Republican lawmakers in Louisiana, Alabama, and Tennessee are set to make the next moves in the mid-decade redistricting battle, seeking to further bolster their party’s chances in the fall midterms in the wake of a Supreme Court decision that hollowed the Voting Rights Act.
The court’s ruling last week, which struck down Louisiana’s electoral map, weakened a core provision of the landmark law, opening the door for Republicans, especially in Southern states, to eliminate majority-minority districts in order to draw new voting lines that could help the GOP win additional House seats.
The Republican governors of Louisiana, Alabama, and Tennessee quickly took action to capitalize on the decision.
In Louisiana, Gov. Jeff Landry suspended the state’s May 16 primaries to allow lawmakers to create new congressional maps following the Supreme Court ruling. A special legislative session called by Gov. Kay Ivey soon after began in Alabama on Monday, where legislators are weighing a bill that would allow calling for special primary elections if the Supreme Court rules to let the state use a previously blocked congressional map following its Voting Rights Act decision. And the following day, lawmakers in Tennessee convened for a similar session called by Gov. Bill Lee to consider a redistricting plan that could get rid of the district including the majority-Black city of Memphis, the only one in the state currently represented by a Democrat.
Read more: How Voting Rights Groups Are Rallying to Fight After the Supreme Court Hollowed a Landmark Law
President Donald Trump, who sparked the redistricting battle last year when he called on Republican state leaders to redraw their maps, has encouraged states to do so following the ruling, noting the potential to gain additional GOP seats.
“We should demand that State Legislatures do what the Supreme Court says must be done,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday. “That is more important than administrative convenience. The byproduct is that the Republicans will receive more than 20 House Seats in the upcoming Midterms!”
House Speaker Mike Johnson said to reporters days earlier following the court’s decision that he thinks “all states who have unconstitutional maps should look at that very carefully” before the midterms.
Republicans, who currently hold a razor-thin majority in the House, are looking to maintain control of the lower chamber in the November elections. But they could face an uphill battle: the sitting President’s party typically loses seats in the midterms, and recent polls have shown Trump’s approval rating dropping to the lowest levels since he returned to the White House and his disapproval to its highest point across either of his terms.
But after Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a new congressional map into law in his state on Monday, the GOP appears to be coming out ahead in the redistricting war, standing to gain at least one seat in the House as a result of redrawing lines in multiple states
The efforts underway in Louisiana, Alabama, and Tennessee could add to that advantage in the ongoing battle. Here’s what to know.
Louisiana
Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais, in which it ruled that redrawing voting lines to create a second Black-majority district in the state was an “unconstitutional racial gerrymander,” Gov. Landry issued an Executive Order suspending congressional primaries just as early voting was about to begin.
“The best way to end race-based discrimination is to stop making decisions based on race,” said Landry in a statement. “Here in Louisiana, we’re proud to lead the nation on this charge. Allowing elections to proceed under an unconstitutional map would undermine the integrity of our system and violate the rights of our voters.”
Landry’s order has postponed the primaries until July 15, or a date determined by the state legislature. State lawmakers have said they will pass a new map before the end of their regular legislative session in a month.
Trump praised Landry in a Truth Social post “for his leadership on the very important Callais case, and for moving so quickly to fix the Unconstitutionality of Louisiana’s Congressional Maps.”
On Monday, the Supreme Court granted a request to expedite its decision last week, which will allow Louisiana to redraw its maps ahead of the November elections.
Meanwhile, many Democrats have denounced the push to quickly redistrict following the Supreme Court’s ruling. Louisiana state Sen. Royce Duplessis said that the decision to do so in Louisiana “is going to cause mass confusion among voters––Democrats, Republicans, white, Black, everybody.”
Republicans currently occupy four of the state’s House seats, while Democrats hold two. Both chambers of the state legislature are controlled by the GOP.
Alabama
Alabama has been blocked by the courts from redrawing its House districts until after the 2030 Census, but has appealed that prior ruling following the Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Act Decision. Gov. Ivey called the high court’s decision “encouraging” for the state’s pending litigation in a statement on Friday.
That day, Ivey called for the state legislature to convene to consider legislation that would allow Alabama to hold special primary elections for the U.S. House and state Senate in “districts whose boundary lines are altered by a court issuing a judgment, vacating an injunction, or otherwise ordering or permitting an alteration in the boundaries of such districts.”
“By calling the Legislature into a special session, I am ensuring Alabama is prepared should the courts act quickly enough to allow Alabama’s previously drawn congressional and state maps to be used during this election cycle,” Ivey said in her statement, noting that if the court injunction were lifted, the state would return to the congressional map drawn by the legislature in 2023 and the state Senate district map passed in 2021.
Republicans now hold five of the state’s House seats compared to Democrats’ two, following the implementation of a court-selected map that created a second substantially Black district. If the previous court injunction is lifted, the boundaries of the district currently represented by Rep. Shomari Figures, a Black Democrat, would change significantly.
Republicans control both chambers of the state legislature.
Alabama’s primaries are scheduled for May 19.
Tennessee
Gov. Lee called a special legislative session in Tennessee on Friday, hours after Ivey did the same in Alabama, in order to consider redistricting “to ensure our congressional districts accurately reflect the will of Tennessee voters,” he said in a statement.
“After consultation with the Lt. Governor, Speaker of the House, Attorney General, and Secretary of State, I believe the General Assembly has a responsibility to review the map and ensure it remains fair, legal, and defensible,” he said.
A day earlier, Trump wrote in a post that he had a “very good” discussion with Lee “wherein he stated that he would work hard to correct the unconstitutional flaw” in House maps in Tennessee.”
No proposed map had been revealed by Republican lawmakers as of Monday afternoon. Republicans, in addition to controlling both chambers of the state legislature, currently hold eight out of Tennessee’s nine House seats.
The state’s primaries are scheduled for Aug. 6.
The post Republicans Look to Build Their Redistricting War Advantage in Southern States appeared first on TIME.
