House lawmakers heard hours of public testimony urging them to vote against the mid-decade redistricting bill. In the end, eight Republicans voted in favor of it and only one, Rep. Tim Yocum (R-IN), voted no, following a massive pressure campaign from President Donald Trump and his allies that included threats to primary any Republican who didn’t fall in line. 

The author of the bill, Rep. Ben Smaltz (R-IN), acknowledged under committee questioning that the maps were drawn “purely for political performance” but defended them against allegations of racial gerrymandering.  

Forty-three Hoosiers spoke against using the new maps, and just two members of the public were in favor of them, the Indianapolis Star reported. 

Tuesday marked the House’s only public hearing on the maps and was called with less than a day’s notice. 

Former Indiana Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann also testified at the hearing, pleading with her former colleagues to refuse the partisan pressure campaign. 

“Let’s be clear, Hoosiers aren’t asking for this,” said Ellspermann, a Republican who was lieutenant governor under former Indiana governor and Trump’s first vice president Mike Pence.

Ellspermann also warned Republicans on the House elections committee that changing the congressional district lines could come back to bite them down the line. 

Marion County Clerk Kate Sweeney Bell told lawmakers that if the bill were to pass, it would cause “chaos.” Voters would have to be reassigned to new congressional districts and be sent new voter registration forms, she said. County election boards would then need to update ballots and revise training for poll workers. 

“All of this will happen without additional funding,” Sweeney Bell said.

She also cautioned that an error at any stage of the process could cause voters to be issued ballots for the wrong congressional district, adding that the risk was especially high in Marion County, which has more than 600,000 registered voters and would be divided among four districts under the new map Republican House members unveiled Monday. The draft gives the GOP the edge in all nine of the state’s congressional districts. 

The proposed map dilutes Democrats’ strength in deep-blue Indianapolis, which is currently represented by Reps. Frank Mrvan (D-IN) and Andre Carson (D-IN). The new map splits it into four — the 4th, 6th, 7th, and 9th congressional districts — that stretch into rural Republican areas.

The four House Democrats on the elections committee proposed several amendments, which included deleting the contents of the bill entirely and establishing a study committee on the impacts of mid-decade redistricting, as well as one to set standards for child care access, utility costs, and health access that needed to be met in order for the map to go into effect. All of the Democrat-backed amendments were rejected along party lines.

Republicans hold seven of Indiana’s nine U.S. House seats. Trump and his allies want to redraw the map to ensure that Republicans represent all of the state’s congressional districts. Democrats need to gain just three seats to win control of the House next year. If Democrats flip the House, they could render Trump a lame duck during his last two years in office by blocking his legislation and launching congressional investigations. 

In Indiana, Gov. Mike Braun (R-IN) has been a vocal advocate of mid-decade redistricting for the state. He announced in October that he was scheduling a special session to redraw the map after weeks of pressure from the president.

INDIANA GOP UNVEILS DRAFT OF CONGRESSIONAL MAP THAT CARVES UP INDIANAPOLIS

So far, nearly a dozen Republican lawmakers have been threatened or the victims of swatting in the wake of Indiana’s high-profile redistricting fight. Most have expressed their opposition to redistricting. 

In a social media post on Nov. 16, Trump slammed Indiana state Senate Republicans for not getting on board with the fight, calling out two specific members and Braun.