Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith said the Trump administration will likely pull certain federal support from the state in retaliation for GOP lawmakers bucking the White House on a redistricting vote.
A mid-decade redistricting bill that sought to redraw congressional lines in favor of Republicans failed to pass the Indiana Senate in a 31-21 vote on Thursday, after a group of GOP lawmakers tanked the effort, long pushed by President Donald Trump’s team.
Beckwith was pressed following the vote on whether Trump threatened to strip federal funding from the state if Republicans declined to coalesce behind the map, as the conservative Heritage Action group previously warned.
There were “conversations” with the White House about the possibility of a new Department of Agriculture center planned for the state getting axed if the redistricting bill fell through the cracks, Beckwith said in comments to Politico. He said he “suspects” that the Trump administration will look to other states to partner with, although he denied that the president has made a “threat.”
“Yes, these conversations happened,” Beckwith said. “But it’s not a threat. It’s an honest conversation about who does the [White House] want to partner with. There are 49 other states competing for all kinds of projects. Indiana told the [White House] today they don’t want to be a good partner to the Trump admin, and I suspect the [White House] will look to partner with other states before us.”
“My conversation was specifically around the USDA Hub that we were potentially getting. That could be a partnership that we as Hoosiers could no longer see,” he added.
Of the 31 no votes, 21 were from the Republican supermajority in the state Senate.
Trump distanced himself from the push for Indiana to redistrict after the effort failed on Thursday night, saying he was not “very much involved.”
However, he publicly backed a primary challenge against state Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray, a move supported by Gov. Mike Braun (R-IN).
“I am very disappointed that a small group of misguided State Senators have partnered with Democrats to reject this opportunity to protect Hoosiers with fair maps and to reject the leadership of President Trump. Ultimately, decisions like this carry political consequences,” Braun wrote in a post to X.
“I will be working with the President to challenge these people who do not represent the best interests of Hoosiers,” he added.
INDIANA SENATE STRIKES DOWN REDISTRICTING BID DESPITE INTENSE PRESSURE FROM TRUMP AND ALLIES
Vice President JD Vance said Bray was “dishonest” with Trump about supporting the redistricting effort.
“Rod Bray, the Senate leader in Indiana, has consistently told us he wouldn’t fight redistricting while simultaneously whipping his members against it,” Vance wrote on X. “That level of dishonesty cannot be rewarded, and the Indiana GOP needs to choose a side.”
