Indiana voters rise up with loud protest against redistricting plan

Hundreds of Hoosiers showed up at the Indiana Statehouse on Monday afternoon and made it clear they were not on board with mid decade redistricting. People filled the halls, chanted nonstop, and created the kind of energy that says a community has reached its limit. Their presence reinforced what many reports have already shown, which is that a majority of Hoosiers oppose attempts to reshape congressional maps right now, even as the White House and the governor’s office push for changes that would create two more Republican seats in Congress.

The crowdon Monday afternoon easily dwarfed the much smaller pro-redistricting gathering held at the Statehouse a few weeks earlier. This time, the turnout was large enough that lawmakers could not ignore i,t no matter what side of the debate they were on. Many protestors said they felt like the process was being forced through without real public support and without the kind of transparency people expect when maps that shape political power for years are being drawn.

Earlier in the day, Indiana House Republicans rolled out a draft version of new congressional districts. The map immediately raised eyebrows because it carved up the only two districts currently held by Democrats. Marion County, which is heavily populated, was sliced into four separate districts. One of those districts would stretch from the Ohio River all the way up to part of Marion County, which many Hoosiers felt made no logical sense for a community map.

The proposal also tied Lake County, which makes up District 1, to seven rural Indiana counties stretching all the way to Wabash County. Many residents felt the shape of the districts looked less like communities and more likea political strategy. House Democratic Leader Phil GiaQuinta said the maps were so distorted that “These new congressional districts wind and twist, breaking up communities and putting them in the same district as counties over 100 miles away.”

Opposition to this unusual mid-decade redistricting has been building for months. The Indiana State Senate originally said it would not even convene for a vote because there were not enough senators willing to support it. Several Republican State Senators said their own constituents had been strongly against the idea and made that known repeatedly. It seemed for a moment like the issue might stall out entirely.

Then pressure ramped up. President Trump and Indiana Governor Mike Braun applied political weight, and that changed the direction of the conversation inside the Statehouse. Soon after, the Senate shifted its stance and announced that lawmakers would reconvene on Dec. 8 to make “a final decision… on any redistricting proposal sent from the House.” This reversal left many Hoosiers feeling like national political influence was overriding the wishes of people in the state who had shown up, spoken out, and made their concerns clear.

The decision to return for a vote came just after a wave of threats targeting Indiana Republican state senators, including swatting incidents and bomb threats. Those events created even more tension around an already heated issue. Monday’s massive turnout showed that Hoosiers are paying attention and that many are prepared to keep pushing back as the state moves closer to a final decision on the new map.

Isaac from Columbus stated, “I felt like the ones that were kind of going off topic, a little bit about what’s going on in other states has nothing to do with what we’re doing here in Indiana.” “People in Indiana have said that this is meaningless to us. Our first priority is not this redistricting.

Isaac characterized the atmosphere in the Statehouse as one of relief.

Hoosiers’ civic participation with this issue was discussed by both lawmakers in session and a nonpartisan coalition of organizations opposed to redistricting. Many contacted or emailed their politicians to express their opinions, whether they were in favor of or against, and many came to the Statehouse to speak. They hope Hoosiers stay involved in Indiana politics.

Julia Vaughn, executive director of Common Cause Indiana, stated, “I know that the folks behind me are bound and determined that we aren’t going to be next to last in terms of voter turnout.”