REINVIGORATED REDISTRICTING: President Donald Trump’s already brass-knuckled push for red-state redistricting is taking on an increasingly apocalyptic valence among MAGA stalwarts following the killing of Charlie Kirk. Inside an Embassy Suites ballroom in suburban Indianapolis this weekend, Sen. Jim Banks’ inaugural Hoosier Leadership for America Summit drew hundreds of attendees who came to hear from next-generation MAGA figures ranging from Alex Bruesewitz, a top Trump adviser and longtime friend of Kirk’s, to GOP strategist Alex DeGrasse. The summit marked the first official MAGA gathering since Kirk’s death and served as both a memorial for Kirk and a redistricting rally, unfolding amid an increased security footprint and ubiquitous police presence throughout the conference center. Between musical interludes featuring Jason Aldean’s “Fly over States” and “Try That In a Small Town,” MAGA leaders spoke of “demons” at work behind the shooting of Kirk and the stabbing of Iryna Zarutska and “the righteous versus the wicked.” An attendee who posed a question to Banks wondered whether Kirk’s killing “lifted the veil between good and evil.” “This isn’t a political battle anymore,” said Bruesewitz, who spoke to the crowd with visible emotion about his friendship with Kirk dating back to their teens, and recalled their last dinner together in South Korea just days ago. “It’s a spiritual battle.” All of it presaged a coming national political hardening on the right with Kirk’s killing as the raison d'etre. More than any other issue at the conference, Kirk’s death seeped into the rationale for mid-decade redistricting. In the final weeks of his life, Kirk underscored the argument for that push in Indiana: He posted to X last month Turning Point would “support primary opponents for Republicans in the Indiana State Legislature who refuse to support the team and redraw the maps.” Bruesewitz in an interview with Playbook on the sidelines of the summit said he initially considered asking Banks’ team to cancel the event in light of Kirk’s killing. But he decided to push ahead, recalling a message from White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. “She said, ‘Do not let your words or your voice get softer, speak out now more than ever,’” Bruesewitz said. Bruesewitz made the case to still-hesitant Hoosier lawmakers for a congressional map that delivers Republicans all nine Indiana districts, carving up Democratic-held areas in Indianapolis and Northwest Indiana. “They need to recognize what time it is in our country,” Bruesewitz told Playbook. “We are up against a wicked ideology that cannot continue to have power in our country. And Indiana has a unique opportunity to take some of their power away, doing it through lawful means and doing it through legislative means, and they should listen to the president and get it done.” Banks told Playbook that Trump is closely monitoring the redistricting effort — and similarly tied the importance of the push to Kirk’s death. “They killed Charlie Kirk — the least that we can do is go through a legal process and redistrict Indiana into a nine-to-zero map,” Banks told Playbook. “And I sense it in this crowd, in a big way. And I sense it from supporters all over the state, that now’s not the time to back off. Now's not the time to be nice. Now's the time to engage in a peaceful and political way.” Missouri lawmakers passed Republican-drawn maps this week at Trump’s behest. Ohio is required to produce new maps soon, too. But in Indiana, Burkean conservatives have dragged their feet. Since an Oval Office meeting with Trump last month, legislative leaders have neither publicly addressed that meeting nor shown their cards. Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston and state Senate President Rodric Bray have been holding behind-closed-doors caucuses to take the temperature of their members. But people familiar and briefed on those proceedings say Huston hasn’t taken a vote on the matter and Bray’s Senate is said to have not made much headway. Throughout Saturday morning, precinct officials, local GOP grandees and state lawmakers heard speakers turn up the pressure on the issue. Steve Bannon, the “War Room” host and keeper of the MAGA flame, joined the event via live stream, calling for a maximalist approach to redistricting. “We’re absolutely pushing for 9-0,” DeGrasse told Bannon from the stage. “That’s the whole ballgame.” Kurt Schlichter, the Townhall columnist, said Indiana lawmakers needed to “get hard” and “have the stones” to succeed in their effort. “You need to carve this state into nine Republican districts and drink their tears,” he told Republicans of Democrats. The keynote panel featured three Indiana GOP state lawmakers who have become vocal proponents of redistricting. Among them was state Rep. Andrew Ireland, who told Playbook that Kirk’s killing “crystallizes what a lot of people think, what the party believes,” emphasizing that the country has a “real issue” with political violence — which he claimed the left was particularly responsible for — and that Republicans have been complacent. “For too long, I think Republicans have tried to just rest on their laurels when it comes to things like redistricting.” But not all of those gathered were nodding their heads. State Rep. Becky Cash, who represents more purple parts of the Indianapolis suburbs, told Playbook that even after hearing the case for redistricting afresh at Saturday morning’s event following her White House visit last month, she remained opposed. Since Kirk’s death, Cash said she has received messages saying she and her colleagues should “redraw it all.” “I tell people, ‘I don't think it's gonna happen,’ and then they look at me and they're like, ‘Oh, you're definitely going back in” for a special session, she said. “I'm like, ‘Well, do you know something that I don't know?’ Like, I think it’s 50-50 at this point.” Even if lawmakers do go back into a special session, Cash said based on her attendance at private caucuses she is not at all certain new maps would pass. “I can tell you that the speaker did not take a count,” Cash told Playbook. “People are individually communicating with him. Obviously, we have three legislators who were on a panel today who are 100 percent ‘yes.’ And I don't know many who are ‘yes.’” Spokespeople for Huston and Bray did not return requests for comment. Banks painted the stakes of the effort in no uncertain terms, asking the audience of statewide officials, lawmakers and precinct officials and grassroots powerbrokers to imagine Republicans losing their House majority by one or two seats because the state failed to take up redistricting. “Indiana could be ground zero for keeping the House of Representatives,” Banks said. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Buttigieg takes action: Amid the larger redistricting race playing out across the country, potential 2028 Democratic presidential contenders such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker have emerged as leading foils to Republicans’ efforts in their respective states. Now, another Democrat is entering the fray: Pete Buttigieg, the former Transportation secretary and South Bend mayor, is headed to his native Indiana Thursday to rally against redistricting with Hoosier Democrats in a Statehouse event. MORE KIRK FALLOUT … — Utah GOP Gov. Spencer Cox said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” this morning “that the suspect was in a romantic relationship with his roommate, who is cooperating with authorities,” NBC’s Megan Lebowitz writes. ‘What we have learned specifically is that this person did not have any knowledge, was shocked when they found out about it,’ Cox said of the roommate. That person ‘is a boyfriend who is transitioning from male to female,’ Cox said, misgendering the roommate. … The roommate has been ‘very cooperative,’ Cox said. “This tracks with what a federal official close to the investigation told NBC News on Sunday. Investigators have been interviewing Robinson's roommate, with the official saying ‘there appears to be a romantic relationship’ and that the roommate is transitioning from male to female. The roommate has been cooperating, but there still is ‘not a solid understanding’ of how that personal relationship are factors, the official said.” — Trump in an interview with NBC’s Peter Nicholas “said he hopes the nation will heal following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk,” though he suggested “that a ‘radical left’ contingent in the country stands as a barrier to reconciliation. ‘I’d like to see it [the nation] heal,’ the president said in a brief telephone interview. ‘But we’re dealing with a radical left group of lunatics, and they don’t play fair and they never did.’” — After a series of missteps in the investigation into Kirk’s killing, FBI Director Kash Patel is preparing for congressional hearings this week “facing not just questions about that investigation but broader doubts about whether he can stabilize a federal law enforcement agency fragmented by political fights and internal upheaval,” AP’s Eric Tucker writes. — On Thursday, the day after Kirk was killed, “an acquaintance of Tyler Robinson’s posed a question to him in a group chat,” NYT’s Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reports. “Tagging Mr. Robinson’s username on Discord, a messaging platform, the acquaintance attached the images and wrote ‘wya’ — where you at? — with a skull emoji, suggesting that Mr. Robinson, 22, looked like the man being sought. Mr. Robinson replied within a minute. His ‘doppelganger,’ he wrote, was trying to ‘get me in trouble.’” — “Young conservatives vow to continue Kirk’s work,” by POLITICO’s Andrew Howard and Ben Johansen: “Nearly every young conservative staffer in Washington was involved with Kirk’s enormous youth organizing group Turning Point USA, whether through a college campus chapter or its national and regional conventions. That created a pipeline of young conservatives, who are now looking to cement his legacy in next year’s midterms and beyond.” — “Turning Point Failed in the UK. Charlie Kirk Didn’t,” by Jessica Bateman for POLITICO Magazine: “Clips of his “Debate Me” events, in which he took on primarily liberal students’ arguments on college campuses, exploded on the platform. This also coincided with a shift in the landscape of the British right toward Kirk’s provocative and extremely online style of politics. … While some of Kirk’s favorite topics — such as his staunch opposition to abortion and support of gun rights — have never resonated with Brits, others have converged.”
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