The Republicans thwarting the White House's redistricting hopes

Source: Politico

10/28/2025 05:16 PM EDT


A fiercely independent governor in New Hampshire, an octogenarian iconoclast in Nebraska and a Kansas Republican who bucked his party on transgender legislation have unwittingly formed a national bulwark against President Donald Trump’s aggressive redistricting push.

Despite threats and force, Trump’s team is finding there are some state-level Republicans who simply won’t budge on a legally questionable strategy that would grow the GOP’s advantage in next year’s fight to keep the House. And then there’s Indiana, where state Senate leader Rodric Bray says he lacks support in his caucus to undertake a redraw, even as GOP Gov. Mike Braun called a special session to start next week.

At the urging of the White House, Republicans have already drawn seven new GOP-leaning House seats via mid-decade redistricting in three states, with more on the way. But the nationwide remapping effort is losing steam, largely due to these state-level Republicans refusing to blink at the Trump team’s threats of primaries. And while cracks are forming in Trump’s strategy, Democrats are waking up to the dangers ahead, POLITICO reported this week.

The few Republicans willing to defy the president constitute a dying breed in a party that’s become solidly MAGA under Trump’s thumb.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/28/the-republicans-thwarting-the-white-houses-redistricting-hopes-00625911