South Carolina lawmakers rejected President Trump’s call for redistricting to help the GOP hold onto the U.S. House in the midterms.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Lawmakers in South Carolina have rejected President Trump’s efforts to reshape voting maps before the midterm elections.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
A new map in South Carolina could’ve flipped the state’s only House seat held by a Democrat, Congressman James Clyburn. On the same day, an Alabama court blocked a Republican-backed congressional map ahead of the midterms because it was, in their words, intentional race-based discrimination. Still, Republicans have redrawn more districts in their favor across the country than Democrats have.
MARTÍNEZ: Joining us is Gavin Jackson of South Carolina Public Radio. So, Gavin, how did this play out in the state capital of Columbia?
GAVIN JACKSON, BYLINE: Yeah. Well, on a procedural vote, over a third of the Republicans in the Senate – 14 of them – voted with the Democrats to effectively kill a bill that would’ve changed the maps. It’s been a whirlwind three weeks here with redistricting going from not being on anyone’s radar to dominating the final days of the legislative session. The push was briefly stopped in the Senate, which prompted Governor Henry McMaster to call a special session to take up a new map. And he’s been saying that Trump needs to keep a Republican Congress to carry out his agenda.
Now, a handful of prominent Senate Republicans continued to push back against this process that went into Memorial Day weekend, so it’s been busy. And this all came to a head yesterday. That was the first day of early voting for the primaries, and Democrats were urging people to go to the polls. And more than 30,000 votes had been cast already as lawmakers were meeting, so some of them were even getting updates during that debate. And around that time, lawmakers faced a couple of procedural votes in the Senate to get the redistricting bill to a vote, and it lost.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. It’s been a little different in each state – in every state. So what’s the pushback about there?
JACKSON: Yeah. Again, they talked about the time crunch with the primary starting. Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, a Republican, was outspoken against this from the beginning. And he raised constitutional concerns and said that the plan could backfire on Republicans by motivating Democrats and independent voters. Here he is Tuesday.
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SHANE MASSEY: You energize them to come out and vote against you because people will vote when they’re angry. And I think what we’re seeing today across the state with the record turnout – early voting turnout that we’re seeing – is that we’ve made some people mad just having the debate.
JACKSON: Yeah. Senators here really pride themselves on being deliberative and not letting Washington tell them what to do. Then you factor in expected lawsuits, costs of delaying the primaries, and some of them said it wasn’t so much a rebuke to Trump as a reality check.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, but the president usually gets his way on this kind of thing. And in Indiana, he helped defeat some Republicans in primaries after they voted against redistricting. So aren’t they worried about that there?
JACKSON: There was definitely an undertone in the House where all 124 members were up for reelection, but that was different in the Senate because they’re not up for another two years, so they’re not too concerned about that. Now, some Republicans said that they were worried that redistricting could’ve made these seats that are safe now more competitive. And the governor said that he was disappointed but that he would not be calling lawmakers back again.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, we mentioned the setback for Republicans in Alabama as well. What happened there?
JACKSON: Yeah. That’s another state that took up redistricting after the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act in April, and they’re going for one seat, like they did in South Carolina. And now a federal court temporarily blocked that yesterday, but it’s expected to go to the Supreme Court, which has approved that redistricting once already. Now, around the country, like in Florida and Texas, Republicans have redistricted about eight or nine seats their way, and more so than Democrats have. So the Louisiana Republicans are also working on one seat this week. And primaries are underway, and the field may pretty much be set except for some of these court battles right now.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. That’s Gavin Jackson of South Carolina Public Radio. Gavin, thanks.
JACKSON: Thanks.
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