Frantic redistricting efforts ahead of the November election have reshaped congressional voting districts for millions of Americans — and it’s not over yet.
Since President Donald Trump urged Texas Republicans to redraw U.S. House districts last year, Republicans in Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida and Tennessee have also enacted new maps that could help the party win additional seats in the midterm elections. Louisiana is expected to join those ranks soon, and Republicans in Alabama are appealing the court’s decision to block the map they support.
So far, Republicans believe they can pick up as many as 14 of their seats Rezoning efforts While Democrats believe they may gain six seats from new regions in California and Utah.
Trump hopes an unusual mid-decade redistricting will help Republicans retain control of the closely divided House, despite negative approval ratings and the historic tendencies of the incumbent president’s party to lose seats in midterm elections.
Here’s a look at the latest developments in the redistricting battle:
US Supreme Court in April Louisiana’s congressional map droppedwhich contains two majority-black districts controlled by Democrats, was declared an illegal segregationist district. That prompted Republican Gov. Jeff Landry to postpone Louisiana’s May 16 congressional primary until later this summer to allow time for redistricting.
The House of Representatives is expected to consider a revised congressional map this week that gives Republicans a better chance of winning one of those two seats. Senate Already passed A different version of the new map. The two chambers are trying to agree on a redistricting plan before the end of their legislative session on June 1.
Republican Attorney General Steve Marshall said he is appealing the ruling Preliminary injunction A federal judiciary panel on Tuesday issued a ruling barring the state from using the House map drawn by Republicans in the midterm elections.
The justices said the plan, which included only one majority-black district, was “intentionally discriminatory on the basis of race.” They ordered the state to continue using the court-mandated map that contains two districts where black residents are at or near the majority. Both of these seats are currently held by Democrats.
The Missouri Supreme Court has already done so He rejected two challenges To a new map of the US House of Representatives that gives Republicans a better chance of winning another seat by reshaping a Democratic-controlled district based in Kansas City.
The justices are scheduled to hear arguments Wednesday in a third appeal claiming there were no exceptional circumstances for Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe to call lawmakers into a special session on redistricting last year.
As early in-person voting begins Tuesday in South Carolina’s June 9 primary, in the Republican-led state Senate Put an end to the effort To redraw the state’s congressional districts this year. A plan previously passed by the House of Representatives sought to redraw the state’s only Democratic-controlled district to give Republicans a better chance of winning it.
But some Republican senators said it was too late to make any changes. Others expressed reservations that the plan could backfire by adding too many Democratic voters in Republican-controlled areas.
Voting rights groups They claim that Florida’s new congressional districts should be voided for violating the state’s ban on intentional partisan gerrymandering. But a state judge on Tuesday declined to issue a preliminary injunction against the use of the map in the midterm elections.
The judge said prosecutors had not shown that their partisanship claims were likely to succeed. Voting rights groups said they will quickly appeal the case to a higher court, and will continue to pursue the case up to the state Supreme Court, if necessary.
A federal court on Tuesday declined to issue a temporary restraining order in a lawsuit alleging that New US House Districts in Tennessee It is characterized by racial discrimination. The new map drawn by Republicans divides a majority-black district in Memphis — a city where more than half its population is black — giving Republicans a better chance of winning the only Democratic-controlled seat in the state.
The case is one of several against the map that are making their way through the court system.