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Republicans in the South Carolina House cast aside Democratic objections and endorsed a congressional redistricting plan just after midnight Tuesday, moving the legislation to the state Senate as the state prepares for early primary voting that starts May 26.
The House vote reshapes South Carolina’s only Democratic-held U.S. House district to the Republicans’ advantage, part of a broader national effort to keep the GOP competitive in the fall midterms. The plan was urged by President Donald Trump, and supporters argued it would improve Republicans’ chances of picking up an additional House seat.
The bill cleared the House after a 14-hour session, including reading the measure and all the Census data used to draw the maps for more than three hours. Four Republicans voted against the bill after the extended debate.
Republican Rep. Luke Rankin, who sponsored the measure, said, “To President Trump,” and added, “I have your back and South Carolina Republicans have your back.” The bill targets the seat held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, who said he would continue running for an 18th term even if the district gets changed.
Democrats argued on the House floor that the plan is wrong. Democratic state Rep. JA Moore said, “What you all are doing is wrong,” and added, “You can justify it, rationalize it, but it’s wrong.” Another Democrat, speaking as the debate continued, repeatedly objected to amendments, but Republicans rejected Democratic changes.
Republican state Rep. Melissa Oremus said Democrats were raising concerns as “fear-mongering” and asserted, “People are not being blocked from voting because of the color of their skin.” Democrats also raised concerns about how the map could affect Black voters, and the NAACP later called on Black athletes and fans to boycott athletic programs at public universities in states that it said have moved to limit, weaken or erase Black voting representation.
After the Senate takes up the bill, some Republicans there have questioned whether the redistricting could backfire by making districts competitive enough for Democrats to gain seats instead of helping the GOP sweep all seven of the state’s House districts. To build time for any new map to take effect, the House legislation would remove U.S. House races from June primaries and instead schedule a special primary in August to select candidates, while also allowing the state to void some absentee and overseas military votes already cast for Congress.
The redistricting pressure reflects a new legal landscape in the aftermath of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a majority-Black district in Louisiana as an illegal racial gerrymander and significantly weakened Voting Rights Act protections for minority districts. Other Southern states have adopted similar stop-and-start approaches, including postponements and special elections meant to buy time for revised district boundaries. Primary election ballots were being cast Tuesday in Alabama, but Alabama planned to void results in four of the seven U.S. House districts and hold special primaries Aug. 11 under different boundaries.
National projections tied to the midterm outcome have been a central part of the debate: Republicans said they could win as many as 15 additional House seats from revised districts in seven states, while Democrats said they could gain up to six seats in two states, with litigation still expected to affect outcomes. Regardless of the projections, the House measure now faces the more skeptical state Senate, where the final shape of the map—and whether it survives court scrutiny—remains uncertain.