Redistricting threatens – A new wave of state-by-state map changes after the Supreme Court’s voting rights ruling has put 19 of the Congressional Black Caucus’s 62 members at risk of losing their seats during the 2028 election cycle, with Democrats warning of a return to Jim Crow and R
When Tennessee lawmakers moved quickly to redraw congressional districts last week. Democrats warned the fight over voting rights was turning into a fight over who gets to serve in Congress.. For members of the Congressional Black Caucus. that rush has created a new source of political peril heading into the next election cycle.
The CBC says nearly a third of its membership is now in jeopardy: 19 of its 62 members could be affected through the 2028 election cycle as Republicans in several southern states control the state legislatures and push mid-decade redistricting.. The timing is tied to the Supreme Court’s decision to deal a blow to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. prompting states to adjust maps less than two weeks after the ruling.
Republicans argue their redraws are being made to comply with the Court and that the districts in question may still elect Black representatives to Congress.. Democrats, though, portray the strategy as a direct effort to reduce Black political power in the House.. “Over the next year or so. what you’re going to see in state after state are Democrats making clear that we are not going to unilaterally disarm. ” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said.. He pointed to a series of states where Democrats plan to respond. listing New York. New Jersey. Oregon. Washington. Colorado. and “of course” Illinois and Maryland.
The Supreme Court’s ruling Monday evening signaled Alabama could eliminate at least one of its majority-Black congressional districts before this year’s midterm elections. potentially giving Republicans an additional House seat in a race for control of a closely divided chamber.. Alabama Rep.. Shomari Figures. whose seat is now at risk because of the 6-3 ruling. said in a statement to ABC News that the decision “sets the stage for Alabama to go back to the 1950s and 60s in terms of Black political representation in the state.”
In Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey responded by setting special primary elections for districts affected by the ruling: the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th.
For Rep.. Emmanuel Cleaver of Missouri. whose seat was among the earliest targeted by redistricting. the stakes are about more than one map.. He said the effort is “trying to send us back to Reconstruction.” Cleaver told ABC News he supports Jeffries’ call for “maximum warfare” against GOP-led redistricting efforts. but worries that a reciprocal approach could lead to more chaos than change: he said Democrats may end up with “nothing left in the station but ash.” Cleaver. who has held his seat for more than two decades. said he now has “no idea” what district he is running in. and said Democrats may need to redistrict in places including Illinois. Maryland. New York. New Jersey and Colorado to counter the GOP moves.
Rep.. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina—also facing possible risk if redistricting succeeds—argued that a chain of Supreme Court rulings has enabled targeting of Black legislators. and he raised concerns about Trump actions that he said could threaten democratic institutions.. “You know, this is whether or not you’re going to have a democracy,” Clyburn said.. He added that the country may be “on the verge of a kleptocracy.”
Clyburn and other CBC members have continued pressing for passage of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, but Cleaver said the legislation faces a near-term roadblock. “In the current Congress, the legislation ‘could not get a hearing in the United States of America right now,’” he said.
Outside the legislative process, the CBC is preparing legal challenges.. A spokesperson for the group told ABC News it is coordinating with organizations including Elias Law Group and the Legal Defense Fund to challenge the GOP’s redistricting efforts.. Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, warned in a statement that the moves amount to a rollback of voting protections.. “We are witnessing a return to Jim Crow,” Johnson said.. He added that voters should act in November “to put an end to this madness while we still can.”
In Tennessee. where redistricting accelerated after the Supreme Court’s Louisiana-related ruling. state officials became the first to officially redraw and pass a new map.. It happened at the urging of the president. who called the governor about the topic one day after the ruling. and within a week the new map was created. presented and passed.. The updated map gives Republicans an opportunity to flip the state’s lone current Democratic-held. majority-Black district. which is primarily made up of Memphis.
In South Carolina. Republicans formally unveiled a proposed new congressional map on Friday that would redraw the district held by Clyburn.. Louisiana. like other states in the South. is also working through its own redistricting process. with the goal of delivering additional House seats to the GOP ahead of the November election.
For Figures, the legal battle is ongoing.. He said the Supreme Court “did not dismiss the case,” meaning litigation will continue.. His hope. he added. is that it is only a temporary setback and that “three-Republican appointed judges” will eventually find—consistent with what the Court decided before—that Alabama “intentionally discriminated against Black voters in drawing its congressional district lines.”
As the 2028 cycle approaches, the CBC’s central warning is that Black representation could shrink substantially in the next couple of years—not through a single election, but through the maps that determine who can win when voters head to the polls.
Congressional Black Caucus redistricting Voting Rights Act Supreme Court Hakeem Jeffries Yvette Clarke Jim Clyburn Shomari Figures Tennessee map Alabama special primary elections