VP Vance to visit Indiana to discuss redistricting of US House seats

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Vice President JD Vance will visit Indianapolis to discuss a “broad array of subjects” that include the redistricting of the state’s U.S. House of Representatives seats, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun said in a media announcement on Tuesday afternoon.

Punchbowl News, a Washington, D.C.-based media company known for its political newsletters, first reported Vance was coming to Indianapolis on Thursday to talk about redrawing the state’s congressional map.

Indiana has nine congressional seats; Republicans hold seven of them.

Punchbowl News reported, “Republicans believe they could easily redraw Rep. Frank Mrvan (D-Ind.) out of his northwestern district. Some in President Donald Trump’s orbit believe Republicans can target both Mrvan and the Indianapolis-based Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.). But most Hoosier State experts see this as a long shot.”

The Republican governor said he will meet with Vance and the Republican leaders of the Indiana House and Senate. Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said it and state and federal authorities were working on coordinating security for the vice president’s visit.

Republican and Democrats in Texas and California have been at odds this week over congressional redistricting efforts in their states.

Asked if the Indiana Constitution would allow redistricting in a special session, Braun didn’t directly answer. “It looks like it’s going to happen across many Republican states, and I think that my observation would be that the folks raising the most cain about it are the ones who have gerrymandered their own states to where it looks like maybe the tentacles of an octopus. So, we’ll see what happens. I know it’s not typical to do it outside of a census year or right after, but there’s going to be several subjects.”

Braun would need to call a special session, as this year’s legislative session ended April 24. He declined to “make any pre-statement,” until he listens to the discussion, on whether he would spend tax dollars on a special session.

Karen Tallan, chair of the Indiana Democratic Party, challenged the idea of congressional redistricting in a statement.

“Indiana Republicans are so afraid of the voters that they are willing to rig the elections to drown Hoosiers voices. Indiana is already one of the most voter-suppressed states in the nation. Sending the Vice President here to beg for another Congressional seat is beyond absurd. Hoosiers need to stand up against this blatant undermining of democracy.”

Indiana state Rep. Matt Pierce, a Democrat from Bloomington, also issued a statement that said, in part:

“President Trump and Vice President Vance are so desperate that they are scraping for every seat they can get through gerrymandering. You have to be pretty desperate to decide that having seven of the nine seats in Indiana held by Republicans is not enough. 

“Most shocking of all, President Trump and the Congressional Republicans are so arrogant that they don’t feel any need to hide their political power grab. They are up front about the fact that they are willing to cheat to win the midterm elections.

“The question is, will Gov. Braun and the leaders of the General Assembly go along with it?  

“Will they put the interests of Hoosiers before the Congressional Republicans or cave to the demands of President Trump.  We will soon find out if they have the courage to tell President Trump, ‘No.’ Democrats are in a knife fight for democracy, and we’ve got to act like it.” 

On another matter, the governor said state dollars spent on an immigrant detention facility at Camp Atterbury should be paid for by the federal government. “The question of timing is an issue, but that’s the goal.”

Braun on July 25 said he supported U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement using the Indiana National Guard facilities at Camp Atterbury in Johnson County.

Braun served in the U.S. Senate from 2019 to 2025, when he became Indiana’s 52nd governor.

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