Gov. Mike Braun (R-IN) has threatened to help President Donald Trump target GOP lawmakers in primaries after they blocked a mid-decade redistricting bill, but pulling it off may prove far harder than he thinks.
Not only is the state party showing signs of strain, but threats issued by Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Braun, and their allies could make quality candidate recruitment difficult, political experts told the Washington Examiner.
On Thursday, the Indiana Senate rejected a bill that would have wiped Democratic representation from their state in Congress clean.
The overwhelming no vote, despite Republicans having a supermajority in the state Senate, capped off a bitter state fight for control that has spurred violent threats, doxxing incidents, nasty name-calling, and has changed the political landscape ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
“I am very disappointed that 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,” Braun wrote on social media, adding that he would be working with Trump to “challenge these people who do not represent the best interests of Hoosiers.”
The “small group of misguided senators” was actually a fairly large group. Indiana senators voted against the map 31-19, with 21 Republicans joining 10 Democrats.
The failure to get the congressional redraw over the finish line was seen as a massive failure for Braun as well as the White House, which launched a monthslong pressure campaign on Indiana lawmakers to fall in line and pass it.
The state House made quick work of it, first sailing through the elections committee and then passing in front of the full House. The bill hit a massive, but expected, snag in the Senate. Lawmakers warned Braun they didn’t have the votes to pass the bill, but the governor, who headlined a White House Christmas party over the weekend where he promised Trump he could deliver a win, kept piling on the pressure.
“Braun carried President Donald Trump’s torch to redraw Indiana’s congressional map and asked the Indiana General Assembly to pass it for him,” Indianapolis Star opinion writer James Briggs said. “The Senate told him no. Braun begged the Senate to show up and defeat him in person. The Senate obliged.”
Briggs said Braun’s threats to primary Republicans were laughable.
“Does Gov. Mike Braun even take himself seriously?” Briggs said. “He’s threatening senators who just crushed him 31-19 while the nation watched.”
But Braun isn’t the only one making threats.
On Thursday, Republican Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith said the Trump administration threatened to withhold federal funding if state lawmakers rejected the GOP-favored congressional map, which had been unveiled less than two weeks ago and drawn up by someone who didn’t live in the state.
“The Trump admin was VERY clear about this,” Beckwith said in a now-deleted post, on X. “They told many lawmakers, Cabinet members and [Braun] and I that this would happen. 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.”
He told Politico Playbook there were “conversations” with the White House about the possibility of a new Department of Agriculture center planned for the state getting axed if the redistricting bill fell through. And he “suspects” the Trump administration will now look to other states to partner with first instead of the Hoosier state, although he denied the president made a “threat.”
“Yes, these conversations happened,” the lieutenant governor said. “But it’s not a threat. It’s an honest conversation about who does the WH want to partner with. There are 49 other states competing for all kinds of projects. Indiana told the WH today they don’t want to be a good partner to the Trump Admin, and I suspect the WH will look to partner with other states before us.”
Other groups, such as Heritage Action, also weighed in.
“President Trump has made it clear to Indiana leaders: if the Indiana Senate fails to pass the map, all federal funding will be stripped from the state,” the organization, which is a sister organization of the Heritage Foundation, posted on X ahead of the vote.
But Garry South, a top Democratic strategist, told the Washington Examiner that the threats are likely to have little effect.
“The Indiana vote was a big middle finger to Trump by Republican legislators, no other way to view it,” he said. “Maybe —hopefully— it’s the start of a trend.”