A small, but growing, number of Hoosier Republicans have voiced their support for a mid-cycle redistricting effort. And up to 80 GOP lawmakers could be heading to the White House today, Aug. 26, for a meeting with officials and cabinet secretaries to discuss the effort, along with other topics.
On Monday, Rep. Andrew Ireland, a Republican from Indianapolis, posted on X that he, “fully support(s) Congressional redistricting in Indiana.
“Democrats haven’t won the support of everyday Hoosier voters for more than a decade, and they have no business representing us in Washington” he continued.
I fully support Congressional redistricting in Indiana. Democrats haven’t won the support of everyday Hoosier voters for more than a decade, and they have no business representing us in Washington— Andrew Ireland (@AndrewIrelandIN) August 25, 2025Democrats haven’t won a statewide office since 2012, though vote counts for statewide races are typically 40-60 in favor of Republicans.
Voting rights advocates, some of whom have already vowed to challenge any new maps, emphasize that any process should be transparent and respect current laws and regulations.
“We shouldn’t discount that these civil rights protections and voting rights protections still exist, still bind state legislatures and map makers to respect the rights of Black voters and voters of color,” warned attorney Ami Gandhi. “And we won’t accept any type of unjust redistricting just because of the current political fight in our state and in our country when these tools do still, in fact, exist for the benefit of voters.”
Republicans haven’t yet publicly announced whether they would try to redistrict Indiana to net two more GOP seats in Congress, though they’ve considered the subject behind closed doors and outside polls are attempting to measure Hoosier support. Doing so would require Gov. Mike Braun, who hasn’t made his preference public, to call a special session.
Gandhi is the director of the Midwest voting rights program for the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights.
She, and other advocates, have expressed concerns that redistricting in 2025 could dilute the voting power of communities of color. Responding to questions from the Indiana Capital Chronicle, Gandhi shared a high-level perspective on what to consider when it came to racial gerrymandering and potential violations of the Voting Rights Act.
Racial gerrymandering is a constitutional violation, with the motivation “to prevent a racial minority group or community of color from electing the candidates of their choice,” Gandhi summarized.
Another legal tactic to challenge maps would be a claim under section two of the Voting Rights Act, a monumental, 60-year-old law that transformed voting nationwide. This method would partly rely on a mathematical analysis to determine if the voting power of communities of color was diluted under a new map.
The two broad categories of race-based redistricting considerations can have overlapping criteria, but offer distinct advantages should voting rights advocates feel inclined to pursue such a challenge.
The Voting Rights Act
In the decades since the Voting Rights Act became law, some states have been directed to create majority-Black districts to protect the voice of minority voters. But one Louisiana case before the U.S. Supreme Court could upend that precedent.
Black Louisianans make up one-third of the state, which has two majority-Black districts out of six total House seats, as detailed by Politico. A previous map had just one majority-black seat — and is the subject of the case before the nation’s highest court now. The decision to rehear the case after 80 minutes of arguments in the spring has some academics worried about the future of the Voting Rights Act.
“Over the last several years, undoubtedly, voting rights have been eroded by (U.S.) Supreme Court decisions and the jurisprudence of the federal courts more generally that has been quite discouraging for voters, especially communities of color and civil rights advocates like myself,” Gandhi said.
The Brennan Center for Justice, an organization focused on voting rights, proposes a “modernized” version of the Voting Rights Act named after civil rights activist John R. Lewis. It would retain federal approval of state actions in areas with a history of voting discrimination — something the Supreme Court ended over a decade ago — but also allow these jurisdictions to “bail out” with a certain filing, rather than a lawsuit.
The above act is a potential answer for the center’s vision for voting rights protections. Following a 2013 case that struck the federal approval, “the (Supreme) Court has also made it harder to win suits challenging discrimination in voting. The result: new restrictive state voting laws are passing at a record pace and participation by voters of color is declining.”
In response to actions in Texas to redistrict, Brennan Center analysts have pushed for Congress to take action on gerrymandering, saying it “leads to less choice, less representation for voters, and less accountability for politicians.
“It also produces more polarization, as party voters rather than general election voters have the loudest say. And voters of color all too often suffer the most as their communities are cynically sliced and diced to engineer partisan advantage.”
But Gandhi emphasized that voting rights advocates will continue to use the tools at their disposal.
“We definitely haven’t given up. And we still do utilize civil rights and voting rights protections to advocate for our communities,” Gandhi said.
Public input and data
Should new maps be drafted, Gandhi called on map makers to release any numbers used to inform their lines. A “very hasty attempt” to redistrict outside of the traditional timeline can cause several different issues, she said, especially if it isn’t “data driven” and doesn’t have “robust public participation.”
“The public deserves more information and data about the populations at issue. And if, hypothetically, the state were making an argument that Black voters and voters of color in Indiana are not entitled to protections in redistricting, then they should show their cards and share specific demographic data to justify any such assertion,” Gandhi said.
Additionally, any information about voting patterns or other pertinent analysis should also be made publicly available, she added.
As Democrats fight ‘fire with fire,’ gerrymandering opponents seek a path forward
“If they got to the point where they were asserting that there doesn’t need to be a particular type of district … then they shouldn’t be scared in the least of sharing the data on demographics and on voting patterns that would lead them to such a conclusion,” Gandhi said.
Demographically speaking, the 7th Congressional District is the only district in the state where less than half of the area, or 47%, is white, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Black Hoosiers, the second-largest racial group behind white Hoosiers, made up less than one-third of the district.
In the 1st district, 63% of residents identified as white in a 2023 survey compared to the 17% who identified as Black.
The share of minority voters in the other seven districts — which are all held by Republicans — ranges from 23% to 12%. In comparison, Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District contains portions of New Orleans and Baton Rouge and is nearly 50% Black.
As a whole, the state grew by roughly 2% between 2020 and 2024, or 137,688 people. But following the inauguration of President Donald Trump, over 1 million immigrants have left the country — causing the country’s foreign-born population to decline for the first time since the 1960s, according to Pew Research Center.
Should Republicans opt to pursue redistricting, Gandhi cautioned that data shouldn’t be the only consideration and public input should also be incorporated into any final maps.
“Numbers alone never tell the full story when it comes to voting rights of people of color and voting power,” Gandhi said. “… there’s also no substitute for line drawers hearing from voters who are looking to elect candidates of their choice.”
She added that such public input should come at the “formative stages of map drawing,” with shared drafts and opportunities for review or feedback with changes “meaningfully” incorporated before final passage.
Indiana Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com.