The GOP-controlled Indiana State Senate showed the nation what real leadership looks like last week, rejecting a push to gerrymander their state in favor of Republicans.
On Thursday, the Indiana Senate voted 31 to 19 to reject the gerrymandering scheme, with 21 Republicans voting down the measure. The proposal was designed to yield two additional GOP seats in the 2026 midterms and came amid increasing pressure from President Donald Trump.
Unlike their cynical and craven counterparts in Texas, a majority of Indiana Republican state senators understood that short-term electoral gains weren’t worth sacrificing their principles.
“My opposition to mid-cycle gerrymandering is not in contrast to my conservative principles, my opposition is driven by them,” said Republican Sen. Spencer Deery, according to the local NPR affiliate WFYI. “As long as I have breath, I will use my voice to resist a federal government that attempts to bully, direct, and control this state or any state. Giving the federal government more power is not conservative.”
As normal and sober as that sounds, the Indiana Republican senators have faced considerable hostility. In addition to the calls for primary challenges by President Trump, many Indiana lawmakers have faced bomb threats and even swatting attempts because of their resistance to gerrymandering their state.
“Whether we realize it or not — whether we accept it or not — the forces that define these vitriolic political affairs in places outside of Indiana have gradually, and now very blatantly, infiltrated the political affairs in Indiana,” said Republican Sen. Greg Goode, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle. “Misinformation, cruel social media posts, over-the-top pressure from within the Statehouse and outside. Threats of primaries. Threats of violence. Acts of violence. Friends, we’re better than this, are we not?”
In November, Goode was subject to a swatting attempt within hours of Trump posting on social media that he was a “RINO” for not supporting gerrymandering.
Goode and his fellow Republicans who stood up to the threats and intimidation of the president should be applauded for their courage and integrity.
Indiana’s vote should also mark the end of the absurd and antidemocratic gerrymandering push by the president.
This editorial board opposed both Texas’ gerrymandering push as well as California’s for the simple fact that it is obviously wrong to rig elections in favor of one party over the other.
Far too many Americans have allowed partisanship to overtake their reason; and in the case of MAGA Republicans, they have increasingly ceded their common sense to one man, the president.
In America, that should not be. America is greater than the cynical interests of any one person or movement.
Indiana Republicans showed the way. Will Republicans in other states similarly find their spines?
