When Indiana adopted new U.S. House districts four years ago, Republican legislative leaders praised them as “fair maps” that reflected the state’s communities.
But when Gov. Mike Brown recently tried to redraw the boundaries to help his fellow Republicans gain more power, he implored lawmakers to “vote for a fair map.”
What has changed? Definition of “fair”.
As states embark on redistricting in mid-decade at the instigation of President Trump, Republicans and Democrats are fighting back against the definition of fairness to justify districts that divide communities in an effort to send politically biased delegates to Congress. They argue it’s fair because other states are doing the same thing. And like the political divide in the country, they say there is a need to maintain partisan balance in the House.
This new vision for drawing Congressional maps creates a winner-takes-all scenario that treats the House, which is traditionally a more diverse patchwork of politicians, as well as the Senate, whose members reflect the state’s majority party. The result can be less power for minority communities, less attention to certain issues, and fewer distinct voices being heard in Washington.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky worries that unfettered gerrymandering could lead the country down a dangerous path if Democrats in states like Texas and Republicans in states like California feel shut out of electoral politics. “I think this is going to lead to even more civil tension in our country and probably even more violence,” he said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Indiana senators rejected new maps backed by Trump and Brown that could help Republicans win all nine of the state’s legislative seats, but districts have already been redrawn in Texas, California, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio. Other states may consider changes before the 2026 midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.
“This fundamentally undermines important democratic conditions,” said Wayne Fields, a former English professor at Washington University in St. Louis and an expert on political rhetoric.
“The House represents the people,” Fields added. “We can gain so much by having the voices of certain segments of the population heard.”
Under the Constitution, each state has two members elected to the Senate. There are 435 seats in the House of Representatives, distributed among states based on population, with each state guaranteed at least one representative. California currently has the most seats in Congress with 52, followed by Texas with 38. U.S. territories such as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico do not have voting rights in either Congress.
Because senators are elected statewide, they are almost always political pairs from one party or another. Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are the only states with a Democrat and a Republican in the Senate. Maine and Vermont each have one independent and one partisan senator who caucuses with Democrats.
In contrast, most states elect a mix of Democrats and Republicans to their House of Representatives. That’s because Congressional districts, which average 761,000 residents based on the 2020 Census, are likely to reflect the different partisan preferences of urban and rural voters, as well as different racial, ethnic, and economic groups.
Due to this year’s redistricting, the number of unique local districts is decreasing.
In California, voters in some rural counties who supported Mr. Trump were separated from similar rural areas and were in redrawn congressional districts that included liberal coastal communities. In Missouri, Kansas City’s Democratic-leaning electorate was split from one major congressional district into three, with each revised district extending deep into rural Republican areas.
Some residents complained that their voices were being drowned out.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom defended California’s gerrymandering efforts, approved by voters last month, as necessary to combat what he called the power grab initiated by Mr. Trump. Missouri’s Republican governor, Mike Kehoe, defended his state’s redistricting, approved and signed into law by Republican lawmakers, as a way to challenge Democrats and amplify the voices of those aligned with the state’s majority.
Is all redistricting “fair”?
Indiana’s delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives is made up of seven Republicans and two Democrats, one representing Indianapolis and the other representing the suburban Chicago area in the northwestern part of the state.
A duel over the definition of fairness was on display at the Indiana State Capitol as lawmakers consider a Trump-backed redistricting plan that would split Indianapolis into four Republican-leaning districts and consolidate suburban Chicago and rural Republican areas. Protesters roamed the halls of the protest holding signs such as “I support fair maps!”
Talk radio host Ethan Hatcher, who said he votes Republican and Libertarian, denounced the redistricting plan as a “blatant power grab” that “undermines the principles of our Founding Fathers” by undermining Democratic strongholds to weaken the voice of urban voters.
“This is a calculated attack on fair representation,” Hatcher told a state Senate committee.
But some argued it was fair for Indiana Republicans to hold all of those House seats because President Trump won the “solidly Republican state” with nearly three-fifths of the vote.
“The current 7-2 council delegation does not fully capture its strengths,” resident Tracy Kissel said during the committee hearing. “We can create fairer, more competitive districts that align with how Hoosiers vote.”
When senators defeated a map designed to give Republicans a 9-0 victory in the congressional delegation, Brown lamented that they missed “an opportunity to protect Hoosiers with a fair map.”
upset the balance
The U.S. House of Representatives is already politically fair, according to some national assessments. The 220-215 majority Republicans won over Democrats in the 2024 election is almost exactly in line with the percentage of votes both parties received in districts across the country, according to an Associated Press analysis. But it was made possible in part by the gerrymandering of North Carolina’s districts in favor of Republicans ahead of the 2024 election.
But this overall balance speaks to the disparities that exist in many states. Even before this year’s redistricting, the number of states with congressional districts that tilted toward one party or another was higher than at any point in at least the past decade, according to an Associated Press analysis.
Kent Siler, a political science professor at Middle Tennessee State University, said partisan divisions have created a “harsh political environment” that is “driving political parties to extreme measures.” He noted that Republicans hold 88% of the seats in Tennessee, and Democrats hold a similar number of seats in Maryland.
“Fairer redistricting would give people more of a sense that they have a voice,” Siler said.
Rebecca Carruthers, who heads the nonprofit voting rights group Fair Elections Center, said compact districts are needed where interested communities can elect representatives of their choice, regardless of how it affects the country’s political balance. Having a single party dominate gerrymandered districts could lead to “unjust disenfranchisement” of some voters, she said.
“At the end of the day, this is not good for democracy,” Carruthers said. “We need some kind of de-escalation.”
Reeve writes for The Associated Press.
