News: Vice President JD Vance is considering a trip to Indianapolis on Thursday, where he’s expected to talk to Republican Gov. Mike Braun and GOP legislative leaders about redrawing the state’s congressional map, according to multiple sources familiar with the plans.
The trip by Vance isn’t formally scheduled yet. But the White House and GOP allies have been exploring redistricting Indiana’s map as part of their broad push to create more Republican seats across the country.
Indiana Republicans control seven of the state’s nine congressional seats. Republicans believe they could easily redraw Rep. Frank Mrvan (D-Ind.) out of his northwestern district. Some in President Donald Trump’s orbit believe Republicans can target both Mrvan and the Indianapolis-based Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.). But most Hoosier State experts see this as a long shot.
The Indiana legislature could prove a big hurdle here. The state legislative leaders are immensely powerful and it’s not clear there’s any appetite among them to redistrict. As we’ve noted before, these politicians are more similar stylistically to former Vice President Mike Pence than the MAGA movement.
Golden State news: Democrats in California’s congressional delegation have privately agreed to a new congressional map that could net them as many as five seats in 2026, according to multiple lawmakers and aides close to the issue.
The GOP targets: Reps. Ken Calvert and Darrell Issa in southern California; Rep. David Valadao in the Central Valley; Rep. Doug LaMalfa in the north and Rep. Kevin Kiley along the Nevada border.
This proposed new congressional map would comply with the Voting Rights Act, per those sources. Previously, top Democrats worried they wouldn’t be able to squeeze out five more blue districts in the state while keeping key majority-Latino districts intact.
This a big deal because such a California congressional map could negate the controversial GOP redistricting plan in Texas that creates five new red seats. It would just about even up the House playing field ahead of the 2026 midterms.
The map. Calvert and Kiley are relatively easy to target because of their proximity to Democratic-dominated cities. To redraw LaMalfa’s northern California district, Democrats would need to pull blue areas from the districts held by Democratic Reps. Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson.
Valadao and Issa are slightly more difficult to turn into Democratic-favored districts, but the two GOP lawmakers could certainly see their seats become much more competitive.
A potential big winner in this proposal is GOP Rep. Young Kim, who isn’t on the target list. It’s likely her Orange County district will have to turn deep red to help protect neighboring Democrats, including Reps. Derek Tran and Dave Min.
The proposal would also shore up vulnerable Democratic members, including Reps. Adam Gray and Josh Harder, who found themselves in districts that Trump won in 2024.
No vulnerable Democratic seat is expected to get more difficult for those members under the new map, per sources familiar with the proposal.
But remember, redistricting isn’t as simple in California as it is in Texas. California Gov. Gavin Newsom is asking the voters to undo the independent redistricting commission and let the legislature enact this map.
This is going to be expensive, and it might not work.
