AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith (R) said the Trump administration threatened the state if the Republican-controlled legislature failed to gerrymander its congressional map.
On Thursday, Republicans in the Indiana Senate torpedoed a bill designed to eliminate the state’s two remaining Democratic districts in Indiana’s nine-seat map. President Donald Trump urged legislators to approve the change, and he dispatched Vice President JD Vance to personally lobby Republican senators. Despite a GOP supermajority, the measure failed after 21 Republicans joined 10 Democrats in voting against it.
Before the vote, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, issued a cryptic warning to Indiana lawmakers.
“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,” Heritage’s X account posted. “Roads will not be paved. Guard bases will close. Major projects will stop. These are the stakes and every NO vote will be to blame.”
While the president had threatened recalcitrant Republicans with primary challenges, imperiling federal funding was not something the White House had publicly said was on the table. On Thursday night, Beckwith said the Trump administration had made it clear to lawmakers what would happen in the new map was not adopted.
“The Trump admin was VERY clear about this,” the lieutenant governor wrote on X. “They told many lawmakers, cabinet members and the Gov 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.”
Beckwith’s post was in response to a now-deleted post by an Indianapolis Star columnist. It is unclear what the columnist had posted.
If Trump attempts to withhold federal funding from Indiana, a legal battle is virtually certain to ensue.
Shortly after the new map was voted down, Trump slammed Indiana Senate President Pro Tempore Rod Bray (R), stating, “He’ll go down. I’ll certainly support anybody that wants to go against him.”
