South Carolina Senate stalls GOP redistricting push after Alabama court setback

The Republican Party's gerrymandering efforts received a second blow on Tuesday after the South Carolina Senate voted against redistricting there. Earlier in the day, a panel of federal judges temporarily blocked Alabama from using a newly redrawn congressional map that would've favored the Grand Old Party. South Carolina Senators voted 26-18, declining to take up a last-minute proposal that would have changed district lines ahead of the November midterm election. The state Senate was adjourned until June 10, the day after the primary election.

Last week, the House voted to pass the redistricting plan that would have eliminated South Carolina's only majority-Black congressional district, represented by Democrat James Clyburn. However, despite approving the plan, many GOP Senators decided to stall the bill as early voting for the June 9 primaries had already started on Tuesday morning. "South Carolina citizens 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," State Sen. Richard Cash, a Republican who supports the redistricting effort, said. "For me, the practical deadline for passing this bill was yesterday," Cash added.

Speaking on the House floor, Cash acknowledged that "there's going to be a lot of anger and frustration that we did not get the job done," but indicated that an approval of the plan could have disenfranchised some voters. A move to bring the bill to a vote failed in the Senate, with 12 Republicans joining 12 Democrats on a procedural vote to block the 26 votes needed to end debate and bring up a vote on the bill. If passed, the new map would give Republicans an advantage in all seven congressional districts of the state. 

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who had, before the session, said that he looks "forward to this map passing the South Carolina Senate and moving one step closer to becoming law," and pledged to defend it against "lawsuits from the left," expressed his disappointment in a post on X. "South Carolina had an opportunity to finally give voters in the 6th Congressional District a fairer and more competitive map. I have said all along that our state has both the authority and the responsibility to fix it. This fight is not over," he said. 

State party chairman Drew McKissick echoed a similar sentiment, describing the Senate's decision as a "failure to act on President Trump’s call for redistricting. "We're very disappointed with the South Carolina Senate's failure to act on President Trump's call for redistricting. It's an incredible missed opportunity. Now, our focus must shift to what lies ahead: winning the next election to protect our majority and keep President Trump's agenda moving forward," he said.