South Carolina Republicans defy Trump again to reject rapid redistricting drive | South Carolina

Republican lawmakers in South Carolina have challenged Donald Trump and rejected a dangerous proposal to redraw the state’s congressional districts ahead of November’s US midterm elections.

By a 26-18 vote, state senators rejected mid-decade redistricting in a special session of the legislature, ending Washington’s hope of dividing congressman Jim Clyburn’s district and adding it to the list of Republicans’ gerrymandered gains.

The proposal would cancel the ongoing congressional election (early voting began Tuesday morning) and reschedule it with new district boundaries that would significantly reduce the number of reliably Democratic voters in the Clyburn district.

This comes as Republicans seek to realign voting districts to the party’s advantage in a bid to preserve their slim majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and take advantage of a recent U.S. supreme court decision that weakened minority protections under the federal Voting Rights Act.

The South Carolina state senate consists of 34 Republican senators and 12 Democratic senators. Fourteen Republicans voted with Democrats to block passage of the redistricting bill after a majority of the South Carolina state House of Representatives voted to send the bill to the Senate.

“Nineteen days ago, a map was created by a consultant from Washington, D.C., without any input from South Carolinians,” said Tom Davis, a Republican state senator from Beaufort and Jasper counties. “We were told: pass this map.”

He said a short-circuited process led lawmakers to reject the proposal. The consultant who drew the map spoke to lawmakers via Zoom from Washington, D.C., for seven minutes and 40 seconds before leaving without taking questions, Davis said. “Seven minutes and 40 seconds is our legislative record… I don’t know how anyone with a straight face in this chamber could vote for a map in such a sloppy manner.”

Some senators said it was too late to make changes. “The citizens of South Carolina are going to the polls today. And neither my conscience nor my common sense will allow me to stop an election that is already underway,” said Republican state senator Richard Cash.

Clyburn, a Democrat who district Republicans are trying to recast in their quest for a clean sweep of South Carolina’s seven congressional seats, was among the first to vote early in the small city of Orangeburg. A defiant Clyburn insisted he would run for re-election regardless of the district’s outlook.

“If it’s Trump plus 20, I’m fine with it,” Clyburn said, describing the potential advantage for Republicans in a reshaped district. “I would be running where I live.”

More than 26,000 ballots had been cast as of noon Tuesday on the first day of early voting in South Carolina on June 9, after Democrats called on opponents of the proposed new map to take effect. Nearly 125,000 early votes were cast over two weeks in 2022.

“We won’t be dictated to. We won’t be forced by Washington D.C. to do anything,” said Russell Ott, a Democrat from Columbia’s southern suburbs. “And I think that’s the essence of South Carolina. It’s in our DNA.”

Ott said he expected a backlash against Republican members who rejected Trump’s demands. “They have been put in an untenable position by Trump,” Ott said. “I think if I’m a Republican, that’s probably who I’m pretty pissed off at right now. This wasn’t meant to be.”

The Republican-led legislature has already passed a plan that would restructure the Clyburn district, nullify the results of the current congressional primaries and instead hold new U.S. House primaries in August.

Trump lobbied for the plan; He made at least two phone calls to Republican state Senate majority leader Shane Massey and also called into a private meeting of Republican senators earlier this month. He also continued the pressure on social media.

But Massey resisted. “South Carolina has always punched above its weight,” he said during a debate earlier this month. “Doing this will reduce this impact.

“Taking the position I am in now will have potential consequences for me personally,” he added. I’m comfortable with this. “I may not like it, but I’m comfortable with it.”

Associated Press contributed reporting