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Despite being newly empowered by the Callais v. Louisiana Supreme Court ruling, South Carolina’s Republican-controlled Senate rejected moving ahead with a redistricting plan that would have likely unseated the state’s sole Democrat in Congress, Rep. Jim Clyburn.
On Tuesday, the state Senate voted by a 29-17 margin to allow for the General Assembly to work on redistricting ahead of the 2026 elections. This was short of the necessary two-thirds threshold, with five Republican senators defecting.
BREAKING: South Carolina Senate kills Redistricting Resolution 29-17!
5 Republicans joined all Democrats to kill it 
Sean Bennett (Dorchester)
Chip Campsen (Charleston)
Tom Davis (Beaufort)
Greg Hembree (Horry)
Shane Massey (Edgefield)
Vote them ALL out
Clyburn, who is black, represents the predominantly black 6th Congressional District. South Carolina was compelled by a previous interpretation of the Voting Rights Act to maintain the majority-minority district.
“We’re at the moment of our state where we have to decide: Are we going to be a Republic state or continue to bow down to the Democrats?” Republican state Rep. April Cromer told The Daily Signal on Monday.
Clyburn has been in Congress since 1992 and has distinguished himself as a kingmaker in national Democrat politics, as he provided a critical endorsement to Joe Biden in his 2020 bid for the party’s presidential nomination.
It was a critical week for the redistricting effort.
In order to be able to work on redistricting before primaries, the General Assembly had to pass a “sine die” resolution to allow it to return after May 14 to redistrict. Otherwise, the Legislature was set to return to session in January.
A sine die resolution requires a two-thirds vote in the chamber, meaning Republicans could only afford to lose three votes in the Senate.
On Monday night, President Donald Trump took to Truth Social, urging the Senate to advance redistricting.
“BE BOLD AND COURAGEOUS, just like the Republicans of the Great State of Tennessee were last week!” the president said, referencing the Tennessee Legislature’s pro-Republican redistricting that will likely flip the seat of its sole Democrat in Congress.
On Tuesday, Republican South Carolina Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey maintained his opposition to redistricting despite the president’s pressure.
“I have too much Southern blood in me to surrender,” Massey said in the Senate, arguing, should Democrats win control of the U.S. House, “they won’t because of South Carolina.”
Massey argued that redistricting would make him part of “eroding federalism.”
CJ Westfall, chair of the Dorchester County, South Carolina Republican Party told The Daily Signal on Monday that the state’s senators are more immune to Trump’s pressure, as they are not up for reelection until 2028.
“There’s a lot of these guys that have been there maybe 30, 40 years who don’t take too kindly to folks from Washington, D.C., trying to tell them how to legislate here in South Carolina,” Westfall, who also works with Republican political campaigns in the state, said.
Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., who is running for governor in the state, told The Daily Signal before the vote that he did not expect progress on redistricting.
“Do I think anything’s going to happen? No,” he said. “There’s going to have to be a massive campaign, and it needs to be led by the governor and others.”
Massey has repeatedly expressed reservations about redistricting, arguing it could make all of the state’s Republican incumbents vulnerable and would also deprive the state of a Democrat advocate in Congress when a Democrat president is elected.
“There’s going to be another Democratic president at some point,” Massey told reporters in the lead-up to the vote. “I hope that’s not the case, but it’s going to happen. It is important, I think, that there’s somebody from South Carolina who can make a call, and that somebody at the White House will answer it.”
Democrats in the Senate made similar arguments.
“I think it’s a pretty good chance that we pick up a seat [in Congress] if they want to really adopt this map,” Democrat state Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto told The Daily Signal on Monday. “It gives us higher Democratic performance in four districts that we don’t currently have.”
Hutto told The Daily Signal before the sine die vote that Democrats “fully expect to face this same map in January” when the Legislature returns, “even if we don’t take it up now.”
Hutto asserts that Clyburn “is going to win reelection under either map,” whether South Carolina redistricts or not.
Clyburn has similarly argued the redistricting could inadvertently benefit Democrats and that he can still win reelection, despite continuing to oppose the redistricting.
Hutto also remained in opposition, saying Democrats “decry” the Supreme Court’s decision and think last-minute redistricting “is a terrible idea.”
Former Rep. Adam Morgan told The Daily Signal that actions speak louder than words, and that Democrat legislators’ continued opposition to redistricting revealed the likelihood Republicans could secure a 7-0 map.
“I think the proof is in the pudding,” Morgan said. “They’re freaking out about it because they know that they’re going to lose that seat.”
Westfall similarly argued that Republicans are able to “very strongly win a 7-0 map with the current map that’s being considered” when assuming the 2018 “blue wave” numbers, the 2022 numbers, or Republicans’ strong 2024 results.
“Barring some kind of absolute disaster, I feel very confident in the maps that are being considered,” Westfall told The Daily Signal.
Morgan had few kind words for Gov. Henry McMaster, who he says sabotaged the redistricting effort by not calling a special session. The Daily Signal reached out to McMaster for comment.
“The problem is we need a two-thirds vote because of … our weak, do-nothing governor who refused to call a special session,” Morgan told The Daily Signal. “If he called a special session, it would have been a simple majority vote on this.”
Westfall, however, told The Daily Signal that the effort would be “completely dead” if the Senate did not pass the resolution.
“President Trump, if he doesn’t win the midterms, we feel that he’ll be kneecapped and facing impeachment and won’t have the political capital to get something like this done in the future. So, we feel that this is the only time we can ever get this done,” he said.
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