The Outstater

November 20, 2025

Redistricting Disassembled

O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock
The meat it feeds on.” (Othello 3.3.165-167) 

THERE IS A WAY to make sense of the Republican rift over redistricting. You start by eliminating all the stated explanations:

• There’s no “overwhelming” public opposition. The cited opinion polls are suspect both as to source and methodology, especially in the way the questions are framed. To say you are “for” something as noxious and sausage-making as redistricting carries with it a social stigma, a no-no in opinion sampling. The negative responses are a given.
• It’s not about “fairness.” Look, we’re not only talking about politics but party politics. Parties, unless you believe their platform promises, are solely about winning elections, fairly or not. That groups like Common Cause are cheering for the redistricting holdouts should be your clue.
• There’s no “good” side of a redistricting battle. Indiana’s 7th District, for instance, exists because Republicans wanted to “pack” black voters into a single district to make it easier for GOP incumbents in surrounding districts. And that is the hill that President Pro-Tem Rodrick Bray wants us to die on.

Which leaves us with what is at the heart of every political story — a hidden agenda. Could it be as simple as that Mike Pence, Eric Holcomb, Mitch Daniels and Rodrick Bray have gotten comfortable running Indiana these last several years and feel pinched by the new MAGA Republicans? 

I know a couple of these fellows and can attest that there is nothing they would not do to protect Hoosier and Republican values — except, of course, diminish their own influence in some way. They are mere humans, albeit powerful ones, and being dictated to by Donald Trump must grate. Trump derangement syndrome is a real thing.

But would they take a position that might endanger their own party’s control of the U.S. House at a critical juncture in American history? A position that might, as Gov. Mike Braun has warned, diminish Indiana’s influence in the White House and on Capitol Hill?

History is replete with examples to the affirmative. Shakespeare made a living turning them into plays. But you decide. —tcl

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