Spencer Deery’s son was getting ready for school when someone tried to provoke police into swarming his home by reporting a fake emergency.
Linda Rogers said there were threats at her home and the golf course that her family has run for generations.
Jean Leising faced a pipe bomb scare that was emailed to local law enforcement.
The three are among roughly a dozen Republicans in the Indiana Senate who have seen their lives turned upside down while President pushes to redraw the state’s congressional map to in the 2026 midterm elections.
It’s a bewildering and frightening experience for lawmakers who consider themselves loyal party members and never imagined they would be doing their jobs under the same shadow of violence that has darkened American political life in recent years. Leising described it as 鈥渁 very dangerous and intimidating process.鈥�
Redistricting is normally done once a decade after a new national census. in hopes of protecting the Republicans’ thin majority in the U.S. House next year. His allies in Texas, Missouri, Ohio and North Carolina have already gone along with his plans for new political lines.
Now Trump’s campaign faces its greatest test yet in a stubborn pocket of Midwestern conservatism. Although Indiana Gov. Mike Braun and the House of Representatives are on board, the proposal may fall short with senators who value their civic traditions and independence over what they fear would be short-term partisan gain.
鈥淲hen you have the president of the United States and your governor sending signals, you want to listen to them,鈥� said Rogers, who has not declared her position on the redistricting push. 鈥淏ut it doesn鈥檛 mean you鈥檒l compromise your values.鈥�
On Friday, Trump posted a list of senators who 鈥渘eed encouragement to make the right decision,” and he took to social media Saturday to say that if legislators 鈥渟tupidly say no, vote them out of Office – They are not worthy – And I will be there to help!鈥� Meanwhile, the conservative campaign organization Turning Point Action said it would spend heavily to unseat anyone who voted 鈥渘o.鈥�
Senators are scheduled to convene Monday to consider the proposal after months of turmoil. Resistance could signal the limits of Trump’s otherwise undisputed dominance of the Republican Party.
Threats shadow redistricting session
Deery considers himself lucky. The police in his hometown of West Lafayette knew the senator was a potential target for 鈥渟watting,鈥� a dangerous type of hoax when someone reports a fake emergency to provoke an aggressive response from law enforcement.
So when Deery was targeted last month while his son and others were waiting for their daily bus ride to school, officers did not rush to the scene.
鈥淵ou could have had SWAT teams driving in with guns out while there were kids in the area,鈥� he said.
Deery was one of the first senators to publicly oppose the mid-decade redistricting, arguing it interferes with voters’ right to hold lawmakers accountable through elections.
鈥淭he country would be an uglier place for it,鈥� he said just days after visited the state in August, the first of two trips to talk with lawmakers about approving new maps.
Republican leaders in the Indiana Senate said in mid-November that they would not hold a vote on the matter because there for it. Trump lashed out on social media, calling the senators weak and pathetic.
鈥淎ny Republican that votes against this important redistricting, potentially having an impact on America itself, should be PRIMARIED,鈥� he wrote.
The threats against senators began .
Sen. Sue Glick, a Republican who was first elected in 2010 and previously served as a local prosecutor, said she has never seen 鈥渢his kind of rancor鈥� in politics in her lifetime. She opposes redistricting, saying 鈥渋t has the taint of cheating.鈥�
Not even the plan’s supporters are immune to threats.
Republican Sen. Andy Zay said his vehicle-leasing business was targeted with a pipe bomb scare on the same day he learned that he would face a primary challenger who accuses Zay of being insufficiently conservative.
Zay, who has spent a decade in the Senate, believes the threat was related to his criticism of Trump’s effort to pressure lawmakers. But the White House has not heeded his suggestions to build public support for redistricting through a media campaign.
鈥淲hen you push us around and into a corner, we鈥檙e not going to change because you hound us and threaten us,鈥� Zay said. 鈥淔or those who have made a decision to stand up for history and tradition, the tactics of persuasion do not embolden them to change their viewpoint.鈥�
The White House did not respond to messages seeking a reaction to Zay’s comments.
Trump sees mixed support from Indiana
Trump easily won Indiana in all his presidential campaigns, and its leaders are unquestionably conservative. For example, the state was the after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
But Indiana’s political culture never became saturated with the sensibilities of Trump’s 鈥淢ake America Great Again鈥� movement. Some 21% of Republican voters backed in last year’s presidential primary, even though the former South Carolina governor had already suspended her campaign two months earlier.
Trump also holds a grudge against Indiana’s Mike Pence, who served the state as a congressman and governor before becoming Trump’s first vice president. A devout evangelical, Pence loyally accommodated Trump’s indiscretions and scandals but refused to go along with Trump’s attempt on Jan. 6, 2021, to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.
鈥淢ike Pence didn鈥檛 have the courage to do what was necessary,鈥� Trump posted online after an angry crowd of his supporters breached the U.S. Capitol.
Pence has not taken a public stance on his home state’s redistricting effort. But the governor before him, Republican Mitch Daniels, recently said it was 鈥渃learly wrong.鈥�
, which was released Monday and on Friday, attempts to dilute the influence of Democratic voters in Indianapolis by splitting up the city. Parts of the capital would be grafted onto four different Republican-leaning districts, one of which would stretch all the way south to the border with Kentucky.
Rogers, the senator whose family owns the golf course, declined to discuss her feelings about the redistricting. A soft-spoken business leader from the suburbs of South Bend, she said she was 鈥渧ery disappointed鈥� about the threats.
On Monday, Rogers will be front and center as a member of the Senate Elections Committee, the first one in that chamber to consider the redistricting bill.
鈥淲e need to do things in a civil manner and have polite discourse,鈥� she said.
__
Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa, and Volmert from Lansing, Mich.
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
