A map of South Carolina's proposed new congressional lines as endorsed by the White House was distributed in the state House on Thursday, May 6, 2026. (Photo by Seanna Adcox/SC Daily Gazette)
Removing the Confederate flag from Statehouse grounds was important. It was a powerful symbol of a long history of racial injustice.
Now we are faced with an issue that is even more important — not symbol but substance. Voting rights are the substance, the core of racial justice, that people have lived and died for.
No one is threatening to keep Black people from the polls now. That era is indeed over. But there is a real threat of giving many South Carolina voters only a long-shot opportunity to elect someone of their choosing.
Our current congressional map is drawn to make six of our seven districts Republican strongholds.
Only one district, the 6th District, was originally designed to protect the right of racial minorities to elect someone who represents their interests.
In the several redistricting cycles since it was created, it has been packed with additional voters who tend to vote Democratic, including urban whites.
The partisan advantage in that district is now greater than simply its minority component.
Now, under pressure from the president, the General Assembly is considering redrawing our congressional map.
The new map developed by national Republican map drawers and considered by the House of Representatives as H.5683 would break up concentrations of Black and Democratic voters to dilute the power of their votes and allow Republican majorities in every district.
This map is scheduled to be discussed in a meeting of the House Constitutional Laws subcommittee on Tuesday.
Revisiting this map now does not appear to be demanded by the recent U. S. Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais.
Both federal and state supreme courts have already ruled that South Carolina’s congressional map that includes the boundary between the 1st and 6th districts is a partisan rather than a racial gerrymander.
The same district boundary cannot be partisan when viewed from Mount Pleasant (in the 1st District) and racial when viewed from the Charleston peninsula (in the 6th District).
The proposed map would unfairly impair the ability of hundreds of thousands of South Carolinians to have a voice in Congress.
The issue has been laid out by a conservative legislator, Rep. Bill Taylor of Aiken, in his current newsletter, where he writes, “Raw politics aside, there is also the issue of fairness. If redistricting resulted in South Carolina sending seven Republicans to Congress, while 28% of South Carolinians are African American (and still predominantly voting Democrat), would they feel as if they are fairly represented? I think not. Also consider that while much of South Carolina is ruby red in voting, the same can’t be said for the larger urban areas. Overall, Democrat-leaning voters account for about 40%.”
Rep. Taylor is correct. Making it very difficult for 40% of South Carolina’s voters to have any representation in Congress is not fair.
But it is more than unfair. It would be based on 2020 data in a very fast-growing state.
It would be costly and very disruptive because our 2026 primary elections are already well underway.
Congressional primaries would be cancelled on June 9, while other races move forward on that original date.
Congressional votes already cast would be discarded, the whole process from filing forward repeated, and all at great expense to state and county taxpayers and to candidates who would have to raise money to campaign in districts very different from those they originally filed for.
This delay is laid out in H.5684, which would reschedule the congressional primaries to Aug, 11.
This bill has already received a favorable report from the House Constitutional Laws subcommittee.
The Senate has not yet taken up whether it will consider redistricting when they return to Columbia after the regular session that ends May 14.
The House appears to be poised to bring its bills to House floor for a decision this week.
However, in a very few years the regular redistricting cycle will begin a new process using new census data, when there is ample time to inform the public, receive public input, and responsibly debate what South Carolina’s congressional map should look like.
We hope our legislators will make a thoughtful and fair choice.
Courtesy of South Carolina Daily Gazette
