In break with Trump, Republicans in South Carolina Senate reject redistricting bid

By Joseph Ax

May 12 (Reuters) - A bid to redraw South Carolina’s congressional map and eliminate the state’s sole Democratic U.S. House district failed in the state Senate on Tuesday, when a handful of Republicans broke with President Donald Trump and voted against the effort.

The outcome likely means that U.S. Representative Jim Clyburn, a Black Democrat with broad influence within the party, will retain his seat in November’s midterm elections, though it’s possible Republican Governor Henry McMaster could call a special session to reconsider redistricting. Republicans already control the state’s other six districts.

The dispute is part of a wider push by Republicans across the U.S. South to redraw congressional maps in ways that could dilute Democratic-leaning districts and reshape the region’s electoral map.

The effort was triggered by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on April 29 hollowing out the Voting Rights Act, giving states more leeway to eliminate majority-Black and majority-Latino districts. Several Republican-controlled southern states have moved to take advantage. Tennessee has passed a new map dismantling a majority-Black district while Louisiana and Alabama are advancing similar proposals.

Republicans in the South Carolina House of Representatives had advanced a proposal that would have allowed lawmakers to postpone the June 9 primary elections for the U.S. House of Representatives and install a new map that splintered the district, which Clyburn has represented since 1993.

But the Senate fell two votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed to extend the legislative session in a 29-17 vote.

Trump had urged state senators to back the gambit in a social media post on Monday, saying he was “watching closely.”

His words were reminiscent of his threats against some Indiana Republican lawmakers after they declined to draw a new map last year. Trump vowed to back primary challengers to run against them – and six of those seven lawmakers lost to Trump-endorsed candidates last week, underscoring the power of his threats.