Trump's redistricting push fizzles in South Carolina Senate but wins in Missouri's top court
President Donald Trump’s push to redraw the nation’s U.S. House districts received mixed results Tuesday as South Carolina senators defied his desires but Missouri’s top court upheld a new map that could help Republicans win an additional seat in the November midterm elections.
Rather than waning, a national redistricting battle that began 10 months ago has intensified — inflamed by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened the federal Voting Rights Act and provided grounds for states to try to eliminate voting districts with large minority populations.
Republican lawmakers in Louisiana are wrestling with how politically aggressive to be when redrawing House districts after the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated a majority-Black district as an illegal racial gerrymander.
The ripples of the Louisiana ruling already have led to new U.S. House districts in Tennessee and have extended to Alabama, where Republican Gov. Kay Ivey announced an Aug. 11 special primary for four of the state’s seven congressional districts. That came after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday overturned an order mandating use of a map with two largely Black districts. The state plans to switch to a map passed in 2023 that has only one majority-Black district, giving Republicans a chance to win an additional seat.
Republicans think they could gain as many as 14 seats from new House maps enacted so far in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida and Tennessee. Democrats, meanwhile, think they could gain six seats from new maps in California and Utah. The Virginia Supreme Court last week struck down a redistricting effort that could have yielded four more winnable seats for Democrats.
Missouri was the second Republican state, after Texas, to redraw its congressional districts at Trump’s urging last year.
Tuesday's two unanimous state Supreme Court decisions, delivered just hours after arguments, “are a complete victory for Missouri and for the people's elected representatives,” Republican Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said in a statement.
The rulings sided “against voters in every respect,” the ACLU and Campaign Legal Center, which represented suing voters, said in a joint statement. “This state — and our democracy — are worse off for this outcome.”
Attorneys challenging Missouri's new map had focused on changes to a Kansas City-based district long represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who previously was the city’s first Black mayor.
The new map takes a compact urban district that covered 20 miles (32 kilometers) and two counties and stretches it 200 miles (322 kilometers) over 15 counties, distorting it “into a sprawling behemoth that cuts clear across the state to unite territories that share nothing in common,” said Abha Khanna, a partner in the Elias Law Group, a Democratic firm.
But the Supreme Court upheld a March decision by a lower court, which found the map as a whole satisfied the compactness requirement even though the Kansas City district looks less compact. No Missouri court has ever struck down a congressional map for not being compact, said attorney John Gore, who defended the districts on behalf of the Republican Party.
A second case heard by the high court centered on whether the new map took effect in December, as asserted by Hanaway and Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, or whether it should have been suspended when referendum signatures were submitted.
To suspend the map before validating the signatures would let activists temporarily undercut laws by submitting boxes of fraudulent signatures, Missouri Solicitor General Lou Capozzi argued.
But to not immediately suspend the map “would dilute the referendum right, if not destroy it altogether,” said attorney Jonathan Hawley, arguing for voters who sued.
The Supreme Court agreed with Republican officials, who contend the new districts can be suspended only after Hoskins determines the petition meets constitutional requirements and has enough valid signatures. Hoskins has until Aug. 4, the day of Missouri’s primary elections, to make that determination.
Trump urged South Carolina to redraw its congressional districts ahead of the November elections in an attempt to help Republicans win another seat.
A House committee endorsed a map Tuesday that could eliminate the state's only Democratic-held seat, and the chamber voted previously to let lawmakers return after their regular work ends Thursday to further consider redistricting.
But the Senate had to give permission too. The 29-17 vote failed, coming just two votes short of the two-thirds needed, as five Republicans joined all Democrats in opposition.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey said he expects redistricting to come up again in some way before the June 9 primary.
Trump had said on social media that he was closely watching the redistricting vote, urging South Carolina senators to “be bold and courageous” and to delay the congressional primaries so new districts can be drawn.
Although Republicans have a supermajority in the chamber, some GOP senators weren’t sure the proposed map would guarantee the party could unseat longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn. They also said it could push enough Democrats into other districts to backfire, resulting in a 5-2 or even a 4-3 Republican split.
Massey acknowledged the pressure from Trump but said he doesn’t like being asked to bend to someone’s will instead of doing what’s best for his state.
“I got too much Southern in my blood,” Massey said. “I’ve got too much resistance in my heritage.”
A state Senate committee was considering how to reshape congressional districts — currently represented by four Republicans and two Democrats — in response to the Supreme Court ruling.
Republican-backed options aimed to eliminate either one or both of those Democratic seats.
But Democrats backed a map that still would allow for two majority-Black districts centered on Baton Rouge and New Orleans. They argued that would comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling while retaining fairness.
As a hearing stretched late into Tuesday night, Josiah Hardy, a high school sophomore, told lawmakers that his great-grandfather fought for civil rights and equal representation in Louisiana when Black voters were disenfranchised.
“Why are we still fighting the same fight decades later,” Hardy said. “My great-grandfather believed democracy is stronger when more people are included, not excluded. Further generations should not have to keep fighting the same battles for fairness and voting rights that leaders before us have already fought.”
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Brook reported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Chandler from Montgomery, Alabama, Collins from Columbia, South Carolina, and Lieb from Jefferson City, Missouri.
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