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South Carolina lawmakers and Missouri judges faced different results Tuesday as President Donald Trump’s push to redraw U.S. House districts produced mixed outcomes ahead of the November midterm elections. In South Carolina, a Senate redistricting effort aimed at potentially eliminating the state’s only Democratic-held seat failed in a key chamber vote. In Missouri, the state Supreme Court delivered two unanimous rulings upholding a new map that Republican officials argued could help their party in November.
Missouri’s Supreme Court decisions came just hours after arguments. Republican Attorney General Catherine Hanaway called the rulings “a complete victory for Missouri and for the people’s elected representatives,” in a statement, adding that the court sided “against voters in every respect,” according to a joint statement from the ACLU and the Campaign Legal Center, which represented suing voters.
The litigation in Missouri focused partly on changes to a Kansas City-based district that had been represented for years by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who previously served as the city’s first Black mayor. Attorneys challenging the map argued that while the old district covered 20 miles and parts of two counties, the new configuration stretches across 200 miles over 15 counties, distorting it “into a sprawling behemoth that cuts clear across the state to unite territories that share nothing in common,” according to Abha Khanna, a partner with the Elias Law Group.
Defending the districts, attorney John Gore said no Missouri court had previously struck down a congressional map on the basis of compactness. The Supreme Court upheld a March decision by a lower court that found the map overall met the compactness requirement even though the Kansas City area district appeared less compact, the reporting said.
A second case heard by the Missouri Supreme Court centered on whether the new map should have taken effect in December or whether its implementation should have been suspended when referendum signatures were submitted. Republican officials, including Hanaway and Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, argued the map should not have been stopped. Missouri Solicitor General Lou Capozzi said suspending the map before signature validation would let activists temporarily undercut laws by submitting boxes of fraudulent signatures, while attorney Jonathan Hawley argued that not immediately suspending the map “would dilute the referendum right, if not destroy it altogether,” the story reported.
The Supreme Court agreed with Republican officials’ position that the new districts could be suspended only after Hoskins determined the petition met constitutional requirements and had enough valid signatures. The article said Hoskins has until Aug. 4, the day of Missouri’s primary elections, to make that determination.
In South Carolina, Trump urged the state to redraw its congressional districts ahead of the November elections in an effort 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 previously voted to allow lawmakers to return after their regular work ended Thursday to continue considering redistricting, according to the report.
The Senate vote, however, did not reach the threshold needed to proceed. The Senate cast a 29-17 vote that failed to achieve the two-thirds required, with five Republicans joining all Democrats in opposition, and Republican Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey said he expects redistricting to come up again in some way before the June 9 primary. Trump had urged senators on social media to “be bold and courageous” and to delay the congressional primaries so new districts can be drawn, the story said.
The report described concerns among some GOP senators about whether the proposal would allow Republicans to unseat longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn. It also said some senators worried that changes could push enough Democrats into other districts to backfire, potentially producing a 5-2 or even a 4-3 Republican split, even though Republicans hold a supermajority. Massey acknowledged the pressure from Trump but said he didn’t like being asked to “bend to someone’s will instead of doing what’s best for his state,” and he said, “I got too much Southern in my blood,” and “I’ve got too much resistance in my heritage.”
In Louisiana, lawmakers also confronted how to respond to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened the federal Voting Rights Act and created grounds for states to reduce or eliminate voting districts with large minority populations. A state Senate committee was considering how to reshape congressional districts currently represented by four Republicans and two Democrats, with Republican-backed options aimed at eliminating one or both of the state’s Democratic seats. Democrats supported a map that would still allow for two majority-Black districts centered on Baton Rouge and New Orleans, according to the report.
As the hearing ran late Tuesday night, Josiah Hardy, a high school sophomore, told lawmakers about his great-grandfather’s role in civil rights and equal representation in Louisiana when Black voters were disenfranchised. Hardy said, “Why are we still fighting the same fight decades later,” and he added, “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.”