The phrase, “I voted Republican and all I got was this dumb t-shirt,” is a good summation of the disappointment that comes with supporting the feckless Grand Old Party. But in the case of Indiana, we didn’t even get the t-shirt.
On Thursday, the Hoosier State’s Republican-controlled Senate shot down efforts to pass a new congressional map seeking to boost their party’s share of seats heading into the 2026 midterms. According to Fox News, the new map “would have created two more right-leaning congressional districts in the solidly red Midwestern state, where the GOP controls seven of Indiana’s nine U.S. House seats.”
Despite holding a supermajority in the upper chamber, 21 of the Senate’s 40 Republican senators joined Democrats in defeating the proposed map (31-19). The measure had previously cleared the state House (57-41) last week.
The contrast between this embarrassment and redistricting efforts by Democrat-led states could not be starker. While Democrats with razor-thin margins in blue states like Virginia are willing to seemingly violate the law to pass gerrymandered maps in their party’s favor, fake red states like Indiana can’t even be bothered to legally use their supermajorities to do the same.
It’s clear there’s only one political force playing to win this game, and it’s not the Republican Party.
But more to the point, Indiana’s bungled redistricting gambit underscores an important feature of the electoral system that many GOP voters have long ignored: the primary process.
The entire reason feckless Republicans believe they can continue to get away with the type of betrayal exemplified in the Hoosier State is that they don’t fear electoral accountability from the GOP base. All too often, conservative voters either vote to reelect the same weak-kneed incumbents or sit out the primaries altogether, thus allowing the establishment class to maintain its hold on power.
[READ: Want Better Republicans? Stop Sitting Out Primaries]
This dilemma isn’t exclusive to Indiana, either. It’s a nationwide problem witnessed at every level of government, in which gutless RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) routinely stab their base in the back but face no repercussions at the ballot box. And it’s one that must change.
While leeway should be given to Republicans representing blue jurisdictions (ex., Sen. Susan Collins of Maine), there’s zero rationale for re-nominating the same failed GOP officials in the reddest localities and states across the country. In essence, our red states and their elected officials should be as conservative as California is leftist.
[RELATED: Trump Can’t ‘Drain The Swamp’ If He Keeps Endorsing Its Worst Offenders]
The only way this can happen is if Republican voters rediscover what it means to be a self-governing people. That doesn’t just mean vetting candidates in any given primary, but staying engaged with these officials once they get elected and ensuring they’re following through on what they promised voters on the campaign trail.
Being a voter and a citizen are two different things. And until enough conservatives become the latter instead of solely the former, the Republican Party will continue to be the useless husk that we all know it to be.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
