JD Vance coming to Indiana to discuss possible redistricting with Gov. Braun

INDIANAPOLIS — Vice President JD Vance will be in Indianapolis this week to meet with Indiana Gov. Mike Braun and discuss possible redistricting ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Braun confirmed the visit in a press conference held Tuesday, saying that “JD is coming into town” to meet with him and other legislative leaders for a “broad conversation.” This comes amid discussions in several states about the possibility of redistricting before next year’s elections.

The Governor did not rule out the possibility of drawing new electoral district boundaries in Indiana. The idea has already been discussed in several large states, including Texas and Florida.

“I think there will be broad conversation,” Braun said. “It looks like it’s going to happen across many Republican states.”

Several lawmakers in Indiana have spoken out against this move, including Rep. André Carson (IN-07).

“This is clearly a power grab,” Carson said. “I caution my Republican friends, whenever they try to get too cute, they make grave mistakes. They already have people showing up at rural centers and town halls expressing disgust at this administration and how it has dictatorial inclinations.”

Braun broadly responded to critics of redistricting in a press conference on Tuesday.

“The folks raising the most Cain about it are the ones that have gerrymandered their own states to where it looks like maybe the tentacles of an octopus,” the governor said.

However, other lawmakers have also used the term “gerrymandering” to describe the Trump administration’s push for redistricting. This includes State Rep. Matt Pierce (D-Bloomington).

“President Trump and Vice President Vance are so desperate that they are scraping for every seat they can get through gerrymandering,” Pierce said Tuesday. “You have to be pretty desperate to decide that having seven of the nine seats in Indiana held by Republicans is not enough.”

Pierce also joined Carson in calling the move a “power grab” by Republicans. In a statement from the Indiana Democratic Party, Chair Karen Tallian called the redistricting attempt a way to “rig elections to drown Hoosier voices.”

President Donald Trump rebutted these claims in a press conference on Tuesday, saying Democrat-controlled states like California, Illinois and Massachusetts are guilty of gerrymandering.

“The Democrats have done it long before we started,” Trump said. “They’ve done it all over the place. They did it in a lot of different states.”

Redistricting in Indiana would require a special session to be called. Braun did not provide any information on what this move would look like, calling the discussions “exploratory” and saying that he and Vance would discuss a “wide array” of topics.