Virginia Democrats are struggling to block the recall, which has been cleared by the court in desperation
Virginia Democrats faced 'desperation and fury' after the Commonwealth Supreme Court blocked their redistricting map, which would have given them 10 districts to one for Republicans. Internal discussions, revealed by a leaked New York Times report, show Democrats considering an unusual vacancy for the state Supreme Court, which could force them to retire by lowering the retirement age of judges. The move drew heavy criticism from Republicans.
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President Donald Trump says he will be “watching closely” as lawmakers in the Republican-controlled South Carolina legislature on Tuesday begin redrawing the map of their congressional district to eliminate the last Democratic-controlled US House seat.
At the same time, Republican officials in staunchly red Alabama are moving forward with a redrawn congressional map that could eliminate one of the two Democratic US House seats during the fall midterm elections, when the GOP will be defending its slim congressional majority.
This week's walkouts in Alabama and South Carolina, along with similar efforts in Louisiana and Tennessee, come two weeks after a dissenting majority in the Supreme Court struck down the Voting Rights Act's protections.
And they give Trump and the GOP great leverage in their ongoing political battle with Democrats to redraw congressional district maps ahead of the midterms. At stake in this nationwide reassertion race is which party will control the House during the final two years of Trump's second term in the White House.
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South Carolina Statehouse, Columbia, SC (Getty Images)
In South Carolina, the state Senate is expected to vote Tuesday on whether to agree with the state House to take the rare but unprecedented measures in a decade. State lawmakers will also need to postpone South Carolina's US House primaries from early next month to August. Early voting in the state primary is scheduled to begin in two weeks.
South Carolina Republicans may develop a new map that would remove Rep. Jim Clyburn, the only Democrat on the seven-member House caucus, at work.
Clyburn this past week remains hopeful that he can win re-election.
“I don't know why people think I can't get re-elected if they redistribute South Carolina,” Clyburn said in an interview with CNN. “I have a district that is about 45 percent African American. I don't know what the number will be when the legislature is over, but whatever that number is, I will be running on my record and the promise of America.”
Trump, in a social media post Monday night, urged “South Carolina Republicans: BE BRAVE AND TRUTHFUL.”
“Move the US House Primaries to August, leave the rest on the same schedule. Everything will be fine. DO IT!” he added.
Trump's message comes a week after five Indiana Republican state senators helped in December sink congressional boundaries in the red Midwestern state drawn by Trump-backed rivals in the GOP primaries.
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Voters walk out into the rain after voting at a polling station at the Tippecanoe County Historical Association during the primary election Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Lafayette, Indiana. (Cara Penquite/AP Photo)
It's back to the future in Alabama, after the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, cleared the way for the state to impose a 2023 Republican redistricting map that had been blocked by lower courts. The map would eliminate one of two congressional seats that lean blue.
I Supreme Court a decision two weeks ago remade the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 by ruling that race should not determine the redrawing of legislative district maps. And the opinion ruled that the Louisiana state map was unconstitutional.
Last week, the Supreme Court announced its decision Map of Louisiana The unconstitutionality must go into effect immediately, breaking with its usual process of waiting about a month before its opinions become legal.
That cleared the way for the GOP-controlled state legislature to begin the process of redrawing the map, and hearings began Friday.
Republican Governor Jeff Landry, who is a close friend of Trump, acted quickly after the high court's decision, when he postponed the May 16 election for the US House in Louisiana.
Louisiana Republicans aim to clear one or both seats of the Black-majority House, which is represented by Democrats.
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Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, right, an ally of President Donald Trump, supports congressional redistricting in his heavily partisan state. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Tennessee Republicans are moving too fast.
The GOP-dominated Tennessee legislature on Thursday quickly adopted a new map that would eliminate the state's only Democratic congressional district, and potentially give Republicans control of all nine states.
GOP Gov. Bill Lee immediately signed the new maps into law.
Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen, who represents the majority-Black district, vowed to take legal action.
“Trump knows he HAS to step up the game to keep his majority in November. And the TN GOP was willing to go along with it. Shame,” Cohen wrote on social media. “The next stop is the courts.”
Trump praised Tennessee Republicans in his social media posts and urged GOP lawmakers in South Carolina to act like “Republicans in the Great State of Tennessee last week.
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In Florida, Gov. Republican Ron DeSantis last week signed a bill in the GOP-dominated state legislature that redraws congressional districts for red-leaning states, adding four right-leaning seats by eliminating districts currently held by Democrats.
Republicans currently control Florida's House of Representatives by a 20-8 margin.
Democrats are fighting back.
On Monday, Democrats filed an emergency petition with the US Supreme Court seeking to halt the Virginia Supreme Court's decision to overturn a vote that would have given their party four more US House seats.
Last week's decision in Virginia means that the map used in the 2024 election will remain on the ballot box display for 2026. Democrats currently control the state's US House delegation by a 6-5 margin. A flipped map would now have a 10-1 favorability for Democrats in a blue-leaning but competitive state.
How did we get here
The battle of the maps began last spring when Trump, aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when the Democrats regained the majority of the House in the middle of 2018, began to float the idea of an unusual, but not unknown, reintroduction of Congress in the middle of the decade.
The goal was simple: redraw congressional district maps in red states to shift the fragile GOP House majority to maintain control of the chamber during a period, when the governing party often faces political storms and loses seats.
When asked by reporters last summer about his plan to add Republican-leaning House seats across the country, the president said, “Texas is going to be the biggest. And it's going to be five.”
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas called a special session of the GOP-dominated state legislature to pass the new map.
But Democratic state lawmakers, who had breached the quorum for two weeks while fleeing Texas in an attempt to delay passage of a redistricting bill, have empowered Democrats across the country. Among those leading the fight against Trump's redistricting ban is Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.
California voters in November overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, a ballot initiative that temporarily sidelined the state's nonpartisan commission and returned congressional map-drawing power to the Democratic-dominated legislature.
That led to five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, which aimed to oppose Texas' move to redraw their maps.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during an election night press conference at the California Democratic Party office in Sacramento on Nov. 4, 2025. (Photo by Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP)
But the fighting soon spread beyond Texas and California.
Republican-controlled Missouri and Ohio and the state of North Carolina, where the GOP controls the legislature, drew new maps as part of the president's push.
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But in a blow to Republicans, a Utah state judge late last year rejected a congressional district map drawn by the GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved one that would create a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the midterms.
And as mentioned, Republicans in the Indiana Senate in December defied Trump, rejecting a redistricting bill that had passed the state House.
