Efforts backed by U.S. President Donald Trump to redraw congressional maps in Republican-led Southern states hit significant obstacles on Tuesday after developments in both Alabama and South Carolina stalled proposed changes ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.
In South Carolina, several Republican state senators joined Democrats to block a proposed electoral map that critics said was designed to weaken the district represented by longtime Democratic Congressman James Clyburn.
Clyburn, one of the most prominent Black lawmakers in Congress, has represented the district for more than 30 years. Opponents of the proposed map argued it would reduce Black voting influence and reshape the district to favor Republicans.
At the same time, a federal court panel in Alabama stopped Republican lawmakers from implementing another congressional map that would have removed one of the state’s two majority-Black districts.
The three-judge panel ruled that Alabama lawmakers had intentionally discriminated against Black voters while drawing the district boundaries, preventing the new map from taking effect.
The legal and political battles come after a recent Supreme Court of the United States ruling in April that weakened some protections for congressional districts with large Black and Latino populations.
Following that decision, Republican-controlled states in the South moved quickly to redraw electoral maps that could potentially strengthen GOP control in the U.S. House of Representatives ahead of November’s elections.
Democrats and civil rights groups have accused Republicans of attempting to dilute minority voting power, while Republican leaders argue the redistricting efforts are legally justified and politically necessary.
The setbacks in Alabama and South Carolina are expected to intensify ongoing national debates over voting rights, racial representation and election boundaries in the United States.
