A move in the South Carolina legislature to redraw congressional boundaries and eliminate the state’s sole Democratic U.S. House district failed on Tuesday when a subset of Republican state senators voted against the measure, breaking with President Donald Trump.
The proposed change, advanced earlier by the Republican-controlled South Carolina House of Representatives, would have allowed lawmakers to delay the June 9 primaries for U.S. House races and implement a new map that split the district currently held by Representative Jim Clyburn. Clyburn, a Black Democrat who has represented the district since 1993 and wields considerable influence within his party, is therefore likely to remain on the ballot for the November midterm elections.
The state Senate voted 29-17 and fell two votes short of the two-thirds majority required to extend the legislative session to adopt the new map. Republicans already hold the other six U.S. House seats in South Carolina, and the failed effort leaves the state’s overall congressional delegation unchanged for now.
Governor Henry McMaster, a Republican, could still call a special session to revisit redistricting, a possibility the outcome does not eliminate. The legislative impasse in Columbia reflects broader efforts by Republican lawmakers across the U.S. South to redraw congressional maps in ways that could reduce the number of Democratic-leaning districts in the region.
Those efforts accelerated following a U.S. Supreme Court decision on April 29 that narrowed the reach of the Voting Rights Act, giving states more discretion to alter or eliminate majority-Black and majority-Latino districts. Several Republican-led southern states have moved to take advantage of that change: Tennessee enacted a new map that dismantled a majority-Black district, and Louisiana and Alabama are pursuing similar proposals.
President Trump publicly urged South Carolina state senators to support the redistricting plan in a social media post on Monday, saying he was "watching closely." The president’s message echoed prior interventions in state redistricting fights, notably his past threats against Indiana Republican lawmakers who declined to redraw a map; in that instance he backed primary challengers and six of seven incumbent lawmakers who opposed his position lost to Trump-endorsed opponents last week.
Context and procedural notes
- The House had adopted a proposal to delay the June 9 primary dates for U.S. House contests to allow implementation of a new map that would fragment the existing Democratic-leaning district.
- The Senate’s 29-17 vote did not reach the two-thirds threshold required to extend the session and enact the change.
- Representative Jim Clyburn has represented the affected district since 1993.