Republicans Announce Their Next Targets After Indiana Crash and Burn
Republicans are scrambling for a next move after President Donald Trump’s humiliating failure to bully Indiana lawmakers into bending to the president’s gerrymandering scheme.
On Thursday, Indiana lawmakers rejected the president’s push for midcycle redistricting in the Hoosier State to ensure Republican victory in the 2026 midterms. Indiana Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith claimed that the Trump administration had even threatened to withhold federal funding if they refused—but lawmakers wouldn’t budge.
With the midterms fast approaching and the Republican Party’s prospects looking increasingly grim, Trump’s allies have started to discuss where to turn up the heat next.
“Nebraska and Kansas are two top targets,” wrote Tyler Bowyer, chief operating officer of Turning Point Action, the advocacy arm of Charlie Kirk’s organization, in a post on X Friday.
But even he had to admit that Republicans faced some challenges in those states. “Nebraska did not help the President by passing winner-take-all last year. Not a great sign for redistricting. Kansas is controlled by the Koch HQ,” Bowyer wrote.
In Nebraska, the unicameral legislature requires the support of every Republican to advance redistricting, but 83-year-old state Senator Merv Riepe is not buying in. He previously blocked Trump’s 2024 effort to reshape the state’s split Electoral College vote into a winner-takes-all state, and seems similarly uninterested in supporting his gerrymandering this time around.
“I don’t think it’s a necessity for us,” Riepe said in October.
In Kansas, Republicans haven’t seemed all that anxious to get on board the president’s push for redistricting, either. Republicans will need a two-thirds majority to redraw the maps and override an expected veto from Governor Laura Kelly.
Meanwhile, the Heritage Foundation, the far-right think tank behind Project 2025, this week published a report that listed ending ranked-choice voting as a policy priority in 2026. Michigan is currently the only state circulating a ranked-choice ballot petition, meaning that Republicans are likely to target efforts to impose a new voting system there.