South Carolina Senate blocks redistricting plan in blow to Trump

 South Carolina state senators voted Tuesday against a plan to advance a new congressional map, putting a pin in the state’s GOP-led redistricting push amid the national back-and-forth ahead of the midterms.

“I can no longer support the passage of this bill for one simple reason: South Carolina citizens are going to the polls today,” Republican state Sen. Richard Cash said in a release. “Neither my conscience nor common sense will allow me to stop an election that has already begun.”

A motion to end debate on the topic failed in the state’s upper chamber, scrambling a push that could have given Republicans total control of the seven-member congressional delegation.

The vote is a blow to President Trump and other national Republicans who have called on red states across the country to consider redistricting as the party seeks to minimize its losses and notch new pickup opportunities ahead of November’s elections.

Republicans in the South Carolina state House voted earlier this month to approve new congressional lines after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling that weakened a section of the Voting Rights Act and prompted more states to consider map changes.

South Carolina’s primary elections are set for early June. The state’s Democratic Party chair earlier this month had called the renewed talk of redistricting “reckless” amid reports that thousands of absentee ballots had already been sent out to voters. 

“We charged the hill,” state Sen. Larry Grooms (R) said in a release Tuesday. “Republicans and the White House worked quickly to pass a redistricting plan before the start of in-person voting … but the call from the Governor came too late.” 

Tuesday’s move effectively blocks the plan from further action before the midterms, but the state Senate could pick the matter up again next session. 

Republican state Attorney General Alan Wilson said on the social platform X that he looks forward to the map “moving one step closer to becoming law” in the future.  

Any GOP-friendly redistricting would target South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, the lone Democrat representing his state in the majority-Black 6th Congressional District around Columbia and Charleston. Clyburn, 85, is running for reelection this year for an 18th term in the House.