South Carolina Redistricting Special Session Expected

Gov. Henry McMaster is expected to call a South Carolina special session to redraw the congressional map ahead of June 9 primaries.

South Carolina’s Republican governor is expected to move quickly on congressional redistricting, setting up a special session that could redraw the state’s U.S. House map before voters go to the polls.

Gov.. Henry McMaster is expected to call the special session of the South Carolina General Assembly on Thursday afternoon. according to two state sources familiar with the planning.. The timing matters because state primaries are currently scheduled for June 9. while there is also a separate bill that would shift those primaries to August.

The move is designed to keep Republicans in position for the next round of House elections.. Across the country. leaders of both major parties have been scrambling to reshape congressional districts to gain seats. particularly as election timelines compress and court rulings narrow the legal pathways states can use when drawing lines.

In South Carolina, Republicans have faced procedural friction earlier in the week.. There were enough GOP holdouts in the state Senate to prevent a procedural push to advance redistricting on Tuesday.. But the expected special session changes the math: in that setting. the new congressional map would need only a simple majority vote to move forward.

State Sen.. Tom Davis. a Republican who voted against Tuesday’s procedural measure. said he plans to keep opposing a redraw of the Congressional lines.. In an email explaining his position. he argued that South Carolina’s existing maps are legally sound. that the state’s electoral position is strong. and that the proposal under consideration remains. in his view. constitutionally and practically indefensible.

McMaster’s own message after Tuesday’s vote emphasized that the legislature should complete its work within constitutional boundaries. He urged the General Assembly to finish according to both the U.S. and South Carolina constitutions and in what he described as the best interests of the people.

The expected outcome of the process is political as well as procedural. Republicans in South Carolina are expected to pass a new map that would alter powerful Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn’s district, aiming to favor GOP candidates in all seven congressional districts in the state.

The urgency behind redistricting efforts across the South has been heightened by a Supreme Court ruling last month that narrowed how states may rely on the Voting Rights Act.. The Court said the congressional map in Louisiana enacted in 2021 leaned too heavily on race when the state redrew boundaries to comply with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.. The decision came just days before early voting began in Louisiana. where tens of thousands of ballots had already been returned.

Louisiana’s response was immediate.. Republican Gov.. Jeff Landry suspended House primaries as he called for a special session to redraw the state’s congressional map.. The Louisiana state Senate advanced a proposal on Wednesday that would favor Republicans in five out of six seats. with the measure moving next to the full Senate floor.. One Democratic representative whose district would be dissolved into other districts vowed to fight the plan.

Other states quickly adjusted their election calendars and maps as legal changes reshaped what states could do.. Alabama’s Republican Gov.. Kay Ivey rescheduled primaries in Alabama’s 2nd. 6th and 7th congressional districts after the Supreme Court order halted a prior judicial ruling requiring the state to keep two majority-Black districts until 2030.. Alabama’s affected primaries had been set for May 19.

Tennessee also approved a new congressional map that. in the process of redrawing. splits Memphis—a Black-majority city—and Shelby County into three districts.. The approach is intended to favor Republicans. and the new map would favor GOP candidates in all nine of Tennessee’s congressional districts.

With South Carolina poised to hold its potential vote in a special session, the state’s next steps will carry immediate consequences for the balance of power in the U.S. House—at a moment when timing, legal constraints, and party strategy are all moving on the same compressed schedule.

South Carolina redistricting Henry McMaster congressional map special session Jim Clyburn district GOP holdouts Supreme Court Voting Rights Act