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AL, TN Move to Redraw Voting Districts 05/04 06:20
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- Republican governors in Alabama and Tennessee have
summoned lawmakers into special sessions this week seeking new congressional
districts after the U.S. Supreme Court weakened a key provision of the Voting
Rights Act.
Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has called legislators back to Montgomery
starting Monday to approve contingency plans for special primary elections in
hopes that the Supreme Court will allow the state to switch congressional maps
ahead of the November midterms. It's a move that Republicans legislative
leaders said would "give our state a fighting chance to send seven Republican
members to Congress." The seven-member delegation currently has two Democrats.
In Tennessee, Republican Gov. Bill Lee also announced a special session
starting Tuesday for the GOP-controlled Legislature to break up the state's one
Democratic-held House district, centered on the majority-Black city of Memphis.
The Supreme Court decision striking down a majority-Black congressional
district in Louisiana said the drawing of the district map relied too much on
race. The ruling began reverberating through statehouses across the South as
Republicans eyed the possibility of getting new lines in place for the 2026
midterm elections, or at least 2028.
President Donald Trump encouraged the latest round of redistricting in a
post on social media on Sunday, saying his party could gain 20 seats in the
House.
"We should demand that State Legislatures do what the Supreme Court says
must be done," Trump said. "That is more important than administrative
convenience."
Florida approved new districts the day of the Supreme Court ruling, and
Louisiana moved quickly to postpone its May 16 congressional primary, drawing
lawsuits from Democrats and civil rights groups. The state's Republican
leadership started planning for a redraw that could eliminate one or both of
its congressional districts now represented by a Black lawmaker. South
Carolina's governor suggested his state might also reconsider its congressional
map.
Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, described the court decision and
the redistricting scramble as an attempt to roll back the Civil Rights Movement.
"They said we're going to allow partisan politicians to gerrymander you, so
that even when you show up, your voice won't have as much impact because we'll
play with the lines," he said Sunday from the pulpit at Ebenezer Baptist
Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. once served as pastor. "That isn't a new
method. That's an old method. That's a Jim Crow method."
The Supreme Court ruling boosted an already intense national redistricting
battle by providing Republican officials in some states potential new grounds
to redraw voting districts.
Federal judges previously ordered Alabama to use a court-selected map with a
second district with a substantial number of Black voters. The judges also
ordered Alabama to use the new map until after the 2030 Census. Alabama is
appealing that decision and is hoping the court, in light of the Louisiana
ruling, will let Alabama revert to a 2023 map drawn by state lawmakers.
"As I continue saying, Alabama knows our state, our people and our districts
best," Ivey said.
Tennessee's move comes after a pressure campaign by Trump and other
Republicans to reconfigure the state's 9th Congressional District. Republicans
have always been checkmated by the Voting Rights Act in their desire to spread
the district's Democratic voters around neighboring conservative districts and
make it winnable, but the law may no longer be an impediment.
"We owe it to Tennesseans to ensure our congressional districts accurately
reflect the will of Tennessee voters," Lee said Friday. The move was encouraged
by Trump, who wrote on social media Thursday that Lee had promised to work hard
to give Republicans one extra seat.
The candidate qualifying period in Tennessee ended in March, and the primary
election is scheduled for Aug. 6. Democrats noted that in 2022 the state
Supreme Court checked additional redistricting because it was too close to an
election. They argued that the court is their best hope this time around too.
"We cannot keep doing things like this and calling ourselves a democracy,"
Democratic State Sen. Ramesh Akbari said at a news conference outside the Civil
Rights Museum in Memphis.
Alabama Democrats also sharply criticized the decision to try to change the
maps ahead of looming elections.
"This special session is a blatant power grab by Republican leadership in
Montgomery to eliminate seats held by Black Democrats," said former Sen. Doug
Jones, a Democratic candidate for Alabama governor.
Louisiana has suspended its May 16 congressional primary to allow time for
lawmakers to approve new U.S. House districts, though that is being challenged
in court.
Trump urged Texas Republicans last year to redraw U.S. House districts to
give the party an advantage. Democrats in California responded by doing the
same, then other states joined the battle. Lawmakers, commissions or courts
have adopted new House districts in eight states.
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