texas to deny the Republican majority a quorum necessary to vote on a U.S. House redistricting plan advancing Trump’s initiative.
While the FBI did not immediately announce moves affirming Cornyn’s statements and Indiana Gov. Mike Braun was mum after a private session with Vance on Thursday, the developments reflect rising tensions in a widening fight that began in GOP-dominated Texas, spread to Democratic-run California and threatens to mushroom nationally.
The dynamics could embroil the 2026 midterm campaign in a web of legislative and court battles testing Trump's power over the Republican Party, Democrats' ability to mount opposition and the durability of the U.S. system of federalism that balances power between Washington and individual states.
Texas has been the epicenter of Trump's push to gerrymander congressional maps to shore up Republicans' narrow House majority in 2026. At a time when competitive House districts number just several dozen, Democrats are three seats short of a House majority under the current maps. Trump wants five more seats out of Texas to potentially avoid a repeat of the 2018 midterms, when Democrats reclaimed the House and proceeded to thwart his agenda and impeach him twice.
Braun on Tuesday seemingly affirmed Democrats’ warnings that Texas is a test case for the GOP to scale nationally. “It looks like it’s going to happen across many Republican states,” he told reporters, though he's made no promises about his own state.
Vance holds private meetings in Indianapolis
Vance met privately with Braun and others at the Indiana Capitol on Thursday. He was expected to attend a GOP fundraiser Thursday evening.
Afterward, Braun sidestepped redistricting — a notable contrast to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's enthusiastic embrace of Trump's demands. “We discussed a number of issues, and I was pleased to highlight some of the great things happening in Indiana,” Braun said via his official social media account.
Around 100 people gathered at the Capitol to express opposition to the GOP effort.
“I’m 75, and I never, never thought I had to worry about our democracy being taken apart from the inside,” said Linda Linn of Indianapolis, as she held a cardboard sign warning Braun not to disenfranchise her vote.
Braun would have to call a special session if he chooses to start the redistricting process, but lawmakers have the sole power to draw new maps. Braun’s office has not responded to requests seeking details about Vance's visit.
Republican U.S. representatives outnumber Democrats in Indiana 7-2, limiting the possibilities of squeezing out another seat.
Indiana lawmakers have avoided the national spotlight in recent years, especially after a 2022 special session that yielded a strict abortion ban. Former Vice President Mike Pence, a past Indiana governor, also holds sway over many state lawmakers and has a more measured approach to partisan politics compared to Trump. Nonetheless, Braun is a staunch Trump ally in a state with a strong base of loyalists to the president.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan, one of two Indiana Democrats in the U.S. House who could be targeted by redistricting, said the Trump administration is abusing the political process.
“They know that their only hope to maintain control is to pressure the Indiana General Assembly to violate the Indiana Constitution and redistrict U.S. House of Representative(s) seats mid-decade,” he said in a statement.
Indiana's Republican legislative leaders were pleased with the existing maps when they were adopted four years ago. “I believe these maps reflect feedback from the public and will serve Hoosiers well for the next decade,” Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray said at the time.
Republicans hold a supermajority in the Indiana House and Senate, meaning Democrats could not thwart a special session by refusing to attend, as Texas Democrats are doing.
Trump throws Census Bureau into the mix
The president already is flouting U.S. political traditions with such a widespread, aggressive push for mid-decade redistricting. He added another variable with a social media post on Thursday calling for “new and highly accurate CENSUS” that does not count U.S. residents who are not citizens, permanent residents or otherwise legal immigrants.
He did not offer any timeline or details for such a massive undertaking, and his post raises constitutional questions about the once-a-decade process that is used to apportion the U.S. House of Representatives among the states and set distribution formulas for nearly $3 trillion in federal spending programs. The Constitution's 14th Amendment declares that House seats “shall be” established based on “the whole number of persons in each state,” and during Trump's first term, the Supreme Court effectively blocked him from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census.
Still, Trump's pattern in his second term has been to push the boundaries of executive action, even amid ongoing legal disputes or court orders, and the Census Bureau is under the direction of his Commerce Department, led by Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Texas lawmakers still spread across other states
Republicans, now including Cornyn, have ratcheted up the pressure on Texas Democrats — dozens of whom remain in other states and outside the jurisdiction of state civil warrants issued by the Republican legislative majority for their return.
Under Texas legislative rules, they face the prospect of $500 daily fines that exceed their compensation and cannot be paid, legally, by their campaign accounts. Political contributions are being used to cover some costs of their travel, lodging and meals while they are outside the state.
Texas Democrats hope to run out the clock on the current special session that would end Aug. 19. But Abbott could call another session, raising the prospects of an extended battle.
While their minority status allows them only the leverage to delay, the Texas holdout has inspired Democrats and progressives around the country.
California's Gavin Newsom is pushing for a Democratic gerrymandering effort in his state if Texas Republicans proceed, though he'd require voters to undo their previous approval of an independent redistricting commission. And Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, both of whom have appeared alongside Texas Democrats who relocated to their states, have also declared their intent to push new maps if they are necessary to neutralize Republican maneuvers.
___ Barrow reported from Atlanta. Volmert reported from Lansing, Michigan.
Bill Barrow, Isabella Volmert And Tom Murphy, The Associated Press
