Montgomery, Alaa.. Republican governors in Alabama and Tennessee summoned lawmakers into special sessions this week seeking new congressional districts after the U.S. Supreme Court weakened a key provision of election law. Voting Rights Act.
Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey called on lawmakers to return to Montgomery starting Monday to approve emergency plans for a special primary in hopes the state Supreme Court will allow congressional maps to be switched before the November midterm elections. It’s a move Republican legislative leaders said would “give our state a fighting chance to send seven Republican members to Congress.” The seven-member delegation currently includes two Democrats.
In Tennessee, Republican Gov. Bill Lee also announced a special session starting Tuesday for the GOP-controlled Legislature to break up the state’s only Democratic-controlled House district, which is centered in the majority-black city of Memphis.
The Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate a majority-black congressional district in Louisiana said drawing the district’s map depends too much on race. The ruling began to resonate in states across the South as Republicans eyed the possibility of drawing new lines in the 2026, or at least 2028, midterm elections.
President Donald Trump encouraged the latest round of redistricting in a social media post on Sunday, saying his party could pick up 20 seats in the House.
“We must demand that state legislatures do what the Supreme Court says they must do,” Trump said. “This is more important than administrative convenience.”
Florida approved new districts on the day of the Supreme Court ruling, and Louisiana moved quickly to postpone its May 16 congressional primary, sparking lawsuits from Democrats and civil rights groups. The state’s Republican leadership has begun planning a redrawing that could eliminate one or both of the congressional districts now represented by a Black lawmaker. The governor of South Carolina suggested that his state might also reconsider its congressional map.
Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat from Georgia, described the court’s decision and the fight over redistricting as an attempt to defeat the civil rights movement.
“They said we’re going to let partisan politicians play with you, so that even when you show up, your vote won’t have much impact because we’re going to play with the lines,” he said Sunday from the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. once served as pastor. “This is not a new way. It’s an old way. It’s a Jim Crow way.”
The Supreme Court ruling strengthened an already intense citizenship Redistricting battle By providing potential new reasons for Republican officials in some states to redraw electoral districts.
Federal judges previously ordered Alabama to use a court-selected map for a second district with a large number of black voters. The justices also ordered Alabama to use the new map until after the 2030 census. Alabama is appealing that decision and hopes the court, in light of the Louisiana ruling, will allow Alabama to return to the 2023 map drawn by state lawmakers.
“As I keep saying, Alabama knows our state, our people and our regions better than most,” Ivey said.
Tennessee’s move comes after a pressure campaign by Trump and other Republicans to reconstitute the state’s 9th Congressional District. Republicans have always been curbed by the Voting Rights Act in their desire to spread Democratic voters in the district around nearby conservative districts and make them winnable, but the law may no longer be an impediment.
“We owe it to Tennesseans to ensure that our congressional districts accurately reflect the will of Tennessee voters,” Lee said Friday. Trump has encouraged the move, writing on social media on Thursday that Lee promised to work hard to give Republicans an additional seat.
The qualifying period for candidates in Tennessee ended in March, and the primary is scheduled for August 6. Democrats noted that in 2022, the state Supreme Court scrutinized additional redistricting because it was too close to the election. They said the court is their best hope this time too.
“We can’t keep doing things like this and calling ourselves a democracy,” Democratic state Sen. Ramesh Akbari said at a news conference outside the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.
Alabama Democrats also strongly criticized the decision to try to change the maps before the upcoming election.
“This special session is a blatant power grab by Republican leadership in Montgomery to remove seats held by Black Democrats,” said former Sen. Doug Jones, the Democratic nominee for governor of Alabama.
Louisiana suspended its May 16 congressional primaries to allow lawmakers time to approve new U.S. House districts, though that is being challenged in court.
Trump urged Texas Republicans last year to redraw US House districts to give the party an advantage. Democrats in California responded in kind, and then other states joined the fray. Approved by legislators, committees or courts New House districts in eight states.
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Associated Press writers Jeff Amy, Bill Barrow, Jack Brock, Nicholas Riccardi and David A. Smith contributed to this report. lib.