A push by Donald Trump to redraw congressional districts in South Carolina before the midterm elections collapsed Tuesday when the state senate rejected the proposal in a 26-18 vote, marking another rebuff from Republicans who refused to bend to pressure from the former president.
The failed bid would have upended an election already underway. Early voting had begun that morning, with thousands of ballots already cast. The redistricting plan aimed to reshape Jim Clyburn's district, a Democratic stronghold, by significantly reducing the number of reliably Democratic voters it contained, giving Republicans the prospect of sweeping all seven of South Carolina's congressional seats.
The effort leaned on a recent Supreme Court decision that weakened protections for minority voters under the federal Voting Rights Act, opening new legal pathways for partisan mapmaking. Republicans across the country have seized on that ruling to redraw districts in their favor and shore up the party's fragile House majority.
What proved fatal to the plan in South Carolina was a combination of procedural sloppiness and a Republican caucus unwilling to execute the gambit. Fourteen Republican senators crossed over to join all 12 Democrats in blocking the measure, despite the party holding a 34-12 advantage in the chamber.
State Senator Tom Davis, a Republican from Beaufort and Jasper counties, delivered a withering critique of how the proposal had been handled. A Washington consultant had drawn the map 19 days earlier without input from South Carolina legislators. When that consultant met with state senators, the meeting lasted seven minutes and 40 seconds over Zoom before the consultant disconnected, taking no questions.
"Seven minutes and 40 seconds is our legislative record," Davis said on the chamber floor. "I don't know how anybody with a straight face in this chamber can vote for a map with that absence of diligence."
Other Republicans cited the practical reality that voting had already begun. "South Carolina citizens are going to the polls today. And neither my conscience or common sense is going to let me stop an election that is already under way," said state Senator Richard Cash.
Trump had applied sustained pressure to make the plan happen. He placed at least two direct calls to state Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, phoned into a private meeting of Republican senators, and kept up a campaign on social media. But Massey held firm, resisting the demands despite acknowledging he expected personal consequences for the stance.
"South Carolina has always punched above their weight," Massey said during a debate earlier in the month. "Doing this will diminish that influence."
Clyburn, the Democratic congressman whose district drew the Republican target, cast an early ballot in Orangeburg and declared his intention to seek re-election no matter what the final map looked like. "I'm OK if it's Trump plus 20," he said, referencing the potential Republican lean of a reshaped district. "I would be running where I live."
The rejection delivered a notable boost to early turnout. By noon on the first day of early voting, more than 26,000 South Carolinians had cast ballots. During the entire two-week early voting period in 2022, about 125,000 votes were cast overall.
The Republican-controlled state house had already approved a version of the redistricting plan that would have canceled current primary results and rescheduled House primaries for August. That measure now faces a dead end without senate backing.
Author James Rodriguez: "South Carolina Republicans proved you can stand up to Trump and survive, but don't expect this to be the end of redistricting battles in Republican-controlled legislatures."
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