President Trump took a swipe Thursday evening at an Indiana state lawmaker who led a group of Republican senators to reject the redrawn congressional maps that would have produced a 9-0 Republican delegation in the state.
Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he “won Indiana all three times by a landslide” and that he “wasn’t working on it very hard.”
The Indiana House last week approved the new maps drawn up by the National Republican Redistricting Trust by carving up the two districts presently held by Democratic Reps. André Carson and Frank Mrvan.
But the Senate’s Republican leader, President Pro Tem Rodric Bray, said Thursday that there was not enough Republican senators who would vote for mid-decade redistricting for the measure to pass.
Mr. Trump threatened to support any Republican who would primary Mr. Bray whenever he came up for re-election next.
“It would have been nice. I think we would have picked up two seats if we did that. You had one gentleman, the head of the Senate … Bray, whatever his name is. I heard he was against it … I’m sure that whenever his primary is it’s, I think, in two years, but I’m sure he’ll go down. I’ll certainly support anybody that wants to go against him.
The state Senate voted 31-19 against the proposal to adopt a map that would net Republicans two congressional seats to likely give them total control of the state’s 9-person congressional delegation.
Mr. Trump and his powerful allies mounted a heavy pressure campaign, only to be rebuffed by fellow Republicans who stood their ground — making it clear they were not comfortable with being dragged into the national fight and bristled at the president’s combative, top-down approach.
In the final tally, 21 Republicans voted against the new map.
State Sen. Greg Goode, who faced stiff criticism from Mr. Trump, said his opposition reflected his constituents’ will and Hoosier “common sense.”
“The consensus of Hoosiers in District 38 is to vote against HB1032,” he said, citing voters’ concerns over how the new districts were drawn.
While stressing his respect for Mr. Trump, Mr. Goode urged colleagues to return to bread and butter issues like affordability and away from the vitriolic politics that have “infiltrated” Indiana through “cruel social media posts, threats of primaries, and threats of violence.”
He added: “Friends, we are better than this, are we not?”
