SC Senate Deals White House Another Blow on Redistricting

President Trump's push to reshape congressional districts ahead of the November elections suffered a double setback Tuesday, as South Carolina senators declined to do so and a federal court blocked a Republican-backed map in Alabama. As early in-person voting began Tuesday in South Carolina's primaries, the state Senate rejected a Republican plan to cancel those congressional votes and instead schedule a new primary under revised districts designed to help the GOP oust a longtime Democrat, the AP reports. Several Republican state senators voted with Democrats to reject the plan.

• Some senators said it was simply too late to make a change. "South Carolina citizens are going to the polls today. And neither my conscience or common sense is going to let me stop an election that is already underway," Republican state Sen. Richard Cash said.
• Republicans in the chamber had earlier expressed opposition to redistricting, but GOP Gov. Henry McMaster, under pressure from the White House, decided earlier this month to call lawmakers back for a special session.

• The political drama in South Carolina is part of a Republican strategy— propelled by Trump—to redraw voting districts to the GOP's advantage in an attempt to hold on to a slim House majority in the midterm elections. Republicans have been moving quickly to try to leverage a recent US Supreme Court ruling that weakened minority protections under the federal Voting Rights Act.
• Among the first to cast an early ballot in the small city of Orangeburg was US Rep. Jim Clyburn, the Democrat whose district Republicans are trying to reshape in their quest for a clean sweep of South Carolina's seven congressional seats. A defiant Clyburn insisted he would run for reelection, regardless of what the district looks like. "I'm OK if it's Trump plus 20," Clyburn said while describing the potential Republican advantage in a reshaped district. "I would be running where I live."
• More than 26,000 votes were cast in South Carolina by noon Tuesday on the first day of early voting for the June 9 primary after Democrats called for people against a proposed new map to turn out in force. In 2022, about 125,000 early votes were cast the entire two weeks.

• The Republican-led state House already has passed a plan that would reconfigure Clyburn's district, void the results of current congressional primaries, and instead hold new US House primaries in August.
• Trump has lobbied for the plan, making at least two phone calls to Republican state Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey and also phoning in to a private meeting of Republican senators earlier this month. He has also maintained the pressure on social media.
• Clyburn noted that when state lawmakers last redrew congressional districts, after the 2020 census, they spent months holding meetings across the state to gather public suggestions. Although that map resulted in a 6-1 seat advantage for Republicans over Democrats, the process was orderly and fair, he said.
• After the vote, Republican state Sen. Tom Davis said the redistricting push happened over just a few weeks, NBC News reports. "We have completely outsourced our constitutional obligation to prepare a congressional redistricting map to a consultant in Washington, DC," he said. "We have no idea, no idea how that map was created."