For nearly a century, voters in Gary have helped choose who represents Northwest Indiana in Congress. Under a proposed redistricting map now moving through the Statehouse, that influence would be diluted across a far larger, nine-county district.
The proposed congressional map advanced by Indiana House Republicans would dismantle Northwest Indiana’s current district and disperse Gary’s voting base across a sprawling, rural-heavy region. Voting rights advocates say this shift could violate the spirit, if not the letter, of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by weakening Black political power through dilution rather than outright exclusion.
Gary’s political significance has outlasted its economic fortunes, which peaked in the mid-20th century. Even after decades of population loss and disinvestment, the city and its surrounding precincts remain one of only two places in Indiana where Black voters can reliably shape who represents them in Congress.
Under the new lines, what was once a compact district centered in Northwest Indiana would stretch across nine counties, dramatically expanding both its geographic size and the number of communities competing for Washington’s resources.
Julia Vaughn, executive director of Common Cause Indiana, described how the sprawling new district would make it harder for Gary residents to even engage their elected officials.
“It’s certainly much harder,” Vaughn told Capital B Gary. “You can’t have constituent offices in every county. … People are going to have to travel farther to get an audience with their elected officials.”
The counties potentially being added to the 1st District sit in what is currently Indiana’s 2nd Congressional District. That district’s representative, Rep. Rudy Yakym, has offices in Mishawaka and Rochester, both nearly 90 minutes away from Gary and located in the Eastern time zone.
For a community that has fought for decades to maintain visibility in state politics, advocates say increasing physical distance from representation is its own form of disenfranchisement.
Gerrymandering, the practice of manipulating district boundaries to favor one political party, is a widely accepted practice in American politics. But changing districts along racial lines is deemed illegal by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Indiana Republicans made a special effort to keep their new maps away from judicial review.
“It’s very clear that the Republicans … want to totally control this on the front end,” Vaughn said. “They also want to get out ahead of it on the back end, and really make it much more difficult for advocacy groups. … We have a legal right to challenge these maps. They can try to tie our arms behind our back, but that’s not going to stop any litigation.”
The population being added to Gary’s district under the proposed lines looks dramatically different from Gary itself — not just politically, but racially, economically, and culturally.
Gary and portions of Lake County are majority Black and Latino, with long histories of industrial labor, union activism, and environmental concerns. The region has consistently backed Democratic candidates who campaigned on civil rights, federal investment, public transit, housing and school funding.
Census data show the rural counties being added to the district are roughly 90% white and have older populations than Northwest Indiana. Election results and policy priorities indicate the area leans more conservative, and oriented around agricultural economies and issues like property taxes, land use, rural broadband, and gun policy.
The result is a district where Gary becomes outnumbered on day one. Even if turnout in the city surges, its voting power could be overshadowed by counties with entirely different political behavior. In redistricting terms, this is a textbook case of dilution, featuring the creation of a district that appears neutral on its face but functions to weaken minority voting strength.
Since the 1930s, Indiana’s 1st Congressional District has been represented by someone from Northwest Indiana, giving the region nearly a century of continuous local representation in Washington.
State Rep. Ragen Hatcher, a Democrat who represents parts of Gary and Lake County, said the proposed changes threaten to undo generations of political progress.
“For decades, the people of Northwest Indiana — Black, brown, working-class, union families — have battled disinvestment,” Hatcher said. “They’ve survived segregation, redlining, white flight and industrial abandonment, and now they’re being asked to survive the erasure of their voice. Our ability to choose our own representation in Washington is on the chopping block.”
Gary Mayor Eddie Melton condemned the proposed congressional map as dismantling a district long tied to the legacy of the late U.S. Rep. Katie Hall, the first Black woman elected to Congress from Indiana.
“By dismantling a district that serves as the home of the late Congresswoman Katie Hall, the author of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday legislation, we risk dishonoring a profound legacy of African American political history,” Melton said. “This map is a modern form of voter suppression designed to dilute the voice of the region that has fought tirelessly for equality.”
Under the proposed map, the state’s two largest Black voting blocs, centered in Gary and Indianapolis, would be placed within districts where they make up a significantly smaller share of the overall electorate.
Even beyond electoral math, the new district raises a fundamental question about whether a single lawmaker can meaningfully serve communities with sharply different and sometimes competing priorities.
Gary has long sought federal dollars for infrastructure repair, environmental cleanup, public transit, blight removal and investment in schools, youth services and health care. The rural counties being added are anchored in agricultural economies and rural development, with policy priorities that include land use, farming supports, rural infrastructure and broadband access.
For a representative, centering one set of needs often means sidelining the other.
Local leaders say that mismatch alone threatens to silence Gary residents. Belinda Drake, a Gary native and board member of Indianapolis’ Department of Business and Neighborhood Services, described the new district as fundamentally unworkable.
“It presents a challenge and an almost impossible task to be able to listen [and] advocate for resource needs for those with unique needs,” Drake told Capital B Gary.
The former state senate candidate sees a struggle ahead for the minority residents of these districts should the maps pass.
“Historically, what has happened is that the of Black and brown communities will go unheard,” she explained. “Needs will go unmet, and it will just have a negative impact.”
Those fears cut to the heart of the dispute. If the proposed map becomes law, the district’s representative will be accountable to a voter base whose demographic profile and priorities differ drastically from Gary’s. That shift threatens to erase the one place in Indiana where Black voters have had sustained political influence.
The redistricting fight in Indiana mirrors legal and legislative battles playing out across the country. Back in August, at the behest of President Donald Trump, the Texas state legislature moved to change its state maps to net five seats, essentially eliminating five districts.
Those maps passed after a two-week ordeal that saw Texas House Democrats flee the state in order to deny House Republicans a quorum for the vote.
Shortly after, the NAACP along with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law sued Texas, contending that the state had engaged in racial gerrymandering to prevent Black voters from electing candidates of their choice.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the gerrymandered maps, much to the chagrin of advocates like Shaylyn Cochran, deputy executive director of the Lawyer’s Committee.
“The fact that a federal district court looked at the evidence over the course of 10 days and found that it was likely a very strong reason to believe that Texas’ new map was a racial gerrymander in violation of the Constitution is a big deal,” Cochran told Capital B Gary.
“So our message continues to be that any state that adopts racially discriminatory redistricting will face scrutiny and states should expect that there is going to be challenges by organizations and entities across the country where there is evidence that any attempt to do redistricting or gerrymandering happens on the backs of Black and brown folks.”
On the ground in Gary, community leaders like Ephrin Jenkins, executive director of the Black Labor Week Project, say public awareness is critical.
“We are the targets, but yet, we are the ones who are not informed,” Jenkins told Capital B Gary. “It’s about raising the voices of Black folks for everything when it comes to discriminatory practices and redistricting and redrawing of the maps.”
After final House passage on Friday, state Rep. Vernon Smith, a member of the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus, lashed out at the decision while referencing the potential challenges the representative of the district would face.
“I represent Indiana House District 2, and I deeply respect our congressman,” Smith said after the vote, referring to U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan, whose 1st Congressional District would be radically altered under the new proposed map.
“I have never seen anybody who is more representative of our community, who is more available, who is more helpful. How is he supposed to continue to do good works for our communities when his district spans nine counties? You’re asking him to balance the needs of central Indiana with our Northwest [Indiana] communities.”
