South Carolina Senate effectively kills proposed congressional map backed by Trump
The South Carolina Senate on Tuesday effectively killed a proposed congressional map that could have allowed Republicans to flip the seat held by Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn, a major rebuff to a mid-decade redistricting effort promoted by President Donald Trump.
The Republican-controlled state Senate voted Tuesday afternoon to adjourn their special legislative session until June 10, after the state holds its June 9 primaries, without nearing a final vote on the map.
The adjournment means that possible redistricting in the state before the 2026 midterms appears all but dead.
Early voting in the primaries began Tuesday, which opponents of the map argued meant it was too late to redistrict without running into major legal issues.
Lawmakers adjourned after a procedural vote to limit debate on the map failed, and after multiple Republican state senators spoke out against the map on the Senate floor, with some citing the start of early voting as why it was too late to redistrict.
"The deadline has passed, voting has begun. It is time to conclude the matter," Republican state Sen. Richard Cash said on the Senate floor on Tuesday. "Now I know there is going to be a lot of anger and frustration that we did not get the job done. I get it. Many of us are also frustrated and disappointed at what is a very unsatisfying outcome, but we need to face it. The time clock for getting this done ran out, and the time clock for in-person voting started at 8:30 this morning."
A subsequent statement attributed to the South Carolina Senate Republican Caucus blamed South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, for calling a special session too close to the primaries and cited the possibility that ballots cast today would be thrown out as the reason the legislature adjourned.
The proposed congressional map could've helped the Republican Party flip the state's 6th congressional district, held by Clyburn, the longtime Black representative who is the state's lone Democrat in Congress.
Clyburn slammed the redistricting effort in a press conference earlier Tuesday.
"As I stand here, our state senate is debating whether or not to recreate this congressional district in order to fulfill orders from the White House to say to the 29% of African Americans in South Carolina, the 43% of Democratic voters in South Carolina, irrespective of your presence, you are not deserving of a single member of Congress of the seven that we have," Clyburn said.
"That is a challenge to the goodness of South Carolinians, and nothing has made me more incensed than to see this kind of imposition on the people of South Carolina," Clyburn said.
