Elections · Civil Rights · Constitutional Law · Legislative Process · Electoral Systems·May 27, 2026
South Carolina Senate kills Trump-backed Clyburn district gerrymander
Twelve Republicans block Trump's bid to gerrymander Clyburn's district
South Carolina's 6th Congressional District was born from the Voting Rights ActFederal statute prohibiting racial discrimination in voting and establishing federal oversight of election administration in jurisdictions with histories of discrimination.Key ConceptVoting Rights ActFederal statute prohibiting racial discrimination in voting and establishing federal oversight of election administration in jurisdictions with histories of discrimination.Open concept. After the 1990 census, a federal court imposed a map that gave the state's Black population — then about a third of residents — a realistic shot at electing a member of Congress for the first time since 1897. The court drew a crescent-shaped district pulling in Black communities from across the state, giving it a Black population of nearly 60%. Jim Clyburn, a Democrat from Columbia who had served as South Carolina's Human Affairs Commissioner, won the seat in November 1992. He's held it ever since, becoming the ninth Black South Carolinian ever to serve in Congress. The previous eight had all served during Reconstruction, leaving nearly a century-long gap.
Clyburn built significant national power from that seat. He served as House Majority Whip from 2019 to 2023 — the third-highest position in the Democratic caucus — and his 2020 endorsement of Joe Biden in the South Carolina primary is widely credited with rescuing Biden's campaign. By 2026, Clyburn was the sole Democrat in South Carolina's seven-member congressional delegation.
On April 29, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Louisiana v. Callais that VRA-compliant majority-minority districts can constitute unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett. Justice Kagan dissented, joined by Sotomayor and Jackson. The ruling reworked the 40-year-old standard from Thornburg v. Gingles and made it significantly harder for voters of color to win VRA Section 2 cases.
Trump and national Republicans immediately moved to use Callais as an opening. South Carolina was a target because Clyburn's 6th District — protected for decades under VRA logic — could now potentially be dismantled without triggering a successful VRA challenge. The Callais decision was the legal green light the White House needed to pressure Southern legislatures into redrawing maps mid-decade.
Trump's RedistrictingThe process of redrawing congressional and state legislative district boundaries, typically every 10 years after the Census, to equalize populations.Key ConceptRedistrictingThe process of redrawing congressional and state legislative district boundaries, typically every 10 years after the Census, to equalize populations.Open concept push started before Callais. His advisors — including James Blair — had planned the strategy before his inauguration, and Adam Kincaid, executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, was hired to draw gerrymandered maps across multiple Southern states. The goal was to protect the Republican House majority heading into potentially difficult 2026 midterm elections. South Carolina had seven congressional seats, all but Clyburn's held by Republicans. A new map would aim for all seven.
When South Carolina's legislature ended its regular session in mid-May without taking up RedistrictingThe process of redrawing congressional and state legislative district boundaries, typically every 10 years after the Census, to equalize populations.Key ConceptRedistrictingThe process of redrawing congressional and state legislative district boundaries, typically every 10 years after the Census, to equalize populations.Open concept, Gov. Henry McMaster called lawmakers back for a Special SessionA legislative meeting called outside the regular schedule, typically by the governor, to address specific issues.Key ConceptSpecial SessionA legislative meeting called outside the regular schedule, typically by the governor, to address specific issues.Open concept — despite previously saying he wouldn't. The move came just one minute after the regular session gaveled out on May 14, 2026. McMaster, who had initially resisted, reversed course under White House pressure. The special session began immediately, with House Republicans setting an artificial deadline of May 26 — the first day of early voting.
The map itself sparked immediate controversy over its origins. Kincaid, the Washington-based GOP redistricting operative, drew the new districts without any South Carolina state employees involved in the design. His only public appearance before the legislature was a 7-minute-and-40-second Zoom call with a House subcommittee — during which he took no questions, citing another appointment. Sen. Tom Davis, a Republican, condemned the process on the Senate floor: "We have completely outsourced our constitutional obligation to prepare a congressional redistricting map to a consultant in Washington, D.C. We have no idea, no idea how that map was created."
Davis contrasted the process with a prior South Carolina redistricting that took nine months, included ten community hearings, eight subcommittee hearings, and the legislature's own demographic analysis. The 2026 process compressed all of that into days, with the House suspending rules to limit Democratic debate and advancing the bill without a single amendment.
The new map would have split communities that currently share a congressman. Under the proposed lines, Myrtle Beach and Charleston — cities with distinct economic and geographic identities 90 miles apart — would have shared a congressional district. Clemson and Columbia, two university towns with different industrial bases and political cultures, would have been drawn together. Local Republican officials pushed back. Will Haynie, the Republican mayor of Mount Pleasant — a Charleston suburb — testified that his community didn't want to be lumped with Myrtle Beach: "We just don't want to be competing against each other."
The map also created legal exposure. South Carolina's congressional maps would have been redrawn using 2020 Census data — population estimates already five years old in a state that had led the nation in population growth since then. Critics argued the resulting districts would be malapportioned almost from the day they took effect, setting up costly litigation that would stretch for years.
Conway Belangia, executive director of the South Carolina Election Commission, testified before a Senate committee that pushing the congressional primary from June 9 to August 11 would be a "monumental task" for the state's 46 county boards of elections. His office estimated the cost at $5.3 to $6 million in emergency funding — money the redistricting bill didn't appropriate. By 1 p.m. on the first day of early voting, May 26, some 32,300 voters had already cast ballots — shattering the previous single-day primary record of 23,000 set two years earlier.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey — who fielded multiple calls from Trump urging him to support the plan — had opposed the effort from the start. He warned that eliminating Clyburn's seat would energize Democratic and independent voters. When the record turnout numbers began arriving every 30 minutes on May 26, Massey said, "It doesn't surprise me that this is where we ended up." The election was already underway.
The vote on May 26 went in two stages. First, Republican supporters tried to invoke ClotureThe only Senate procedure that can end a filibuster, requiring 60 votes to invoke. Once cloture is invoked, debate is li...Key ConceptClotureThe only Senate procedure that can end a filibuster, requiring 60 votes to invoke. Once cloture is invoked, debate is li...Open concept — a procedural motion to cut off debate and force a final vote on the bill. They needed 26 votes; they got 20. The cloture motion failed 20-24, with twelve Republicans breaking ranks and joining all Democrats in opposition. Sen. Richard Cash — an Anderson Republican considered one of the most conservative members of the chamber — explained his vote: "Neither my conscience nor my common sense is going to let me stop an election that is already underway."
Cash added that the rule of law was "a bedrock principle of conservatism." After ClotureThe only Senate procedure that can end a filibuster, requiring 60 votes to invoke. Once cloture is invoked, debate is li...Key ConceptClotureThe only Senate procedure that can end a filibuster, requiring 60 votes to invoke. Once cloture is invoked, debate is li...Open concept failed, Sen. Tom Davis made a motion to continue the bill into next session — a procedural maneuver that, under South Carolina legislative rules in the second year of a two-year session, effectively kills the legislation permanently. The motion passed 26-18. The special session adjourned. The June 9 primary would proceed as scheduled.
The defeat drew immediate national reactions. NAACP General Counsel Kristen Clarke said: "Today, democracy won in South Carolina. By shutting down this late-decade redistricting attempt, the voices of voters will prevail." Jace Woodrum, executive director of the ACLU of South Carolina, credited the more than 56,000 South Carolinians who cast primary ballots on Day 1 and the hundreds who had testified against redistricting during the special session: "There are powerful people who want you to believe that showing up doesn't matter. We the people still hold the power."
Gov. McMaster expressed disappointment, saying he was "confident that one day South Carolina's congressional delegation will be completely Republican" but that "day has not yet come." Sen. Larry Grooms, who had supported the map, blamed the governor's late call for the special session: "We charged the hill. Republicans and the White House worked quickly to pass a redistricting plan before the start of in-person voting but the call from the governor came too late."
South Carolina's failure is the first state-level setback in Trump's multi-state mid-decade redistricting campaign since the Callais ruling. The Democracy Docket framed it as a significant blow to the broader strategy targeting Southern states. Louisiana, Texas, and Florida had already acted — Louisiana passed a new map eliminating a majority-Black district, Texas added Republican-leaning seats, and a Florida judge let a 24R-4D map stand. South Carolina is the first to fail.
The South Carolina legislature returned to session June 10 for budget work. Democrats noted that redistricting could technically be raised again — but the qualifying deadline for the June 9 primary had long passed, making any pre-2026-midterms redistricting effectively impossible. Clyburn's 6th District survives intact for the November 2026 election, and he announced he would run for reelection. The fight over the district's long-term future, and the VRA's reach, will extend to the courts and the 2030 redistricting cycle.
Related timeline
Republican Redistricting and Gerrymandering
Timeline of Republican efforts to control redistricting and gerrymandering, from the origin of the term "gerrymander" to modern mid-decade redistricting efforts. Covers key Supreme Court cases, state-level actions, and the coordinated strategy to gain electoral advantage through map manipulation.
South Carolina Senate kills Trump-backed Clyburn district gerrymander
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On May 26, 2026, the Republican-led South Carolina Senate killed a Trump-backed plan to redraw the state's congressional map mid-decade and eliminate the only majority-Black district, held by Rep. Jim Clyburn since 1993. A cloture motion to end debate failed 20-24 — twelve Republicans joined all Democrats in voting it down — after 56,308 South Carolinians cast primary ballots on the first day of early voting, shattering the previous single-day primary record. The senate then voted 26-18 to adjourn the special session. Republican Sen. Richard Cash, one of the most conservative members of the chamber, said he couldn't in good conscience stop an election already underway. The map, drawn by Republican operative Adam Kincaid in Washington without meaningful public input, would have dismantled the 6th District — a majority-Black crescent-shaped district first created after the 1990 census — and pushed the congressional primary from June 9 to August 11 at an estimated cost of $5.3 to $6 million. The defeat is the first time a state has failed to pass a new map in President Trump's national mid-decade redistricting push since the Supreme Court's April 29, 2026 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais opened the door by weakening the Voting Rights Act.