Indiana Politics

A Tazewell Circuit Court judge, Jack Hurley Jr., voided a proposed mid‑decade constitutional amendment that would have allowed Democrats to redraw Virginia’s U.S. House maps, finding the Democratic‑led General Assembly improperly added the measure during a budget‑focused special session without the unanimous‑consent/supermajority its rules require and failed to meet statutory publication and three‑month pre‑election timing requirements. Hurley also held that the 2025 House election had effectively begun when early voting started—making subsequent legislative votes ineffective—issued injunctions blocking further action, and the pro‑amendment group Virginians for Fair Elections said it will appeal, accusing Republicans of court‑shopping.

President Donald Trump used a Saturday Truth Social post to threaten Indiana Senate Majority Leader Rodric Bray’s political career, saying he and former Indiana congressman David McIntosh will work "tirelessly" to "take out" the Republican leader after Bray’s chamber voted down a Trump‑backed congressional map. The proposed redraw, which the Indiana House had passed 57–41 with a dozen GOP defections, would have added two more right‑leaning U.S. House districts and effectively eliminated two Democratic seats, but the Senate rejected it 31–19 last month, with 21 Republicans joining 10 Democrats in opposition. Bray had repeatedly said there was not enough support in his caucus to move forward despite intense lobbying from Trump and Vice President JD Vance, who visited the state twice to press the case. Trump blasted Bray as a "total RINO" who "betrayed the Republican Party" and warned, "We’re after you Bray, like no one has ever come after you before!", while McIntosh echoed online that "Rod Bray is going down." The clash turns an internal Indiana redistricting dispute into a national‑level power struggle over how aggressively Republicans should gerrymander maps and how far a sitting president will go to punish state‑level skeptics ahead of the 2026 midterms.