INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (AP) — As President Donald Trump ramps up pressure on Republican-run states to redraw congressional boundaries, he has dispatched Vice President JD Vance to Indiana and called for a new federal census — moves reflecting his intent to maximize the GOP’s partisan advantages in coming elections.
Separately, a top Republican leader in Florida announced plans Thursday to begin redistricting efforts in the president’s adopted home state. And U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said FBI Director Kash Patel had granted his request for the agency to get involved in corralling Texas Democratic lawmakers who left the state to deny the Republican majority a quorum necessary to vote on a U.S. House redistricting plan at the forefront of Trump’s initiative.
The FBI has not detailed what role it might attempt to play. Indiana Gov. Mike Braun was mum after a private Thursday morning session with Vance. And Florida’s plans are in their opening phase.
The developments reflect rising intensity in a fight that began in GOP-dominated Texas, spread to Democratic-run California and now seems to be mushrooming. The dynamics could embroil the 2026 midterm campaign in legislative and court battles testing Trump’s power over the Republican Party, Democrats’ ability to mount opposition and the durability of the U.S. system of federalism that balances power between Washington and individual states.
Texas has been the epicenter of Trump’s push to gerrymander congressional maps to shore up Republicans’ narrow House majority in 2026. At a time when competitive House districts number just several dozen, Democrats are three seats short of a House majority under the current maps. Trump wants five more seats out of Texas to potentially avoid a repeat of the 2018 midterms, when Democrats reclaimed the House and proceeded to thwart his agenda and impeach him twice.