South Carolina House backs congressional map favoring GOP but bill faces a more skeptical Senate

Democratic South Carolina Rep. Wendell Gillard walks back to his desk with a sign after giving a speech during the redistricting debate on Tuesday. May 19, 2026, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

2026-05-19T17:26:00Z

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Republicans in the South Carolina House cast aside Democratic objections and endorsed a congressional redistricting plan just after midnight Tuesday, moving to give the GOP a shot at winning an additional seat in the November midterm elections.

The redistricting plan, urged on by President Donald Trump, would reshape the state’s only Democratic-held U.S. House district to the Republicans’ advantage as part of a broader national effort to retain the party’s slim House majority in the fall.

Four Republicans voted against the bill after a 14-hour session that included reading the bill and all the Census data creating the maps for over three hours.

The bill now heads to the more skeptical state Senate, where some Republicans have questioned whether redistricting could backfire — making districts competitive enough for Democrats to gain seats instead of securing all seven for the GOP.

Trump had urged South Carolina to redraw its congressional districts ahead of November amid a fast-closing window to complete the work. Early primary voting starts May 26. If the proposal ultimately becomes law, South Carolina would delay its U.S. House primaries until later in the summer and spend at least $3 million on another statewide election — and likely face lawsuits against a new map.

“To President Trump,” said Republican Rep. Luke Rankin who sponsored the bill. “I have your back and South Carolina Republicans have your back.”

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Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, whose seat is targeted, has said he will continue running for an 18th term even if his district gets changed.

During Tuesday’s debate, Democrats praised Clyburn’s work on behalf of the state and repeatedly objected to plans to reshape his district. Republicans repeatedly rejected their amendments.

“What you all are doing is wrong,” said Democratic state Rep. JA Moore, adding: “You can justify it, rationalize it, but it’s wrong.”

Republican state Rep. Melissa Oremus accused Democrats of “fear-mongering” for raising concerns about the potential impact on Black voters, asserting: “People are not being blocked from voting because of the color of their skin.”

To buy time for any new map to be implemented, the South Carolina legislation would remove U.S. House races from the June primaries and instead set a special primary election in August to select candidates. Some absentee and overseas military votes that already have been cast for Congress would be tossed out.

Other Southern states have pursued a similar approach as they rush to redraw U.S. House districts following a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a majority-Black district in Louisiana as an illegal racial gerrymander and significantly weakened Voting Rights Act protections for minority districts.

Louisiana’s congressional primaries, scheduled for last Saturday, were postponed until later this summer by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry to allow time for new districts to be drawn.

Primary election ballots were being cast Tuesday in Alabama. But the state plans to void the results in four of the seven U.S. House districts and instead hold special primaries Aug. 11 for those districts under different boundaries. The revised districts could help Republicans win an additional seat in November.

Redistricting ramifications are widening

All told, Republicans think they could win as many as 15 additional seats from revised US. House districts in seven states so far, while Democrats think they could gain up to six seats from new House districts in two states. That tally could change, though, as litigation continues in several states. Voters ultimately will decide whether those projections hold up.

The ramifications could extend beyond government and politics.

The NAACP on Tuesday called on Black athletes and fans to boycott the athletic programs of public universities in states that “have moved to limit, weaken or erase Black voting representation.” The campaign specifically calls out Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas — though new voting districts have not yet been enacted in all of those places.

Democratic state Rep. John King echoed the boycott call from the House floor, urging Black athletes to instead attend one of the South Carolina’s historically Black colleges.

“You cannot gerrymander away Black political power on Monday, then expect Black athletes to sell out your stadiums on Saturday,” King said.

After Democrats had debated the proposed changes for hours on Monday, the Republican-controlled chamber changed the rules for Tuesday by limiting members to only one amendment and setting time limits for speeches.

Republicans swiftly dismissed Democratic amendments. They asked almost no questions before voting down proposals for voter education about moving primaries, to have the state pay all local costs for a rescheduled congressional primary, to move the general election back two weeks, and nearly three dozen other proposals.

During his 10 minutes of allotted speech time, Democratic state Rep. Jermaine Johnson talked about his grandfather, a Black soldier in the Army who was willing to die for his country but came home to a society where he was shamed and mistreated because of the color of his skin.

“We are far beyond a lot of atrocities that my grandfather faced. But I believe in 2026 we have manifested new ways of keeping people down,” said Johnson, who is running for the open governor’s seat.

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Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri.

JEFFREY COLLINS Collins covers South Carolina from Columbia for The Associated Press. He has been with the AP since 2000. twitter mailto DAVID A. LIEB Lieb covers issues and trends in state governments across the U.S. He’s reported about government and politics for The Associated Press for 30 years. twitter mailto