Indiana state Sen. Michael Bohacek said Friday that he wouldn’t support an effort in his state to redraw congressional district lines that favor Republicans after President Donald Trump used a slur for those with intellectual disabilities to describe Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
“This is not the first time our president has used these insulting and derogatory references and his choices of words have consequences. I will be voting NO on redistricting, perhaps he can use the next 10 months to convince voters that his policies and behavior deserve a congressional majority,” Bohacek wrote in a Facebook post after explaining that he has a daughter with Down syndrome.
Bohacek’s Facebook post came after Trump said in a Truth Social post that he would “permanently pause” all immigration from “third world countries,” and took aim at Minnesota’s Somali community, claiming without evidence that gangs patrol the streets of Minnesota and that “the seriously retarded Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, does nothing, either through fear, incompetence, or both.”
Bohacek’s stance on redistricting comes after officials in the Trump administration — including the president and the vice president — have for months pressured Indiana’s state GOP leaders to redraw congressional districts in a way that will make more of them favorable for Republicans in next year’s midterms.
The White House, Bohacek and Walz didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Legislators in the Hoosier State are set to reconvene next week to consider a redistricting measure, even though state Senate leaders earlier this month said there weren’t enough votes in the chamber in favor of partisan redistricting.
Earlier this month, the president criticized Indiana Republicans for not pursuing redistricting, before they decided to return to a state legislative session in December. He wrote in a Truth Social post at the time that he was “very disappointed in Indiana State Senate Republicans,” and named several of them. In the same post, Trump called for primary challenges to lawmakers who didn’t back redistricting, writing, “Any Republican that votes against this important redistricting, potentially having an impact on America itself, should be PRIMARIED.”
Several of the named lawmakers were later targeted in swatting incidents.
Vice President JD Vance has visited the Hoosier State twice this year, meeting with local Republican leaders to push them forward on redistricting.
Texas GOP leaders earlier this year approved the use of new congressional maps that could help Republicans gain as many as five seats in the 2026 midterms.
California Democratic leaders responded, asking voters to approve maps that could lead Democrats in that state to gain five seats in the midterms.
Leaders in both parties are pushing other states — like Ohio, Florida, Maryland and Virginia — to also pursue partisan redistricting.
