President says he’ll be “watching closely” as lawmakers in the Republican-dominated South Carolina legislature on Tuesday begin redrawing their state’s congressional district map to erase the only Democrat-dominated U.S. House seat.
At the same time, Republican officials in solidly red Alabama are moving forward with a redrawn that would likely eliminate one of the state’s two Democratic-held U.S. House seats in time for this autumn’s midterm elections, when the GOP will be defending its razor-thin congressional majority.
This week’s moves in Alabama and South Carolina, along with similar efforts in Louisiana and Tennessee, come two weeks after a ruling by the conservative majority on the Supreme Court to slash a key Voting Rights Act protection.
And they’re giving Trump and the GOP a major boost in their ongoing political fight with Democrats to redraw congressional district maps ahead of the midterms. At stake in this nationwide redistricting showdown is which party will control the House during the final two years of Trump’s second term in the White House.
In , the state Senate is expected to vote Tuesday on whether to agree with the state House to take up rare but not unheard of mid-decade redistricting. State lawmakers would also need to push back South Carolina’s U.S. House primaries from early next month to August. Early voting in the state’s primary is scheduled to kick off in two weeks.
South Carolina Republicans are likely to advance a new map that could put longtime Rep. Jim Clyburn, the only Democrat in the state’s seven-person House delegation, out of a job.
Clyburn this past week remained optimistic he can still win re-election.
“I dont know why people think I could not get re-elected if they redistrict South Carolina,” Clyburn said in a CNN interview. “I have a district thats about 45 percent African-American. I have no idea what the number will be after the legislature finishes, but whatever that number is, I will be running on my record and Americas promise.”
Trump, in a social media post Monday night, urged “South Carolina Republicans: BE BOLD AND COURAGEOUS.”
“Move the U.S. House Primaries to August, leave the rest on the same schedule. Everything will be fine. GET IT DONE!” he added.
Trump’s message comes a week after five Indiana Republican state senators who in December helped sink congressional redistricting in the solidly red Midwestern state were ousted by Trump-backed challengers in GOP primaries.
It’s back to the future in Alabama, after the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ideological ruling, cleared the way for the state to put in place a map Republicans drew up in 2023 that had been blocked by lower courts. The map would eliminate one of the state’s two blue-leaning congressional seats.
The decision two weeks ago reshaped the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act by ruling that race should not dictate the redrawing of legislative district maps. And the opinion specifically ruled that Louisiana’s congressional district map was unconstitutional.
Last week, the Supreme Court said that its decision declaring unconstitutional should go into effect immediately, breaking with its usual procedure of waiting roughly a month before its opinions become official.
That cleared the way for the GOP-controlled state legislature to begin the process of reshaping the map, and hearings got underway on Friday.
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, a top Trump ally, took swift action in the immediate aftermath of the high court’s ruling, when he delayed the May 16 U.S. House primary elections in Louisiana.
Louisiana Republicans are aiming to erase one or both of the two Black-majority House seats, which are represented by Democrats.
Republicans in Tennessee moved even faster.
The GOP-dominated Tennessee legislature on Thursday quickly adopted a new map that would eliminate the only <span suggestionid="573cf8ff-5ee0-48d2-b329-6f88a5
