South Carolina state senators on Tuesday rejected a plan to redraw the state’s congressional map, blocking a proposal that would have pushed more Democratic voters out of Jim Clyburn’s district and into neighboring Republican seats. The vote was 29-17, two votes short of the two-thirds needed.
Five Republicans joined all Democrats in the chamber to defeat the plan. The decision preserved, for now, South Carolina’s one Democratic, Black-majority congressional district, the seat Clyburn has held in South Carolina’s sixth congressional district while the rest of the state’s seven US congressional districts are controlled by Republicans.
The failed proposal targeted the sixth district, which the plan would have altered by moving some Democratic voters into adjoining districts held by Nancy Mace and Joe Wilson. It came after Donald Trump urged South Carolina lawmakers on Monday evening to support the redistricting effort, saying he would be watching closely and telling them, “GET IT DONE!”
The fight has unfolded as South Carolina nears the end of its regular legislative term on 14 May, giving lawmakers little time to revive the plan. It also arrives in the middle of a broader Republican push across the South to redraw maps after the US supreme court effectively gutted the Voting Rights Act, which had helped block racial discrimination in redistricting.
Tennessee’s Republican-dominated legislature moved last week to eliminate the state’s one Democratic, Black-majority congressional district, while Louisiana has postponed its state primaries as its Republican governor and attorney general argue it can no longer use its current districts. In South Carolina, Clyburn has long been more than just a congressman: he is a Democratic heavyweight who has steered federal money toward highway construction and rural broadband, giving him influence well beyond the lines of the sixth district.
That is what made the Senate debate so sharp. Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey framed the issue as one of state power and political leverage, saying, “South Carolina has always punched above their weight” and warning, “Doing this will diminish that influence.” He also said, “There are likely consequences for me, personally, taking the position that I am right now,” while arguing, “Too many people in power want to do whatever it takes to stay in power... I believe the legitimate use of power in this case is to make people safer.”
Massey added, “I don’t seek power to punish. I seek it to uplift.” In his view, South Carolina still needs a lawmaker with reach in Washington, saying, “There has to be somebody in South Carolina who can make a phone call and somebody at the White House will answer.”
Democratic state Sen. Darrell Jackson pushed back by casting the map fight as a question of whether South Carolina should weaken its own voice. “Not once did the congressman say, ‘Take care of my community first and this community second,’” he said. “All that was said was do right by South Carolina.” Jackson also asked, “who then, is the go-to person. Who then advocates for South Carolina?”
The Senate vote leaves Clyburn’s district intact for now, but it does not end the political pressure around it. With the legislative clock running and national Republicans still pressing for new maps, the question is no longer whether South Carolina will be pulled into the redistricting fight. It already is. The remaining question is whether lawmakers will have enough time, and enough votes, to try again before the session ends.
