South Carolina Republican lawmakers pursuing an all-GOP congressional map face two major obstacles in a newly called special session on redistricting—a tight election calendar and lingering resistance from members of their own party.
Gov.
“It is necessary and appropriate” for the legislature to meet in special session for the purposes of enacting an appropriations measure and “finishing its debate on South Carolina’s congressional maps ahead of the 2026 election cycle,” McMaster said in an executive order issued right after the legislature adjourned its regular session sine die.
The renewed push in South Carolina follows the US Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision last month that curtailed race-based redistricting, a ruling Republicans and conservative activists see as opening more room for states to pursue aggressively partisan congressional maps.
Republicans already control six of South Carolina’s seven districts, but many of them also want to target the district held by Rep.
Trump and his allies this week publicly urged South Carolina Republicans to redraw districts.
The governor’s demand for a special session came just days after Senate Republicans failed to win the two-thirds vote required to adopt a resolution to allow consideration of redistricting in a special session. The state House overwhelmingly supported the resolution.
That procedural setback doesn’t necessarily predict the outcome of a vote on the map, which would require only simple majorities in the House and Senate before heading to McMaster for approval. A House committee advanced a proposed, 7-0 Republican map earlier this week.
State Senate Majority Leader
“At this point, the Senate doesn’t have anything to deal with. We need to wait for the House to see what they do, whether they send us something or not,” Massey said on the Senate floor.
Senate Resistance
Even with Republican supermajorities in both chambers, senators remain split over whether redrawing the map is worth the risk.
Massey, one of the chamber’s most vocal Republican skeptics of the effort, warned this week that Republicans could overreach by trying to eliminate the state’s lone Democratic-held congressional seat.
Massey and other Republicans have also raised concerns about timing. South Carolina’s primaries have long been scheduled for June 9, leaving lawmakers with only a narrow window to pass a new map and prepare for what would almost certainly become another court fight.
That timeline could still change. The map legislation (H. 5683) the South Carolina House Judiciary Committee advanced earlier this week would also set an Aug. 18 primary in the modified House districts.
“South Carolina must immediately redraw our congressional districts by any means necessary to produce fair constitutional maps and honor the will of South Carolina voters and put America first,” Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette (R), a candidate for governor, said before the House Judiciary’s Constitutional Laws Subcommittee May 12.
Democrats are expected to challenge any newly enacted map in court, including on the grounds that lawmakers are trying to change the lines too close to the June 9 primary.
Massey warned during the floor debate that reopening the map this late could create problems for military and overseas ballots while adding confusion for candidates and local election officials preparing for the 2026 cycle.
Echoes of Indiana
The standoff has drawn comparisons to Indiana, where Republican senators last December resisted pressure from Trump and voted down a map that favored Republicans in all nine districts.
Trump-aligned groups later went after the holdouts who were up for reelection this year, and most of them lost to pro-redistricting challengers in the state’s May 5 primary.
South Carolina Republicans are operating on a different calendar. Unlike Indiana, where staggered state Senate terms left some but not all anti-redistricting Republicans exposed this year, all South Carolina senators are next up for election in 2028—giving any GOP dissenters more distance from any immediate Trump-backed primary threats.