This Indiana Democrat wants a redistricting ceasefire

As Republicans in his state’s legislature considered joining a Donald Trump-backed effort to redraw congressional maps in the GOP’s favor, Rep. Frank Mrvan kept quiet.

The new lines would have doomed the low-key Democrat representing Indiana’s northwest corner, but only now — after Republicans in the state Senate roundly rejected the Trump push — is he speaking out with a message for both parties: It’s time to lay down arms on redistricting.

“I do not believe all-blue and all-red states benefit anyone,” Mrvan said in an interview. “We need to have unifying factors that bring our country together again, like lowering health care costs and being able to make sure that when someone goes to a grocery store, they can afford beef and provide for their families and have safe communities. I don't know if it's a priority to manipulate maps for one party or the other to be in the majority.”

While Indiana’s attempt at mid-decade redistricting is now in the rearview mirror, other states have not ruled it out. The GOP-controlled Florida legislature is now exploring new maps, but so are the Democratic majorities in Maryland and Virginia. Both parties are also closely watching a forthcoming Supreme Court decision on the Voting Rights Act that could prompt new maps in southern states.

After Trump kicked off the mid-cycle redistricting push by prodding Texas Republicans to draw new lines that could oust as many as five Democrats in 2026, many House lawmakers aired private concerns about the disruptive and divisive process that was not guaranteed to net GOP seats in the midterms. Many fewer spoke out publicly, given fear of retribution from Trump.

Now a growing number of Democrats are eager to exact revenge. California Gov. Gavin Newsom pushed through a ballot measure that will allow Democrats to offset the Texas losses, but some are eager for more — with Mrvan among the few who have been willing to say that would be a bad idea.

Rep. André Carson, the other Indiana Democrat whose district was at grave risk in a redistricting scenario, defended the blue states that are still looking to act, saying it was “all a reaction to what happened in Texas.”

“My hope is that this will inspire other legislative bodies to push back against Donald Trump's very extremist agenda that is helping himself but hurting Americans,” Carson said. Pressed on blue-state redistricting, he said those legislatures “are going to have to make that decision on their own.”

Carson and Mrvan among a dwindling number of midwestern Democrats in an increasingly coastal caucus who just survived a political near-death experience. The fact is, they might have only gotten a temporary reprieve: Post-census redistricting just six years away could put them in peril once again.

Mrvan has already been targeted by national Republicans, winning a costly 2022 race by about 6 points. But he described working quietly behind the scenes to convince statehouse leaders that drawing him out of his seat would be a bad idea.

The 31-19 final vote killing the proposal didn’t have anything to do with pressure from him, Mrvan emphasized, but he had been in touch with GOP state senators who had been victims of harassment including “swatting” incidents to check on their safety.

“I think it was very clear they were going to vote their conscience and what they believed in, and there is no inside track that they were sharing with me the process and what was going on,” he said — while also personally thanking four GOP state senators in his district who opposed the redraw “for their act of courage and for unifying our state.”

One message Mrvan did send, he said, was that “redistricting would not benefit the state of Indiana.” As the only Hoosier on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, he argued, his ouster would “take away that leverage” in Congress on major state projects requiring bipartisan cooperation.

He cited recent indications from the owners of the NFL’s Chicago Bears that they could relocate the team from its longtime lakefront stadium just over the state line to Mrvan’s district. “We're already gathering in a bipartisan way to say we welcome the Bears,” he said.

Carson said he, too, took a soft-touch approach — remaining in communication with GOP members of the congressional delegation and state legislators but allowing them “the freedom and the sovereignty that they have to make decisions, because it is their body.”

“But all hands were on deck,” Carson added.

Both Democrats also said they were in touch with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries starting over the summer as the redistricting push began. Carson recalled that Jeffries pledged support and resources and was “sensitive” to the dynamics of the fight as a former state legislator.

In the end, Carson said, a respectful approach and Indiana’s distinctly midwestern political culture won out over national browbeating.

“I've said all along, Hoosiers do things very differently,” he said. “The majority of Hoosiers did not agree with this new unfair map, and Hoosiers made sure the statehouse knew it.”