House Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday that states should consider promptly redrawing congressional districts after the Supreme Court’s ruling limiting the Voting Rights Act — a move that would help Republicans gain seats in this year’s midterm elections.
Johnson’s endorsement of last-minute redistricting in the wake of Wednesday’s ruling adds pressure to Republican-led states weighing whether there’s enough time to create new district boundaries and boost the GOP’s chances of maintaining control of the House.
“We want constitutional maps,” Johnson (R-Louisiana) told reporters on Capitol Hill on Thursday. “All states that have unconstitutional maps should look at that very carefully, and I think they should do it before the midterms.”
His home state was the subject of the lawsuit that reshaped how states can consider race when drawing congressional boundaries, which for decades helped voters in the South elect Black Democrats to the House. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) is preparing to suspend primary elections already underway there to draw districts that comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling, according to two people familiar with his plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
The ruling’s practical impact, according to both parties, is that many Democratic-leaning districts drawn to consolidate majority-minority voters can be redrawn to GOP advantage. The vast majority of those districts are in the South.
Other states including Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina face similar calls to redraw districts before November.
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