Indiana GOP state senator says he will vote no on redistricting push after Trump used slur

Indiana state Sen. Michael Bohacek said that he wouldn’t support an effort to redraw congressional district lines that favor Republicans after Trump used a slur for intellectually disabled people.

Indiana state Sen. Michael Bohacek said Friday that he wouldn’t support an effort in his state to redraw congressional district lines that favor Republicans after President Donald Trump used a slur for those with intellectual disabilities to describe Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

“This is not the first time our president has used these insulting and derogatory references and his choices of words have consequences. I will be voting NO on redistricting, perhaps he can use the next 10 months to convince voters that his policies and behavior deserve a congressional majority,” Bohacek wrote in a Facebook post after explaining that he has a daughter with Down syndrome.

Bohacek’s Facebook post came after Trump said in a Truth Social post that he would “permanently pause” all immigration from “third world countries,” and took aim at Minnesota’s Somali community, claiming without evidence that gangs patrol the streets of Minnesota and that “the seriously retarded Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, does nothing, either through fear, incompetence, or both.”

Bohacek’s stance on redistricting comes after officials in the Trump administration — including the president and the vice president — have for months pressured Indiana’s state GOP leaders to redraw congressional districts in a way that will make more of them favorable for Republicans in next year’s midterms.

The White House, Bohacek and Walz didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.