Hoosiers lined Market Street in downtown New Albany Monday morning to tell Gov. Mike Braun his push for mid-decade redistricting is unfair and undermines electoral representation.
Dozens of residents demonstrated peacefully outside The Grand, an events venue, where Braun was expected to be. They carried signs with messages such as "STAY INSIDE THE LINES," "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH" and "BRAUN HATES DEMOCRACY."
The protest came on what could have been the first day of a special legislative session for state lawmakers to consider redrawing the lines of Indiana's Congressional map. Lawmakers are now expected to take up the issue starting in December, according to recent news reports.
Indiana has 11 lawmakers in Congress. Of these, all are Republican except two members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Redrawing maps outside the regular cycle is part of President Donald Trump's push to gain more seats in the midterm elections next year.
Texas, Missouri, Ohio and North Carolina have enacted new district maps this year.
Southern Indiana residents opposed to redistricting say it would further strengthen that Republican hold in the state, and they say it would silence underserved communities, erode checks and balances and disenfranchise voters. Some called this move for redistricting "cheating."
Georgetown resident Emily Hutchinson told LPM News she hasn't felt represented for decades.
"This is just another way of losing our voice," Hutchinson said, adding that while she's a Democrat, "I say it as a human being who feels I should have representation in my own state."
Kathy Collings is president of Do Something Southern Indiana, which hosted the protest. The grassroots advocacy group that formed earlier this year in response to the Clark County jail coming online as an ICE holding facility.
Of the potential for redistricting, Collings said the governor "has been told numerous times — by including Republican legislators — that the votes aren't there, that this is not something people support."
And a special session would waste money at a time when essential institutions, such as schools and hospitals, are facing cuts, she said.
Collings said she expects people to keep speaking out against redrawing the maps.
"Braun has to decide if there's more pressure from us or from the Trump administration, and we're here to let him know that the pressure is going to come from this end," she said. "There will be elections hopefully coming up soon, and they may find that the redistricting attempts didn't work out for them."
The dozens of people who turned out Monday included people from Clark, Floyd and other counties.
Jeffersonville resident Renee Baines is a great-grandmother who said she's worked all her life to help people support people she said aren't being represented, like by feeding people experiencing homelessness.
"If it goes through, I think those that have will have more, and those that do not have, will have less," she said.
New Albany resident Emily Speight brought her sons, 13-year-old Milo and 9-year-old Felix. Both boys seemed excited to be there, and their handmade signs carried messages about staying in the lines.
Speight said it was important to bring her kids because they will inherit the decisions being made in Indianapolis right now. She also wanted to speak out for underrepresented communities.
Sue Wright, president of the Jeffersonville-Clark County NAACP chapter, said the organization must speak out against undemocratic policies, and those that are against minority communities.
"A lot of the things that are being done are definitely against Brown and Black people," she said. "So we need to be out there and our voices be heard."
She said she's worried redistricting will lead to younger voters and people of color foregoing elections, because they might feel like their votes don't count.
"And the United States was built on the fact that I can go out and vote, and my vote does count," she said.
Coverage of Southern Indiana is funded, in part, by Samtec Inc., the Hazel & Walter T. Bales Foundation, and the Caesars Foundation of Floyd County.
Copyright 2025 LPM News