South Carolina Senate Rejects Trump Push To Eliminate Jim Clyburn’s House Seat

South Carolina Republicans in the state Senate rejected a measure Tuesday that would have extended the legislative session to take up redistricting, dealing a blow to President Donald Trump’s push to eliminate the state’s lone Democratic-held House seat represented by longtime Rep. Jim Clyburn.

“The Republican push for South Carolina to join the national redistricting battle by redrawing its US House map fizzled Tuesday as an initial vote in the state Senate fell short”

CNN

The Senate vote was 29-17, falling short of the two-thirds support needed, and the resolution would have allowed lawmakers to return after the legislative calendar ends this week to consider congressional redistricting.

CNN

Trump urged the Senate to act, posting on Truth Social that he was “watching closely” and telling South Carolina Republicans to “BE BOLD AND COURAGEOUS,” while the push followed an April 29 Supreme Court ruling that gutted key Voting Rights Act protections.

Democracy Docket described the Senate’s action as a rebuke of Trump’s efforts to pressure southern states to quickly pass gerrymandered maps ahead of the midterms, and said South Carolina’s seven congressional districts would remain as is, for now.

NBC News reported that the Senate’s vote shut the door “at least for now” on Republican plans to carve up the majority-Black district held by Clyburn before the midterm elections, with South Carolina’s primaries set for June 9.

Shane Massey, the Republican Senate Majority Leader, warned during debate that redrawing the state’s map could backfire by making more districts competitive for Democrats, saying, “This is going to motivate Black [voter] turnout,” and “There will be repercussions for that.”

Massey also framed the decision as a defense of state interests, telling reporters in the Senate that “I believe that our state is stronger with vibrant parties,” and he said “Republicans are stronger when the Democrat Party is vibrant and viable.”

Democracy Docket

The Washington Post described the episode as Republicans blocking a plan aimed at flipping South Carolina’s lone Democratic-held House seat, while Democracy Docket cast the Senate’s action as a rebuke of Trump’s pressure after the Supreme Court gutted Voting Rights Act protections.

NBC News reported that Trump had urged the Senate to pass the resolution on Truth Social on Monday night, and it quoted Trump’s post telling Republicans to “Move the U.S. House Primaries to August, leave the rest on the same schedule. Everything will be fine. GET IT DONE!”

In contrast, CNN said the Senate vote failed “with just two votes short of the two-thirds needed,” and it quoted Massey saying, “I got too much Southern in my blood,” and “I’ve got too much resistance in my heritage.”

With the Senate vote failing, Politico said the Tuesday decision “does make it harder to accomplish this year,” while also noting that Gov. Henry McMaster could still call a special session even after the legislative session ends later this week.

“The Republican-led South Carolina state Senate rejected a measure Tuesday to take up a redraw of the state’s congressional map despite pressure from President Donald Trump”

NBC News

The Hill reported that the measure failed via a 29-17 vote after Trump urged Republicans to back the extension, and it described Democrats in the upper chamber as celebrating the move on X as preventing a politically motivated special session on congressional redistricting.

The stakes extend beyond South Carolina’s map, as PBS said the national redistricting battle intensified after the Supreme Court weakened the federal Voting Rights Act, and it reported Republicans could gain as many as 14 seats from new House maps enacted so far while Democrats think they could gain six seats from new maps in California and Utah.

In Missouri, PBS reported that the Missouri Supreme Court upheld a new map that could help Republicans win an additional seat in the November midterm elections, and it said the map takes a Kansas City-based district and stretches it 200 miles over 15 counties.

WLOS reported that election officials said delaying elections because of redistricting could cost the state up to $2.5 million, and it said more than 300 absentee ballots have already been returned, raising concerns that some voters may not participate again if a new election date is set.