Columbia, South Carolina — The election-year redistricting movement has spread to South Carolina, where Republicans are trying to redraw majority-black congressional districts that were suddenly vulnerable due to… US Supreme Court ruling Increase the level of protection for minority voters.
South Carolina Republicans, encouraged by President Donald Trump, are trying to redraw a district long controlled by a Black Democratic lawmaker as they seek to sweep the state’s seven congressional seats.
Lawmakers are already meeting in special sessions in Alabama and Tennessee in an attempt to change their districts in the US House of Representatives. Louisiana lawmakers are also making plans to create new congressional districts after the Supreme Court last week invalidated the state’s current map.
The Louisiana Supreme Court ruling said It relied heavily on race When creating a majority black second House district while trying to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The ruling dramatically changed a decades-old understanding of the law, giving Republicans reasons to try to overturn it Majority black areas That elected Democrats.
The ruling accelerated an already intense pace The national redistricting battle Ahead of the midterm elections in November that will determine control of the closely divided House of Representatives.
Since Trump urged Texas to redraw US House districts last year, eight states have adopted new congressional districts. Of that, Republicans believe they may gain up to 13 seats while Democrats believe they may gain up to 10 seats. But some new areas may be competitive in November, meaning parties may not get everything they sought.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn has represented South Carolina’s 6th Congressional District since it was redrawn for minority voters in 1992. He is running for an 18th term. But it could become more difficult for him to win re-election if Republicans redraw his district.
Leaders in the state House and Senate said redistricting efforts should begin with a two-thirds majority in each chamber. The issue could be brought up on Wednesday. But if there are only a few Republicans in this direction, it will not work.
Senate Majority Leader Shane Massie warned that redistricting could backfire due to thin political margins, resulting in a second Democrat in the US House of Representatives. Massie told reporters on Tuesday that he had a cordial conversation with Trump about redistricting, where they both laid out their concerns.
The state’s primary elections are June 9, and early voting begins in three weeks.
The House could take up legislation Wednesday that would allow Alabama to hold special congressional primaries if the Supreme Court clears the way for the state to change its U.S. House districts.
In light of the court’s ruling on the Louisiana districts, Alabama officials asked the courts to overturn an injunction to use a U.S. House map that included two districts with large numbers of black voters. Republicans instead want to use a map passed by the Legislature in 2023 that could help the GOP win at least one of those two seats currently held by Democrats.
The Alabama primary is scheduled for May 19. If the Supreme Court grants the state’s request after or very close to the primary, the legislation under consideration would ignore the results of those primaries and direct the governor to schedule new primaries within the reshuffled districts.
Democrats denounced the legislation as a Republican power grab that harked back to the state’s shameful history of denying black residents equal rights and representation.
Republicans are “working to secure electoral victory by returning Alabama to the Jim Crow era, and we are not going back,” Democratic U.S. Rep. Terry Sewell told a crowd gathered outside the Alabama Statehouse.
Republican Governor Bill Lee called Tennessee lawmakers into a special session to consider a plan urged by Trump that could dismantle the state’s only Democratic-controlled U.S. House district, which is centered in the majority-black city of Memphis. Republicans did not talk much about the plan Tuesday.
But as the Senate began work on Tuesday, cries of “shame, shame, shame” could be heard inside the chamber from protesters gathered in the hallways. On the Senate floor, Sen. Romesh Akbari, a black Democrat from Memphis, called the redistricting process “an act of hate.”
Martin Luther King III sent a letter to Tennessee legislative leaders expressing his “grave concern” about the Memphis gerrymandering plan, saying the move could undermine the voting rights work done by his father, Martin Luther King Jr.
The qualifying period for candidates in Tennessee ended in March, and the primary is scheduled for August 6.
After the Supreme Court’s decision last week, Republican Gov. Mike Landry postponed The state’s May 16 congressional primary election To allow lawmakers time to approve new districts in the U.S. House of Representatives. State Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, a Republican, said the redistricting commission he leads plans to hold a public hearing on Friday.
Louisiana voters had already sent out more than 41,000 absentee ballots by last Thursday, when Landry suspended the House primary, according to the secretary of state’s office. That represents about a third of all absentee ballots sent to voters. About 19,000 were registered Democrats, 17,000 were registered Republicans, and the remainder did not belong to either party.
Democrats and civil rights groups have filed several lawsuits challenging the suspension of Louisiana’s congressional primaries.
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Chandler reported from Montgomery, Alabama, Lawler reported from Nashville, and Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri. Associated Press writer Jack Brock contributed from New Orleans.