The Congressional Black Caucus is bracing for what could be its worst election cycle in decades. A major Supreme Court decision on voting rights has opened the door for Republican-controlled states to eliminate majority-minority districts, threatening as many as 19 CBC members in a worst-case scenario, according to the caucus' chair.
The impact is already being felt across the South. In Alabama, Republican lawmakers are moving to scrap the district held by freshman Rep. Shomari Figures. In Louisiana, the GOP is targeting one or both of the state's two Democratic Black-majority districts. North Carolina, Missouri, Texas, Georgia, and South Carolina have launched similar efforts, with Republican maps carving up districts held by longtime Democratic members including Bennie Thompson, Emmanuel Cleaver, Don Davis, Al Green, and Marc Veasey.
CBC Chair Yvette Clarke called the moment devastating. "People have sacrificed so much to make this a more perfect union. And here we are, in 2026, seeing this massive regression in all the gains that have been made," Clarke told NBC News. Still, she expressed defiance: "We're not hopeless, and we're not helpless in this moment."
The legal opening came from a Supreme Court ruling that sharply narrowed how Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 can be used in redistricting cases. That provision had prohibited voting practices that discriminate on the basis of race. The court's decision allows states to eliminate districts specifically drawn to ensure minority representation, clearing the path for what critics describe as a new form of Jim Crow era politics.
"It is a new form of Jim Crow that this Supreme Court has given license to policymakers," said Derrick Thompson, president of the NAACP, pointing out that Republican-drawn districts often contain white voting populations as high as 65 percent, while Black lawmakers are being forced into districts where they cannot win. "We are witnessing Southern legislators across the former Confederacy approach this racialized gerrymandering process in a way in which we thought we had gotten beyond."
The stakes extend beyond individual seats. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is poised to become the first Black speaker if Democrats win back the House, is now facing steeper odds. Veteran lawmakers like James Clyburn, the former House majority leader, and Bennie Thompson, expected to chair the Homeland Security Committee if Democrats take control, could lose their seats entirely.
Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver, a former CBC chairman who has served since 2005, described his newly redrawn Missouri district as deliberately targeting his base. The map carved up his Kansas City stronghold and, notably, split the district along Troost Avenue, a historical racial dividing line in the city that Cleaver had worked to erase during his tenure as mayor. "When I was mayor, I and other business leaders and politicians decided we were going to try to erase that and the stigma associated with it, and they came right back and established it," Cleaver said. "It's not healthy for our community; it's not democratic."
Democratic leaders are scrambling to respond with less than six months until November. The CBC has begun holding planning sessions to coordinate on multiple fronts: legal challenges to state maps, and a campaign strategy centered on turning out Black voters with messaging about passing voting rights legislation if Democrats reclaim the House.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., defended the Republican actions, arguing that Democrats had provoked the situation by initially challenging Louisiana's previous map. "We had a 5-1 map in Louisiana, and it was Democrats who took that map to court because they wanted to try to draw more Democratic seats," he said.
The impact on Black representation extends to both parties. All four Black Republican House members are either retiring or running for higher office, leaving the GOP likely to have zero Black members in the next Congress. That development has drawn sharp criticism from former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who had focused on recruiting diverse candidates. "They had four Black Republicans, they won't have one next cycle," McCarthy told NBC News. "You've got to go on offense."
For Democrats, the moment has also surfaced internal tensions. CBC Executive Director Vincent Evans publicly called out Sen. Bernie Sanders on social media, saying the liberal icon had remained silent on the assault on Black political representation. "I checked both his X accounts, silent. I checked his Instagram, nothing. I checked his Senate website, crickets," Evans wrote.
The NAACP's Thompson argued the moment demands a response from the entire country. "This is not a Black problem. This is a problem of our democracy. We have to overwhelm the system with votes so it is a clear message that this should not be accepted."
Author Sarah Mitchell: "The Supreme Court has handed Republicans a roadmap to dismantle decades of Black political power, and Democrats are facing a reckoning on whether they can actually fight back."
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