Officials question splitting up Porter County in potential Indiana redistricting

As Indiana legislators consider redistricting, Porter County officials are lukewarm to the idea of splitting up the county between two Congressional districts.

A map to potentially redistrict Indiana has been shared on social media by an X/Twitter account under the handle @erickson_68, and it proposes dividing Porter County by placing its northeast portion into the Second Congressional District and the southwest portion remaining in the First Congressional District.

The First District currently contains all of Lake and Porter counties along with the northwest part of LaPorte County. Under a proposed map, the First District would include all of Lake County and the southern half of Porter County and then shift east toward Miami and Howard counties. The map also divides Marion County into three districts.

Two spokeswomen for the Republican legislative leaders said the leadership had not seen the map until media outlets began asking about it this week.

As of Friday afternoon, Gov. Mike Braun had not called a special session to discuss redistricting.

State Sen. Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso, said he hasn’t seen a current Indiana redistricting map, and he’s not aware of a map being shared on social media.

Charbonneau said he’s still thinking about his stance on redistricting Indiana, and that he wasn’t sure about potentially splitting up Porter County.

“I haven’t given it any real thought, how redistricting would take place,” Charbonneau said.

Portage Mayor Austin Bonta said he’s seen the map and that it’s given him concern. Indiana has always aimed for box-shaped districts that capture regions well, Bonta said, and Congressmembers need to represent a complete area of the state.

“I want to see regions of the state represented. Portage is very much the heart of Northwest Indiana, and any map that cuts us out of Northwest Indiana I don’t think is very productive for us,” Bonta said.

President Donald Trump and national Republicans have been pressuring red states to change their congressional maps before the 2026 election to increase Republican control of the U.S. House.

Texas lawmakers recently approved redistricted maps to include five new districts that would favor Republicans. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott promised to quickly sign off on the new maps, but a lawsuit has already been filed against Abbott and the Secretary of State for the maps.

In California, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has approved a special election to take place in November for residents to vote on a redrawn congressional map designed to help Democrats win five more House seats next year.

Meanwhile, Trump has pushed other Republican-controlled states, including Indiana and Missouri, to also revise their maps to add more winnable Republican seats. Ohio Republicans were also already scheduled to revise their maps to make them more partisan.

It is unusual for redistricting to take place in the middle of the decade and typically occurs once at the beginning of each decade to coincide with the census.

Indiana was last redistricted in 2021, which left Congressional Republicans with seven seats and Democrats two seats. The two Democratic seats are the first district, held by U.S. Rep Frank Mrvan, and the seventh district, held by U.S. Rep. André Carson.

Julia Vaughn, executive director of Common Cause Indiana, said when Indiana legislators approach redistricting there aren’t many rules they have to follow, particularly when creating congressional districts.

When creating congressional districts, Indiana legislators have to make sure the districts are relatively equal in population and that they honor the Voting Rights Act by not unfairly dividing or packing minority voters, Vaughn said.

While voting rights organizations advocate for keeping together communities of interest, like Porter and Marion counties, it’s not an Indiana statute that the legislature has to follow, Vaughn said.

The redistricting efforts from the federal level make Hoosiers “a pawn in this game of chess,” Vaughn said.

“All of us should be offended that we’re redistricting for the stated intent to rig the election,” Vaughn said. “If we normalize this behavior, democracy is really in danger.”

If the legislature decides to redistrict, Bonta said he doesn’t see a reason to split Porter County between two districts. Keeping Lake and Porter counties in one district ensures that the region is represented fully, Bonta said.

“I think that it’s important that that’s not diced up for arbitrary reasons,” Bonta said. “If you take a region and you cut it up into different pieces to get them into districts that fit a certain way, I think it’s a lot harder for someone to represent a region.”

Valparaiso Mayor Jon Costas did not respond to requests for comment.

Porter County Republican Party chairman Nate Uldricks said he’s seen the map on social media but questioned the authenticity of it.

If Porter County was split between two districts, Uldricks said it wasn’t immediately clear to him what the implications of that would be.

“Off the cuff, keeping Porter County in one district would be cleaner,” Uldricks said. “I don’t know how bad it would be.”

Uldricks said he didn’t have a comment when asked his thoughts about redistricting mid census.

Porter County Democratic Party chairman Don Craft said he’s seen the map shared over social media. Republicans have already gerrymandered Indiana’s Congressional and state maps, he said.

The southern portion of Porter County has a larger Republican base, while the northern portion of Porter County has a larger Democratic base, Craft said.

Splitting Porter County during redistricting would be “absurd,” Craft said, especially if the goal of redistricting would be to put more Republicans into the First District to remove U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan, D-Highland, from office.

Craft said he wouldn’t be surprised if there is a special session for redistricting, but he hopes the special session won’t be called. Redistricting should stay as it is, completed after each census, Craft said.

“I sincerely hope they don’t use their current political power to disenfranchise Democratic voters in Indiana,” Craft said.

akukulka@post-trib.com