Trump vows to ‘take out’ Indiana GOP leader over redistricting fight
President Donald Trump on Saturday vowed to “take out” the Republican leader of the Indiana Senate after he resisted a new congressional map the president had championed.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that Indiana Senate Majority Leader Rod Bray had “betrayed” the Republican Party after his chamber voted down a new map last month that would have created two more right-leaning congressional districts in the state.
The president said he would partner with David McIntosh, a former Indiana congressman who helped found two political groups, the Federalist Society and the Club for Growth, to target Bray.
“I was with David McIntosh of the Club for Growth, and we agreed that we will both work tirelessly together to take out Indiana Senate Majority Leader Rod Bray, a total RINO, who betrayed the Republican Party, the President of the United States, and everyone else who wants to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote in the post.
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He added, “We’re after you Bray, like no one has ever come after you before!”
McIntosh, a longtime conservative figure, said he was on board with Trump’s game plan.
“President Trump and I are aligned,” he wrote on X. “Rod Bray is going down.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Bray’s office for comment.
Trump has launched redistricting efforts across the country ahead of this year’s midterms, and Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio have drawn new maps as part of the president’s push.
In December, the Indiana Senate voted 31-19 against a new congressional map, with 21 Republicans joining 10 Democrats in voting against the measure. If approved, the districts of two Democratic representatives would have been eliminated.
The redistricting bill passed the Indiana House 57-41, with a dozen GOP lawmakers voting against the measure, but Republican leaders in the Senate had resisted Trump’s efforts to draw new congressional maps.
Bray had repeatedly said there wasn’t enough support in the chamber to move forward with redistricting, but Trump continually pressured Bray and others on the fence leading up to the vote, saying they “need encouragement to make the right decision.”
In a social media post on the eve of the vote in the state Senate, Trump blasted Bray, vowing that he’d do everything within his power to oust Bray and Republicans who voted against the redistricting bill in their GOP primaries.
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The president had called state lawmakers about the bill, and Vice President JD Vance visited the state twice last fall to discuss redistricting.
After the Virginia state Senate greenlit a constitutional amendment on Friday that would allow the Democrat-controlled legislature to redraw the state’s U.S. House maps ahead of the midterm elections, Vance also took aim at Bray.
“I’d like to thank @bray_rodric for not even trying to fight back against this extraordinary Democrat abuse of power,” he wrote on X. “Now the votes of Indiana Republicans will matter far less than the votes of Virginia Democrats. We told you it would happen, and you did nothing.”
Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser and Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.
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