Threats pile up as Indiana Republicans confront pressure from Trump on redistricting

Spencer Deery was preparing his son for school when someone attempted to trigger an emergency police response at his home. Linda Rogers faced threats at both her residence and her family’s longstanding golf course. Jean Leising dealt with a pipe bomb scare delivered via email to local law enforcement.

These Indiana state senators are among roughly a dozen Republicans whose lives have been disrupted amid President Donald Trump’s push to redraw the state’s congressional map before the 2026 midterm elections. For these lawmakers—who consider themselves loyal party members—the experience has been both bewildering and frightening, placing them under the same shadow of political violence that has darkened American public life in recent years.

“It’s a very dangerous and intimidating process,” Leising said, reflecting on the situation.

While redistricting typically occurs once every decade following a national census, Trump is seeking to expedite the process to protect the Republicans’ narrow majority in the U.S. House. His allies in Texas, Missouri, Ohio, and North Carolina have already complied with his redistricting agenda.

Indiana now represents the most significant challenge to Trump’s redistricting campaign. Though Governor Mike Braun and the state House of Representatives support the plan, it faces resistance from senators who value civic traditions and independence over what they perceive as short-term partisan advantage.

“When you have the president of the United States and your governor sending signals, you want to listen to them,” Rogers said, who has yet to declare her position. “But it doesn’t mean you’ll compromise your values.”

The pressure on legislators has intensified. Last Friday, Trump posted a list of senators who “need encouragement to make the right decision.” He followed up on Saturday with a social media post stating that if legislators “stupidly say no, vote them out of Office – They are not worthy – And I will be there to help!” Meanwhile, conservative campaign group Turning Point Action has pledged substantial spending to unseat anyone voting against the proposal.

Senators are scheduled to convene Monday after months of conflict. Their resistance could signal limits to Trump’s otherwise unchallenged dominance of the Republican Party.

Deery, who was one of the first senators to publicly oppose mid-decade redistricting, believes he was fortunate when targeted by “swatting.” Police in his hometown of West Lafayette were already aware that senators might be targeted with such dangerous hoaxes, which involve false emergency reports designed to provoke aggressive law enforcement responses.

“You could have had SWAT teams driving in with guns out while there were kids in the area,” Deery noted, expressing concern for his son and other children waiting for their school bus.

Deery has argued that mid-decade redistricting interferes with voters’ right to hold lawmakers accountable through elections. “The country would be an uglier place for it,” he stated shortly after Vice President JD Vance visited Indiana in August to advocate for the new maps.

By mid-November, Republican leaders in the Indiana Senate announced they would not hold a vote due to insufficient support. Trump responded with social media posts calling the senators “weak and pathetic” and threatening political consequences: “Any Republican that votes against this important redistricting, potentially having an impact on America itself, should be PRIMARIED.”

The threats against senators reportedly began shortly afterward.

Senator Sue Glick, a Republican first elected in 2010 with prior experience as a local prosecutor, said she has never witnessed “this kind of rancor” in politics during her lifetime. She opposes the redistricting effort, claiming “it has the taint of cheating.”

Even supporters of the plan have faced intimidation. Republican Senator Andy Zay said his vehicle-leasing business was targeted with a pipe bomb scare the same day he learned he would face a primary challenger accusing him of insufficient conservatism.

Zay, a decade-long Senate veteran, believes the threat was connected to his criticism of Trump’s pressure tactics. “When you push us around and into a corner, we’re not going to change because you hound us and threaten us,” he said. “For those who have made a decision to stand up for history and tradition, the tactics of persuasion do not embolden them to change their viewpoint.”

While Trump easily carried Indiana in all his presidential campaigns, and the state’s leaders are undeniably conservative—Indiana was the first to restrict abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade—the state’s political culture hasn’t fully embraced Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement. In last year’s presidential primary, 21% of Republican voters supported Nikki Haley over Trump, despite her having suspended her campaign two months earlier.

The proposed map, released last Monday and approved by the state House on Friday, attempts to dilute Democratic influence in Indianapolis by dividing the city across four different Republican-leaning districts, one stretching all the way to the Kentucky border.

Rogers, who will be central to the process as a member of the Senate Elections Committee that will first consider the redistricting bill, declined to share her position but expressed disappointment about the threats.

“We need to do things in a civil manner and have polite discourse,” she said.

As the Monday session approaches, the outcome remains uncertain, potentially representing a rare check on Trump’s influence within the Republican Party.