There were days at practice during his freshman year at Winona State in which Kaleb Blaha wouldn’t touch the ball once.

Everyone has their role, but the experience was a stark contrast from how Blaha grew up playing football. It wasn’t how he envisioned himself finishing out his playing days.

Kaleb Blaha smiles as he’s surrounded by his teammates during the Falcons’ 58-7 win over Chapman in an NCAA Division-III second-round playoff game in River Falls, Wis. on Nov. 29, 2025. (Pat Deninger / Wisconsin-River Falls)

“I just wanted to be a big part of the team,” Blaha said. “And I wanted to impact a team as much as I could.”

He wanted to play quarterback.

That’s the position at which Blaha starred for Fridley High School. In the fall of 2019, the senior signal caller threw for 1,503 yards and 21 touchdowns while rushing for an additional 821 yards and 21 scores, while leading the Tigers to a 10-1 record and a state tournament appearance.

Blaha was one of the best quarterbacks in the state, yet college programs couldn’t envision a future for him at the position.

“Most of my offers, and coaches that were talking to me, wanted me to play receiver or (defensive back),” he said.

With one glaring exception: Matt Walker.

The Wisconsin-River Falls football coach has watched thousands of hours of recruiting tapes featuring the best high school plays from prospective collegiate players, and Blaha’s clips hit him like a freight train.

“Oh my God,” Walker thought. “This kid, he’s the real deal.”

Walker didn’t just see a quarterback, he saw a superstar.

“I really thought he was a generational talent. Even when he was a little rawer and not this polished, I thought he could do things that other people couldn’t do,” Walker said. “I thought it was really special how athletic he was and he threw it good enough at the time to be dangerous at quarterback.”

Walker was the only person to go into Blaha’s Coon Rapids home for what the coach called a “hardcore” recruiting effort.

“I thought we had him,” he said.

But Winona State entered the fold late, and the Warriors’ Division II offer came with scholarship money. In the end, Blaha couldn’t turn down the opportunity to play the highest level of college football at which he was offered to compete, even if it was as a receiver.

Still, Walker’s efforts didn’t go unnoticed.

“I just saw how bad he wanted me,” Blaha said.

And a year later, when Blaha decided to leave Winona State, he immediately knew his next destination.

“I was going to come here,” Blaha said of River Falls. “I’m going to play for him.”

The unification of Blaha and Walker has led to one of the best marriages of quarterback and coach. In his fourth year as the Falcons’ starting quarterback, Blaha is a finalist and frontrunner for the Gagliardi Trophy awarded to the best player in Division-III football, and Wisconsin-River Falls is in the Stagg Bowl for the first time in program history.

The Falcons will meet North Central in the NCAA Division III title game at 7 p.m. Sunday in Canton, Ohio, largely thanks to Blaha’s prolific production.

“He’s the best player I’ve ever coached,” Walker said. “I’ve never been around one like him, and I’ve been around some good ones. … He’s got something about him. People don’t have the skillset he has, and then to be as smart as he is and to get the ball out and process as fast as he does, pretty special stuff.”

Of course, Blaha had plenty of help along the way, much of it coming from the coach who believed in him most.

“He’s made me who I am today,” Blaha said.

‘He believed’

Blaha transferred to River Falls in 2021 and served in a reserve role that fall. By 2022, he was the Falcons’ starter.

That season, he threw for 2,488 yards and 21 scores, with 1,000 yards and 14 more touchdowns on the ground. “Video game numbers,” Walker noted. The Falcons went 7-4, with all four losses coming by seven or fewer points to St. John’s, Wisconsin-Platteville, Wisconsin-Whitewater and Wisconsin-La Crosse. River Falls missed the playoffs, but went to, and won, the Isthmus Bowl.

Walker said the moment Blaha took the field, he was immediately one of the “freakiest players in the nation.”

Yet when the quarterback returned home over winter break following the season, he couldn’t shake the feeling that his performance wasn’t good enough. “We won a decent amount of games, but I wasn’t playing as good as I thought I could have,” Blaha said. “I was having moments (thinking), ‘This isn’t for me.’”

He messaged Walker to inform the coach that he didn’t want to play anymore.

“Kaleb has ridiculous expectations for himself,” Walker said. “He didn’t think it was good enough and that maybe he wasn’t good enough to be what we wanted him to be.”

Walker called Blaha and told him to come to his office. He told Blaha the quarterback was “completely off” on his self evaluation. He told Blaha that as the Falcons continued to tailor their offense more and more to the quarterback’s skill set, “it could become something very unique.” He told Blaha the quarterback could be the Player of the Year in the conference and the best player in the country.

He convinced Blaha to stay.

“Looking back on that, it’s crazy to think about,” Blaha said. “I didn’t believe in myself and I wanted to be done. I kind of was ready to be done with football and school and whatever, and Walk saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. And he convinced me to keep going and he kind of made this all come true, in a way. He said that we could go play in the biggest game, in the national championship. He said that we could make it all the way.

“And I believed him, because of how much he believed.”

Lottery ticket

“What are you doing?”

It’s a frequent thought in the mind of Falcons linebacker Noah Nusbaum as he watches Blaha from the sidelines. The quarterback frequently extends plays with his legs while looking for an open receiver in what quickly develops into playground-style football.

“He’s running around back there and it’s like, ‘Oh God, Blaha,’ ” Nusbaum said. “But then he just does some crazy thing, and that’s just normal here.”

Frankly, Nusbaum thinks it’s weird that every team’s quarterback isn’t firing a dart on one play while running over defenders and flipping into the end zone on the next.

Generational.

This season, Blaha has run for another 1,090 yards and 16 touchdowns, But the major improvement has come through the air. The senior has thrown for 4,680 yards — nearly 900 more than the next leading passer in Division-III football — and 40 scores while leading the best offense in football.

“It’s kind of playing the game in a different way than I haven’t really played before,” Blaha said of his point guard-type role in the passing offense. “It’s very fulfilling, it’s very fun. I like getting the ball to everyone else and watch them work, too. It’s definitely something that I’m not used to, but it’s another reason that I love this game of football.”

Walker knew this year’s team had the talent to compete at a high level, but the ceiling soared to new heights when Blaha made the decision to return. The 2024 campaign was set to be the senior’s last, but a pair of hamstring injuries wiped out much of his fall.

After conversations with Walker, Blaha decided to take a medical redshirt, pushing back graduation and his prospective teaching career by a year.

“It’s like, ‘Oh my God, here’s the lottery ticket you never win,’ ” Walker said. “You’ve got the best player in the country back on a team you knew was going to be really good.”

There was one primary reason for Blaha’s return: to take the program where it’d never been before.

“I swear to you, when he said, ‘I’m coming back’ … he’s like, ‘I just care about winning it all. I just want to win a national championship.’ ” Walker said. “He honestly said that, because he’s such a good kid and he’s so humble and it’s all about the team for him. He almost gets embarrassed about this ridiculous line of accolades that he’s starting to collect now. He’d be the first to tell you, yeah, he’s proud of them, but he wants to win it all.

“That was the mission for this football team.”

Relationship is ‘everything’

With the season hanging in the balance, Blaha ripped a pass into a tight, cover-two window between the cornerback and safety to a streaking Blake Rohrer — a Woodbury product who came to River Falls to play basketball, but was convinced by, who else, Blaha to try out football — who leapt in front of the Johns Hopkins’ safety to snare the third-down completion and run 79 yards to the house to break the tie in the final minute of the NCAA semifinal and give the Falcons a 48-41 victory.

“The game was on the line,” Walker said, “(and) we rip it.”

True to form, Blaha downplayed the throw.

“That play was Blake making a crazy play,” Blaha said. “It shouldn’t have even been caught. And not only did he catch it, but he took it all the way for a touchdown.”

OK, but Blaha certainly did his part. The quarterback threw for 520 yards and five touchdowns while scoring one more on the ground — all after it appeared he would be knocked out of in the first quarter. A hard hit forced Blaha to exit the field while holding his throwing shoulder.

“You could lie and say you weren’t concerned,” Walker said, “(but) we were super concerned.”

For a moment. But the medical staff soon reported it was only a stinger, and Blaha was fine to return to play. The next step was getting the quarterback to believe it.

“It wrecks your brain a little bit,” Blaha said.

The first couple of possessions following his return, Blaha was hesitant to take off with his legs. He was sliding and ducking out of bounds to avoid contact. Walker never yells at the quarterbacks, the position he coaches; the freedom he provides Blaha is one of the things the senior values most. But Blaha wasn’t being himself, and that was a problem.

“He was a little soft after that,” Walker said.

It was something the coach had to address.

“That’s about as much as we’ve gotten into it on the sidelines,” Walker said. “I didn’t chew him out, but we had some passionate talk in the locker room, let’s just say. All good stuff, and he responded correctly.”

Blaha returned to from in the second half, putting his signature athleticism and physicality on full display. The Falcons scored touchdowns on each of their first three possessions of the half and were on their way. Walker was right. When it comes to his quarterback, he always has been.

“He’s very smart football-wise, but I think what matters more and has helped me more is his belief in his players and how much he supports the guys,” Blaha said. “He coaches me, but he also, to a point, let’s me do my own thing out there. If it’s not his way, he’s not going to be upset about it or come down on me. He’s going to let me do my thing. He knows that I’m out there playing.”

A few years after considering quitting the sport, Blaha now envisions taking a swing at the highest level. Given his success and dynamism, it wouldn’t be a surprise if a pro franchise at least wants to get a look at the signal caller in a rookie camp.

Regardless, Sunday will mark the final game of a historic collegiate career, and Blaha is proud of how much his trust and faith in himself as a person and player have grown.

“Just really believing in my dreams and what I thought could happen and what the coaches said could happen,” he said. “This is exactly what I came back for. Why I kept playing, why I kept trying. I don’t think I fully understand what’s happening now, but I know it’s been one heck of a journey, and I couldn’t be more grateful for it.”

Or the man who made it reality.

“He definitely helped me become the player I am today,” Blaha said of Walker. “Yeah, our relationship is everything to me.”

By WAFAA SHURAFA

DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — A grandmother and her 5-year-old grandson burned to death in Gaza when their tent caught fire, as thousands of Palestinians battle harrowing winter conditions in flimsy makeshift housing and the humanitarian crisis persists.

The nylon tent in Yarmouk caught fire Thursday night from cooking, a neighbor said.

As 2026 begins, the shaky 12-week-old ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has largely ended large-scale Israeli bombardment of Gaza. But Palestinians are still being killed by Israeli fire, especially along the so-called Yellow Line that delineates areas under Israeli control, and the humanitarian crisis is compounded by frequent winter rains and colder temperatures.

On Friday, American actor and film producer Angelina Jolie visited the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. The only crossing between the territory and a country other than Israel, it remains closed despite Palestinian requests to reopen it to people and aid.

Wintry weather hits tent cities

Over past weeks, cold winter rains have repeatedly lashed the sprawling tent cities, causing flooding, turning Gaza’s dirt roads into mud and causing buildings damaged in Israeli bombardment to collapse. UNICEF says at least six children have now died of weather-related causes, including a 4-year-old who died in a building collapse.

At least three children have died of hypothermia, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. High temperatures in December were in the 60s Fahrenheit, but dipped into the mid-40s F on some nights.

Aid groups say not enough shelter materials are getting into Gaza during the truce. Figures recently released by Israel’s military suggest it hasn’t met the ceasefire stipulation of allowing 600 trucks of aid into Gaza a day, though Israel disputes that finding. There is also concern that Israel’s recent suspension of more than three dozen international aid groups from operating in Gaza will make it even harder to get supplies like tents in.

Palestinians have long called for mobile homes and caravans to be allowed in to protect them against living in impractical and worn out tents. In Yarmouk, people live in nylon tents near a garbage dump.

Ashraf al-Suwair said he woke up to the sound of screaming as his neighbors shouted “fire! fire!” He said nylon is like fuel, easy to ignite. “We need a good place that suits the people and the children of Gaza, instead of burning to death,” he said.

Actor visits Rafah crossing

Jolie met with members of the Red Crescent on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing and then visited a hospital in the nearby city of Arish to speak with Palestinian patients on Friday, according to Egyptian officials.

Reopening the crossing, which would allow Palestinians to leave Gaza — especially the ill and wounded who could get specialized care unavailable in the territory — has been contentious. Israel has said that it will only allow Palestinians to exit Gaza, not enter, until fighters in Gaza return all the hostages they took in the attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which triggered the war. The remains of one hostage are still in Gaza.

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In addition, Israel says Palestinians wanting to leave Gaza will have to get Israeli and Egyptian security approval. Egypt, meanwhile, says it wants the crossing immediately opened in both directions, so Palestinians in Egypt can enter Gaza. That’s a position rooted in Egypt’s vehement opposition to Palestinian refugees permanently resettling in the country.

For more than two decades until 2022, Jolie was a special envoy to the U.N. refugee agency. She has continued to advocate for human rights issue and has visited conflict areas, including Ukraine.

Foreign ministers say Gaza isn’t getting the help it needs

On Friday the foreign ministers of Arab and Muslim countries, including Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, expressed concern about Gaza’s humanitarian situation.

The situation has been “compounded by the continued lack of sufficient humanitarian access, acute shortages of essential life-saving supplies, and the slow pace of the entry of essential materials,” said the joint statement.

Israel has said throughout the war that Hamas was siphoning off aid supplies, an accusation that the United Nations and aid groups have denied. Last month, the World Food Program said that there have been “notable improvements” in food security in Gaza since the ceasefire.

Since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began, 416 people have been killed and 1,142 wounded in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry. The overall Palestinian death toll from the war is at least 71,271. The ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count, is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by the international community.

The Israel-Hamas war began with the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.

West Bank raids

Meanwhile, Israel continues operating in the occupied West Bank.

On Friday, the Palestinian Prisoners media office said that Israel carried out numerous raids across the territory, including the major cities of Ramallah and Hebron. Nearly 50 people were detained, following the arrest of at least 50 other Palestinians on Thursday, most of those in the Ramallah area.

Israel’s military said there were arrests made of people “involved in terrorist activity.” Last Friday, a Palestinian attacker rammed his car into a man and then stabbed a young woman in northern Israel on Friday afternoon, killing both, police said. Raids were conducted afterward in the attacker’s West Bank hometown.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society says that Israel has arrested 7,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem this year, and 21,000 since the war began. The number arrested from Gaza isn’t made public by Israel.

Find more of AP’s Israel-Hamas coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Almost 12,000 Minnesotans have applied for the state’s new paid leave program since applications opened earlier this week, according to the Department of Employment and Economic Development.

The process for bonding leave for new parents began in early December. As of Friday morning 11,883 people have submitted applications, according to DEED. Of those, the state has completed reviews of 6,393 leaves.

The paid leave program was passed by the DFL-controlled Legislature in 2023. It allows employees to take up to 20 weeks off work each year. It’s funded through a payroll tax paid for by workers and employers though initial costs were seeded by $668 million from the historic $18 billion state revenue surplus. Minnesota now joins 12 other states in offering such a program.

For more information on how it works go to twincities.com/2025/10/04/mn-paid-family-medical-leave-program-jan-1-how-will-it-work/.

Critics of the proposal — such as the National Federation of Independent Business and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce — have worried it will cost much more than initially estimated.

Washington State has seen the costs of its program grow beyond expectations. In September, an actuarial report found the program could face a $346 million deficit by 2029 and a nearly $1 billion deficit by 2030 under the current tax rate limits.

However, Greg Norfleet, the chief architect of the program at DEED, has said he is confident that Minnesota’s system will work as intended. Norfleet developed a similar program for Massachusetts.

Matt Varilek, DEED commissioner, said the initial nearly 12,000 applications shows how popular the program is among Minnesotans. The initial launch was going well, Varilek said in a statement Friday.

“Our website is managing traffic well and our contact center team is prepared to answer questions from Minnesotans who need assistance,” Varilek said. “We’re proud and excited to implement this program for Minnesota.”

Based on projections from an independent actuary, DEED expects about 130,000 approved claims in the first year of the program.

How to apply

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MN paid leave applications open early statewide. Here’s how to apply.

Minnesota workers may apply for paid leave on Wednesday, Dec. 31. Go to paidleave.mn.gov to apply and to learn more about eligibility and benefits.

To call the paid leave contact center dial (651) 556-7777 or (844) 556-0444 (toll-free) from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. It will be closed during state holidays.

By Jonathan Shorman, Stateline.org

After Missouri lawmakers passed a gerrymandered congressional map this fall, opponents submitted more than 300,000 signatures seeking to force a statewide vote on whether to overturn the map. But Republican state officials say they will use the map in the meantime.

Missouri courts now appear likely to weigh in.

“If we need to continue to litigate to enforce our constitutional rights, we will,” said Richard von Glahn, a progressive activist who leads People Not Politicians, which is leading the campaign opposing the gerrymandered map.

As some states engage in an extraordinary redraw of congressional districts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, state courts may decide the fate of the new maps. President Donald Trump has pushed Republican state lawmakers to gerrymander their states’ congressional maps, prompting Democratic state lawmakers to respond in kind.

Nationwide, state judges are poised to play a pivotal role in adjudicating legal challenges to the maps, which have been drafted to maximize partisan advantage for either Republicans or Democrats, depending on the state. Maps are typically only redrawn once a decade following the census.

While some state courts have long heard map-related lawsuits, the U.S. Supreme Court has all but taken federal courts out of the business of reviewing redrawn maps this year. On Dec. 4, a majority of the court allowed Texas’ new map, which seeks to secure five more U.S. House seats for Republicans, to proceed. A federal lawsuit against California’s new gerrymandered map, drawn to favor Democrats, hasn’t reached the high court.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s brief, unsigned majority decision voiced concern about inserting federal courts into an “active primary campaign,” though Texas’s primary election will occur in March. Critics of the court’s decision have said it effectively forecloses federal challenges to this year’s gerrymanders. The justices could also issue a decision next year that makes it more difficult to challenge maps as racially discriminatory.

State courts are taking center stage after gerrymandering opponents have spent decades encouraging them to play a more active role in policing maps that had been drawn for partisan advantage. Those efforts accelerated after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2019 limited the power of federal courts to block such maps.

“Basically, every one of the 50 states has something in its constitution that could be used to constrain partisan gerrymandering,” said Samuel Wang, director of the Princeton Gerrymandering Project.

State constitutions, which are interpreted by state supreme courts, typically have language that echoes the right to freedom of speech and association found in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Wang said. They also include a right to equal protection under the law, similar to the 14th Amendment.

Some state constitutions guarantee free and fair elections, language that doesn’t appear in the U.S. Constitution. Thirty states have some form of a constitutional requirement for free elections, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

At least 10 state supreme courts have found that state courts can decide cases involving allegations of partisan gerrymandering, according to a 2024 review by the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

So far this year, California, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Utah have adopted new congressional maps. New maps also appear possible in Florida, Maryland and Virginia. A handful of other states — Alabama, Louisiana, New York and North Dakota — may have to change their maps depending on the outcome of court cases.

Some of those new or potential maps could face legal obstacles. Florida, New York and Ohio all have state supreme courts that have previously found problems with partisan gerrymanders. Maryland Democrats have so far not moved forward with a gerrymander, in part because of fears of an adverse decision from the state Supreme Court.

Four state supreme courts — including in Missouri — have determined that they cannot review partisan gerrymandering claims, though state courts may still consider challenges on other grounds, such as whether the districts are compact or contiguous.

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In Missouri’s case, courts could also clear the way for a referendum vote over the new map, which is intended to force out U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat who has represented Kansas City in Congress for the past two decades. Republicans currently hold six of the state’s eight congressional districts.

The map already faces a bevy of lawsuits, most notably over whether state officials must count some 103,000 referendum signatures gathered before the governor signed the map into law; at least 106,000 signatures are needed to send the map to voters.

Opponents of the new map have also filed lawsuits asserting the Missouri Constitution prevents redistricting without new census data and that an area of Kansas City was simultaneously placed into two separate congressional districts.

Missouri Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’ decision this month (relying on an opinion from Missouri Republican Attorney General Catherine Hanaway) to implement the new congressional map, despite a submitted referendum petition, is expected to become the latest legal flashpoint. Opponents of the map argue it is now paused under state law.

Hoskins spokesperson Rachael Dunn said in a statement to Stateline that local election officials have until late July to verify referendum signatures — months after candidate filing ends March 31 and days before the Aug. 4 primary election. At that point, blocking the new map would be all but impossible, even if map opponents have gathered enough signatures to force a vote.

“Once signatures are all verified, the Secretary will certify the referendum based on constitutionality and verification,” Dunn wrote.

Hanaway’s office didn’t respond to questions.

Breaking out of lockstep

As federal courts limit their review of gerrymandering because of U.S. Supreme Court decisions, some state supreme courts are reluctant to wade into the issue because of a practice called “lockstepping.”

State supreme courts often interpret their state constitutions in line with — or in lockstep with — how the U.S. Supreme Court views similar language in the U.S. Constitution. Because the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to limit partisan gerrymandering, some state supreme courts have also declined to impose limits.

Gerrymandering opponents have used a variety of arguments over the years to try to prod state supreme courts out of lockstep. They have emphasized differences in wording between state constitutions and the federal one, and provisions in state constitutions — such as the free elections requirement — not found in the U.S. Constitution.

Sometimes these arguments work — and sometimes they don’t. The North Carolina Supreme Court in 2022 ruled against partisan gerrymandering. But after two Republicans were elected as justices that fall, the court reversed itself months later.

“Across the country, we have seen advocates turn to state supreme courts, and state courts in general, for state constitutional arguments against gerrymandering or voter suppression more broadly. And it’s been met with mixed success,” said Sharon Brett, a University of Kansas associate professor of law. In 2022 as litigation director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, she unsuccessfully argued a case before the state’s high court challenging Kansas’ congressional map.

In states where legislatures draw congressional maps, some lawmakers argue that state constitutions shouldn’t be interpreted to curb legislative authority over mapmaking. Court-imposed limits amount to violations of the traditional separation of powers, they say, with the judiciary overstepping its authority to interfere in politics.

“We expect them to be nonpartisan. We expect them to be unbiased. We expect them to be fair. We expect them to read the constitution and to protect or at least respect the separation of powers,” said Utah Republican state Rep. Casey Snider, speaking of Utah courts during a floor speech earlier this month.

In Utah, state courts waded through a yearslong legal battle over whether state lawmakers must adopt a non-gerrymandered map. After the Republican-controlled legislature repealed and replaced an independent redistricting process, the Utah Supreme Court last year ruled lawmakers had violated the state constitution.

A Utah district court judge in November then adopted a congressional map that will likely lead next year to the election of a Democrat. The state’s four congressional seats are currently all held by Republicans.

“What we would like is them to redistrict based on population — fairly,” Katharine Biele, president of the League of Women Voters of Utah, said of state lawmakers.

Republican Gov. Spencer Cox called the Utah legislature into special session earlier in December to respond to the judge’s decision. Lawmakers pushed back candidate filing deadlines in hopes that an appeal to the Utah Supreme Court will result in a decision overturning the judge’s adopted map.

They also passed a resolution condemning the judiciary.

Constitutional concerns

As the Indiana legislature weighed a gerrymandered map to boost Republicans this month, some lawmakers were reluctant to constrain state courts. Democrats currently hold two of the state’s nine congressional districts.

The GOP-controlled Indiana Senate voted down the map in a major setback to Trump’s national redistricting push. The vote came after a floor debate where opponents raised concerns about limiting court involvement; the legislation included a provision sending any legal challenge directly to the Indiana Supreme Court, bypassing a jury trial.

Indiana Republican state Sen. Greg Walker said the measure violated the state constitution, which guarantees an “inviolate” right to a jury trial in all civil cases. “In legal terms, ‘inviolate’ has the implication of being sacred, as opposed to being just a piece of the law,” Walker said on the floor.

State Sen. Mike Gaskill, a Republican who sponsored the map, said during a speech that Indiana residents would benefit from a quick process to resolve legal challenges. “Both sides, in any case, want them to be settled quickly so that they don’t cause chaos and interruptions in the elections process,” he said.

If the map had passed, opponents would have likely attacked the measure using a provision of the Indiana Constitution that requires “free and equal” elections.

Stateline reporter Jonathan Shorman can be reached at jshorman@stateline.org.

©2025 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.