South Carolina joins Southern redistricting push after US Supreme Court
ruling on minority districts
[May 06, 2026]
By JEFFREY COLLINS, TRAVIS LOLLER, KIM CHANDLER and DAVID
A. LIEB
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — An election-year redistricting movement has spread
to South Carolina as Republicans attempt to redraw majority-Black
congressional districts that have suddenly become susceptible because of
a U.S. Supreme Court ruling upending protections for minority voters.
Urged on by President Donald Trump, South Carolina Republicans are
attempting to redraw a district long held by a Black Democratic lawmaker
in their quest for a clean sweep of the state's seven congressional
seats.
Lawmakers already are meeting in special sessions in Alabama and
Tennessee in a bid to change their U.S. House districts. And Louisiana
lawmakers also are making plans for new congressional districts after
the Supreme Court last week struck down the state’s current map.
The high court’s ruling said Louisiana relied too heavily on race when
creating a second Black-majority House district as it attempted to
comply with the Voting Rights Act. The ruling significantly altered a
decades-old understanding of the law, giving Republicans grounds to try
to eliminate majority-Black districts that have elected Democrats.
The ruling revved up an already intense national redistricting battle
ahead of a November midterm election that will determine control of the
closely divided House.
Since Trump prodded Texas to redraw its U.S. House districts last year,
a total of eight states have adopted new congressional districts. From
that, Republicans think they could gain as many as 13 seats while
Democrats think they could gain up to 10 seats. But some of the new
districts could be competitive in November, meaning the parties may not
get all they sought.
South Carolina to test its will for redistricting
Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn has represented South Carolina’s 6th
Congressional District since it was redrawn to favor minority voters in
1992. He’s running for an 18th term. But it could get harder for him to
win reelection if Republicans redraw his district.
Leaders in the state House and Senate said a redistricting effort needs
to start with a two-thirds vote in each chamber. The issue could come up
as soon as Wednesday. But if only a few Republicans aren’t on board, it
can’t succeed.
Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey has warned that redistricting could
backfire because of thin political margins, resulting in a second
Democrat in the U.S. House. Massey told reporters Tuesday that he had a
cordial conversation with Trump about redistricting, each laying out
their concerns.
The state’s primaries are June 9 and early voting starts in three weeks.
Alabama looks at setting a new primary
The House on Wednesday could debate legislation that would allow Alabama
to hold a special congressional primary, 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 Louisiana’s districts, Alabama
officials have asked courts to set aside a judicial order to use a U.S.
House map that includes two districts with a substantial number of Black
voters. Republicans instead want to use a map passed in 2023 by the
Legislature that could help the GOP win at least one of those two seats
currently held by Democrats.
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Alabama’s primaries are scheduled for May 19. If the Supreme Court
grants the state’s request after or too close to the primary, the
legislation under consideration would ignore the results of that
primary and direct the governor to schedule a new primary under the
revised districts.
Democrats denounced the legislation as a Republican power grab that
harkens back to the state’s shameful history of denying Black
residents equal rights and representation.
Republicans are “working to secure an electoral victory by taking
Alabama back to the Jim Crow era, and we won’t go back,” Democratic
U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell told a crowd gathered outside the Alabama
Statehouse.
Tennessee plan targets Memphis district
Republican Gov. Bill Lee called Tennessee lawmakers into a special
session to consider a plan urged by Trump that could break up the
state’s lone Democratic-held U.S. House district, centered on the
majority-Black city of Memphis. Republicans didn't say much about
the plan Tuesday.
But as the Senate began work Tuesday, shouts of “shame, shame,
shame” could be heard inside the chamber from protesters gathered in
the hallways. On the chamber floor, Sen. Raumesh Akbari, a Black
Democrat from Memphis, called the redistricting “an act of hate.”
Martin Luther King III sent a letter to Tennessee legislative
leaders expressing “grave concern” about the plan to divide Memphis,
saying the move could undermine the work for voting rights carried
out by his father, Martin Luther King Jr.
The candidate qualifying period in Tennessee ended in March, and the
primary election is scheduled for Aug. 6.
Thousands had already voted in Louisiana
After last week’s Supreme Court decision, Republican Gov. Mike
Landry postponed the state’s May 16 congressional primary to allow
time for lawmakers to approve new U.S. House districts. State Sen.
Caleb Kleinpeter, a Republican, said a redistricting committee he
leads plans to hold a public hearing Friday.
Louisiana voters had already sent in more than 41,000 absentee
ballots by last Thursday, when Landry suspended the House primaries,
according to the Secretary of State’s Office. That’s about a third
of all the absentee ballots sent out to voters. Around 19,000 were
from registered Democrats, 17,000 from registered Republicans and
the remainder belonged to neither party.
Democrats and civil rights groups have filed several lawsuits
challenging the suspension of Louisiana’s congressional primary.
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Chandler reported from Montgomery, Alabama, Loller from Nashville
and Lieb from Jefferson City, Missouri. Associated Press writer Jack
Brook contributed from New Orleans.
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