The Redistricting Race To The Bottom

A Southerner's Point of View

Southern states continue to push redistricting as far and as fast as they can, seemingly for no purpose other than the incessant desire to please an audience of one. First, the table setting: Here’s where things stand tonight.

Alabama

One of only two Black House members from Alabama, longtime District 7 Congresswoman Terri Sewell, who represents Selma as well as parts of Montgomery, Birmingham, and other areas of the state, is set to be drawn out of her seat. On Wednesday, the Princeton- and Harvard-educated lawyer, who is not prone to drama, tweeted, “This is a five-alarm fire. Black political representation in America is under attack.”

Alabama’s Attorney General Steve Marshall has been telling anyone who will listen that he wants to eliminate the two minority-majority districts in Alabama, created pursuant to court order in the Milligan case we’ve been discussing. Marshall told a LiveNowFox host that “7-0 is the number that we need in Alabama,” referring to gerrymandering the political power of minorities, who are 36% of the population, out of existence.

All of this is happening as the three-judge panel that considered Milligan and ordered the states’ maps redrawn, is deciding what to do next. The Supreme Court ordered it to use the rule from Callais to decide the outcome of the state’s motion, asking for permission to readopt the old maps that the Court determined were illegal at the time. The panel made a finding of intentional discrimination after the trial in the matter.

Georgia

Governor Brian Kemp announced today that he will call Georgia lawmakers back for a special session on June 17 to redraw both congressional and state legislative maps for the 2028 election. Gerrymandering affects district-based elections, not statewide ones. But that includes state legislative races, not just elections for the U.S. House of Representatives. Apparently, Georgia intends to “lead” the way.

Even though Kemp’s stated plans concern the 2028 election, people familiar with Georgia politics, including Fair Fight President Lauren Groh-Wargo, have pointed out that Republicans could return during the lame-duck session later this year and “gut the congressional maps” if Democrats win the governor’s mansion and/or the state legislature.

Louisiana

Voters will head to the polls Thursday morning on SB 121, which would leave the state with just one majority-minority district, as outlined in the Callais case. The state’s other five House seats would become safely Republican if the legislature adopts the map, and there is every reason to believe it intends to do so.

Mississippi

Wednesday morning, Governor Tate Reeves canceled the Mississippi special session that had been scheduled to begin next Wednesday after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated an order Republicans had hoped to use as a pretext for redrawing congressional maps. The staunchly Republican governor now says he does not expect new maps before 2027, but that remains to be seen. The Fifth Circuit may take another bite at the apple.

South Carolina

Enough Republicans in the state Senate balked at the idea of returning to session to redraw district maps, preventing the two-thirds majority vote required to do so. At least for now, it appears there will not be a new map in South Carolina, though that could still change.

Tennessee and Florida

Court hearings are scheduled in both states. In Tennessee, a hearing is set for May 20 in the NAACP lawsuit challenging late-decade redistricting. In Florida, a hearing is scheduled for Friday on efforts to block its proposed new maps.

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Here’s the perspective part: Sometimes you need to step back, because when you focus only on the trees, you miss the forest. We are seeing a radical, racist transformation of voting maps in many Republican-led states. The larger question we should be asking is: why?

The answer is self-evident, but it’s important that we say it directly. Republicans are afraid they can’t win elections on the merits of their governance and policies. So now, they’ve turned to moving the goalposts, changing the rules for winning elections so they can try to hold onto power nonetheless.

Earlier this week, CNN reported that 77% of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, say Trump’s policies have increased their cost of living. His approval rating on the economy stands at just 30%. There’s a reason he keeps overwhelming the public with incompetently conducted wars, belligerent displays of dominance, and aggressive gerrymandering: it’s because the emperor truly has no clothes. And American voters have figured that out.

Georgia’s minority leader, Harold Jones II, put it like this:

If Republicans ever used their power to help Georgians, they wouldn’t have to waste time and money redrawing the maps every few years to keep their majorities.

June will be our third redistricting since 2021. Republicans need to undo their last gerrymander because it wasn’t good enough to keep their waffling political party in power. Most parties would try out some new ideas. Republicans choose to strip political power from Black people and undo the progress the South made in the last 60 years.

Let’s sum it up for everybody. The biggest bloc of middle and working class voters are Black people. When Republicans strip Black people’s political power away, it doesn’t just strip one community of power. It strips political power from every single middle and working class person and hands it over to billionaires and big corporations. That’s what redistricting means for you.

That is real wisdom. Republicans have to gerrymander because they can’t win the hearts and minds of enough voters outright. This is the point we should be reinforcing when we talk with friends and family about this race to the bottom. None of this would be necessary if Republicans believed they could win the midterm elections on the merits. But they don’t, and they know it. That’s why we’re seeing all the gamesmanship. That’s why they’re diluting Black voting power. Because they know what the House could look like after November if Americans are allowed to vote in a fair election. That makes our mission pretty clear. We all know what we need to do: vote in record numbers. Vote to hold onto our democracy in the face of people who are only interesting in holding onto power.

When this term started, I shared my view with y’all that Callais would be one of the most important cases the Court decided this term. It has certainly turned out that way. I’m so appreciative that you all are here with me, understanding the significance of the history we are living through, committed to getting this coming election right. Every night when I sign off, I write to you that “We’re in this together.” It has never been more true. Thank you for being here with me at Civil Discourse, and for your support for this work.

We’re in this together,

Joyce