South Carolina Senate Rejects Trump’s Redistricting Push, Preserving Jim Clyburn’s District

South Carolina Republicans suffered a setback Tuesday when the state Senate voted against advancing a new congressional map, ending the redistricting effort in the state for now as early in-person voting began for the June 9 primary.

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Associated Press

The vote was a surprise rejection of President Donald Trump’s push to pass a plan that would have eliminated the state’s single majority-Black congressional district represented by longtime Democratic Rep. James Clyburn.

Associated Press

Republican state Sen. Richard Cash said, "Neither my conscience nor common sense will allow me to stop an election that is already underway," after some senators argued it was too late to enact new district lines.

NBC News reported that advisers close to the White House were "caught off guard" by the failed vote, with one calling it a "betrayal."

In South Carolina, the redistricting fight centered on Clyburn’s district and the timing of early voting, with the Guardian describing a 26-18 vote that rejected mid-decade redistricting in a special session.

State senator Tom Davis, a Republican from Beaufort and Jasper counties, said, "We were told: pass this map," and he criticized a process in which a consultant from Washington DC spoke with legislators via Zoom for seven minutes and 40 seconds.

CBS News

The Guardian reported that Republican state senator Richard Cash argued it was too late to make a change, saying, "South Carolina citizens are going to the polls today."

NPR added that a move to bring the bill to a vote failed when 12 Republicans joined 12 Democrats on a key procedural vote to block the 26 votes needed to end debate and bring up a vote on the bill.

The South Carolina vote came alongside a federal court action in Alabama, where a three-judge panel issued a preliminary injunction blocking the state from using a Republican-drawn congressional map.

PBS reported that the court said the Republican plan "intentionally discriminated based on race" by including only one Black-majority district and ordered continued use of a court-imposed map that includes two districts with a significant proportion of Black residents.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said the state would appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, and NPR said the court ruling is expected to be challenged at the U.S. Supreme Court.

NPR also framed the broader stakes by noting that Trump and Republicans have gained in the mid-decade redistricting push, with Republicans gaining "around nine more seats" in the U.S. House.