Why redistricting fell flat in Indiana: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, a newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

In today’s edition, Jane C. Timm reports from Indianapolis on how the campaign to pressure state Republican lawmakers to back a new congressional map flopped. Plus, Kristen Welker lays out what she’ll be watching for when we release the next NBC News Decision Desk Poll on “Meet the Press” this weekend.

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— Adam Wollner

How Trump and the GOP’s redistricting push in Indiana backfired

By Jane C. Timm

INDIANAPOLIS — As the redistricting battle began to pick up steam in Indiana last month, state Sen. Jean Leising’s grandchildren were receiving odd text messages.

Ads from little-known outside groups had spliced the longtime Republican lawmaker’s image next to prominent Democrats like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Some of the messaging was sloppy, referring to Leising as “him.”

A conservative and supporter of President Donald Trump, Leising, 76, was furious. Following months of conversations with her constituents, she felt they were generally opposed to redrawing Indiana’s congressional map ahead of the 2026 midterm elections — even though such an effort would favor her party and was backed by her president. So in mid-November, she fired off a statement making it official: She wouldn’t support it.

“The negative campaigning just put me over the top,” she said in an interview with 13WTHR in Indianapolis, an NBC News affiliate, at the time. “He may wonder why Indiana is struggling to get on board. Well, it’s probably the antics they used.”

It was a sign of things to come. Ultimately, the months of pressure applied by Trump and his supporters from outside of Indiana to pass a redrawn map that would split up the state’s two Democratic districts backfired. On Thursday, Leising joined a majority of Republicans in the state Senate in voting to sink the map in the face of potential future primary challenges, a flurry of online attacks — and in some cases, violent threats.

The result was one of the biggest rejections that Trump, who has otherwise largely ruled over the GOP with an iron fist, has faced since returning to office, and it could cost the party in its bid to preserve its narrow House majority.

Interviews with a half-dozen elected officials and operatives directly involved in the redistricting fight in Indiana revealed how the brash approach from Trump and his allies and the outsized national attention that followed ultimately ran afoul of Hoosier sensibilities and fell flat.

“You have to know Hoosiers. We can’t be bullied, we don’t like it,” GOP state Sen. Sue Glick said after voting against the map.

Read more from Jane →

Next up?: A pair of three-judge panels held initial hearings today regarding two lawsuits that allege Wisconsin’s current congressional map is unconstitutional, Adam Edelman reports.

3 big questions I have ahead of our new poll

Analysis by Kristen Welker

Sunday’s “Meet the Press” is set to be jam-packed. Not only will we have major interviews with Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., but we will unveil new data from our NBC News Decision Desk Poll.

It’s a great time to take Americans’ temperatures about key political dynamics and their own personal lives, especially after a busy first year of President Donald Trump’s second term.

Here are three big questions I’m looking forward to answering Sunday when I talk with my colleague Steve Kornacki about what we learned from the poll.

How are Americans taking stock of Trump’s first year overall? Trump started out with a lower approval rating than most modern presidents, and didn’t have the kind of honeymoon with the electorate that his predecessors have enjoyed. Where will Trump end the year not just with Americans overall, but with his base, particularly on the heels of this week’s strong rebuke of the president by Indiana Republicans.

The midterms are shaping up to be an election about affordability. How do Americans — at all levels — view the economy? Trump told me almost exactly a year ago: “I won on the border, and I won on groceries.” The economy played a central role in Democrats’ victories in last month’s gubernatorial races, and poll after poll has shown the public is frustrated with the president on the issue. But as the debate over affordability plays out across the country, what are the top economic priorities of Americans? How are they viewing the impact of inflation in their daily lives and how are they thinking about their own personal finances ahead of the holidays?

The health care debate is taking center stage in Congress. What do Americans want to see? If the economy has been the most salient political issue in recent months, the debate over health care hasn’t been too far behind. With Affordable Care Act subsidies expiring, which could lead to a spike in premiums, Democrats are charging that Republicans are refusing to give Americans relief, while the GOP is framing the looming spike as a consequence of the Democratic-backed plan in the first place. What do Americans want to see done with health care policy, and how do they feel about their own situations?

That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner.

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