On the same day the Vigo County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of a pipe bomb at Sen. Greg Goode’s home, an Indiana lawmaker testified that a second civil war was afoot.
The pipe bomb report — ultimately determined to be false — was not the first time police were called out to Goode’s home on a bogus tip. Nor was he the first politician to be targeted. At least a dozen lawmakers were subject to threats, intimidation or harassment over the past month as the legislature considered a proposal to redraw the state’s congressional maps that ultimately failed.
As attacks once confined to heated Senate floor debate morphed into real life threats, Indiana State Police investigators tasked with sorting out who’s behind them have kept their cards close to the vest. No arrests or charges have been announced, and if they have suspects, they aren’t saying.
Redistricting, a key part of President Donald Trump’s strategy to maintain a Republican majority in Congress during the 2026 midterm elections, has sown deep disagreement within the state’s GOP.
Sen. Mike Gaskill, a Republican from Pendleton, exhorted his divided party to pass the bill just before the Dec. 11 vote. “I’m going to submit to you that the second U.S. Civil War has already started. They’re just fighting with surrogates,” Gaskill said of the Democratic Party, using a map to show states with districts that consistently lean blue.
That argument was ultimately unpersuasive for the 21 Republicans who voted against the bill, including Sen. Greg Walker, R-Columbus.
Walker said in an earlier hearing that after he’d spoken out about redistricting, he’d been the target of a swatting attempt and an unsolicited pizza delivery. The latter tactic, known as “pizza doxxing,” is used to show the recipient that people know where they live.
In an emotional speech before the Senate on Dec. 8, Walker said that he refused to be intimidated. “I fear for Indiana and all states if we allow threats and intimidation to become the norm,” Walker said.
But reports filed with the Indiana State Police suggest that threats and intimidation may have, in fact, become the norm. Rep. Ed Clere, R-New Albany, and “numerous others” were targeted with bomb threats on the eve of the vote, according to the agency.
Sgt. John Perrine, also with ISP, confirmed the agency had received a report that a state lawmaker was pulled over by police impersonators while driving to the statehouse on Dec. 11. Perrine could not confirm whether the events described in the report took place, however.
Indianapolis political commentator Abdul-Hakim Shabazz made a social media post about the traffic stop rumor, but spokespeople for House and Senate Republicans did not respond to IndyStar’s questions about the tweet.
ISP has made no announcements about the progress of their investigation. When asked if there were any credible leads, Capt. Ron Galaviz said the agency was not in a position to discuss the matter publicly. He has said that investigators throughout the state are using the Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center to centralize and share information about the threats.
It’s unclear if the harassment will continue at such a rapid pace now that the legislature has roundly rejected redistricting, but political rhetoric remains at a fever pitch. In a Dec. 12 social media post, Lt. Gov Micah Beckwith doubled down on Gaskill’s analogy.
“The war didn’t start today,” Beckwith wrote on X. “But today made it unmistakably clear who’s willing to stand… and who isn’t.”
Attached to his post were the headshots of the 21 Republican senators who voted against redistricting, complete with their names, email addresses and phone numbers.
Ryan Murphy is the communities reporter for IndyStar. She can be reached at rhmurphy@indystar.com.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana police quiet on doxing, threats as talk turns to ‘civil war’
Reporting by Ryan Murphy, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
