By David A. Lieb and Jeffrey Collins
Contributing Writers
JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri (AP) – Missouri’s top court heard an important legal challenge May 12 to one of President Donald Trump’s earliest redistricting successes, while lawmakers in Louisiana and South Carolina weigh whether to become the latest Republican states to redraw U.S. House districts ahead of the November midterm elections.
Rather than waning, a national redistricting battle that began 10 months ago has intensified — inflamed by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened the federal Voting Rights Act and provided grounds for states to try to eliminate voting districts with large minority populations.
Missouri was the second Republican state after Texas to heed Trump’s call last year to redraw congressional districts to help the GOP win additional seats in the midterms. Opponents argued that the gerrymandered districts violated a state compactness requirement and should have been suspended last December when activists submitted more than 300,000 petition signatures seeking a public referendum. The state Supreme Court made no immediate ruling.
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers in Louisiana wrestled with how politically aggressive to be when redrawing House districts after the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated a majority-Black district as an illegal racial gerrymander. In South Carolina, Republicans facing pressure from Trump to redistrict weighed the political risks of doing so.
The ripples of the Louisiana ruling also extended into Alabama, where Republican Gov. Kay Ivey announced an Aug. 11 special primary for four of the state’s seven congressional districts. That came after the U.S. Supreme Court May 11 overturned an order mandating use of a map with two largely Black districts. The state plans to switch to a map passed in 2023 that has only one majority-Black district, though opponents have asked a court to again block that plan.
Republicans think they could gain as many as 14 seats from new House maps enacted so far in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida and Tennessee. Democrats, meanwhile, think they could gain six seats from new maps in California and Utah. The Virginia Supreme Court last week struck down a redistricting effort that could have yielded four more winnable seats for Democrats.
Attorneys for voters challenging Missouri’s new map focused on changes to a Kansas City-based district long represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, the city’s first Black mayor.
The new map takes a compact urban district that covered 20 miles and two counties and stretches it 200 miles over 15 counties, distorting it “into a sprawling behemoth that cuts clear across the state to unite territories that share nothing in common,” said Abha Khanna, an attorney who has represented Democrats in voting and redistricting cases across the country.
A lower court ruled in March that the map as a whole satisfied the compactness requirement, even though the Kansas City district is less compact. No Missouri court has ever struck down a congressional map for not being compact, said attorney John Gore, who defended the districts on behalf of the Republican Party.
A second case heard by the high court centered on whether the new map took effect in December, as asserted by Republican Attorney General Catherine Hanaway and Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, or whether it should have been suspended when referendum signatures were submitted.
To suspend the map before validating the signatures would let activists temporarily undercut laws by submitting boxes of fraudulent signatures, Missouri Solicitor General Lou Capozzi argued.
But to not immediately suspend the map “would dilute the referendum right, if not destroy it altogether,” said attorney Jonathan Hawley, arguing for voters who sued.
Republican officials contend the new districts can be suspended only after Hoskins determines the petition meets constitutional requirements and has enough valid signatures. Hoskins has until Aug. 4, the day of Missouri’s primary elections, to make that determination. A state judge in March agreed with Republicans’ position.
In Louisiana, state Sen. Jay Morris, a Republican who drafted redistricting bills that would eliminate one or both of the state’s majority Black districts, told lawmakers that he received death threats after a contentious hearing May 8 in which he told members of the public to “shut up.”
Morris acknowledged the outburst but denied the Louisiana Democratic Party’s assertion — blasted across social media and in a press release — that he also used the derogatory term “boy” toward its executive director, Dadrius Lanus, who is Black.
State Sen. Gary Carter, one of three Black Democrats serving alongside six white Republicans on the Senate committee overseeing redistricting, told the Associated Press May 12 that he had withdrawn from the committee “to help restore the decorum and focus that this moment demands” after shouting at Republicans during the May 8 hearing. Carter publicly apologized to Morris and his Senate colleagues May 11 for having “lost my temper” and for any remarks that were taken as “personal attacks.”
Carter is the nephew of U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, a Democrat who represents New Orleans and is at risk of losing his seat in the redistricting process. Gary Carter is being replaced on the committee with state Sen. Royce Duplessis, a Democrat representing New Orleans.
In South Carolina, a House committee May 12 was considering whether to send a congressional redistricting plan to the full chamber for debate, alongside a proposal to delay the June 9 congressional primaries until August.
That comes even as some absentee and overseas military ballots already have been cast, and the state’s top election official warned of an “extremely tight” deadline where one problem or mistake could derail an election.
Any redistricting effort also must clear the Senate, where support is uncertain. Two-thirds of senators have to agree before the regular General Assembly session ends May 14 to let the legislature take up redistricting later.
Trump said on social media May 11 that he was closely watching the redistricting vote, urging South Carolina senators to “be bold and courageous” and to delay the House primaries so new districts can be drawn.
Although Republicans have a supermajority in the chamber, several senators aren’t sure the proposed map guarantees the GOP will win the seat long held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn. They also think enough Democratic voters could be pushed into other districts that the plan could backfire, resulting in a 5-2 or even a 4-3 Republican split.
David A. Lieb and Jeffrey Collins write for the Associated Press. Associated Press writers Jack Brook and Kim Chandler contributed to this report.
