Latest South Carolina Redistricting Effort Will Target Rep. James Clyburn’s District
South Carolina’s redistricting effort would focus on eliminating the district that’s been held by Rep. James Clyburn for over 30 years.
Black News 
Despite a redistricting effort failing to gain the necessary votes in the state Senate last week, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has called a special session focused on redistricting.
According to AP, the debate period begins on Monday, and it’s expected to be somewhat contentious despite Republicans having a majority in the state legislature. Republicans currently hold a 6-1 majority in South Carolina’s House, with the lone Democratic seat held by Rep. James Clyburn since 1992.
The goal of a redistricting effort would be to take Clyburn’s seat, but that may be easier said than done. Clyburn has been critical of the redistricting effort and said he has no intention of retiring, regardless of whether South Carolina passes a new congressional map.
“I live in three districts. I’ll decide which one to run in,” Clyburn told reporters last week. “It ain’t about Jim Clyburn’s district,” Clyburn added. “This isn’t about voting. This is about turning the clock back to Jim Crow 2.0.”
In recent weeks, several southern states have announced redistricting efforts in the wake of the Supreme Court’s gutting of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which had prevented states from creating racial gerrymanders. Tennessee has already passed a map that eliminated the state’s lone majority-Black district, Alabama is set to reinstate a map previously found to be racially gerrymandered, and Georgia has announced a redistricting effort focused on the 2028 election.
For a place that gets mighty offended when you call it racist, the South sure seems intent on living up to that reputation.
The New York Times reports that state Republicans have very practical concerns about drawing a new map so close to the primaries. Early voting for South Carolina’s primary elections is currently scheduled to begin on May 26, meaning a new map would have to be passed this week. Overseas ballots have already been sent out, and postponing the primary elections until August would cost the state millions of dollars.
The current map is already heavily gerrymandered, and there are concerns that spreading Democratic voters into other districts could actually hurt Republican candidates. There’s a real chance that South Carolina pulls a “dummymander” and creates a map that winds up benefiting Democrats. That concern is why several state Senators voted against redistricting last week.
The potential blowback from the redistricting effort would be compounded by a more energized Democratic base and higher turnout in the midterms, which would increase the chances of Democratic candidates beating Republicans in districts that were previously safe.
There are already concerns nationwide that, on paper, these new maps look like they provide Republicans an advantage, but President Donald Trump and the GOP are so unpopular that redistricting would do very little to help them. Texas was the first state to launch a mid-decade redistricting effort at Trump’s behest, passing a new map that was designed around the gains Trump made with Latino voters in the 2024 election. That demographic has soured on Trump, and Democrats have won several special elections in traditionally Red areas of Texas.
Clyburn is a popular figure in South Carolina, so there’s a strong chance that even if they draw a new map, he would win his district. This would mean that South Carolina Republicans disrupted their own election and spent millions of dollars to draw a new map that ultimately brings about the same outcome.
You’d think this would concern even the staunchest redistricting supporters, but no one ever said racists were an intelligent group.
SEE ALSO:
These Southern States Are Redistricting After Supreme Court Ruling
Redistricting Stalls In South Carolina As Missouri Advances Map
