South Carolina US House district ruled racial gerrymander
>> Federal judges ordered South Carolina lawmakers to draw new congressional maps, ruling Friday that the U.S. House district lines of a seat flipped by Democrats four years ago were intentionally redrawn to split Black neighborhoods to dilute their voting power.
The state used the maps in this past November's midterm elections after the Republican-dominated state Legislature redrew the lines earlier this year following the 2020 U.S. Census.
Friday's ruling said the coastal 1st District running from Charleston to Hilton Head Island was drawn to remove Black voters and make it a safer seat for Republicans.
The judges requested state lawmakers pass new U.S. House maps by the end of March. They said no elections can take place in the 1st District until it is redrawn.
South Carolina House Speaker Murrell Smith said he anticipated the decision would be appealed. “I maintain that the House drew maps without racial bias and in the best interest of all the people of this state,” the Republican said in a statement.
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace currently represents the 1st District. She beat Joe Cunningham in 2020 after Cunningham became the first Democrat to flip a U.S. House seat in South Carolina in 30 years.
Mace won by just over 1 percentage point in 2020. But after the district was redrawn, she won by 14 percentage points in November.
After the new congressional maps were approved, civil rights groups swiftly filed a lawsuit charging the state Legislature with choosing “perhaps the worst option of the available maps” for Black voters.
The judges requested state lawmakers pass new U.S. House maps by the end of March. They said no elections can take place in the 1st District until it is redrawn.
The judges ruled that to make the 1st District safer for Republicans, GOP legislative leaders who drew the new maps pulled Black voters out of the 1st District and placed them into the 6th District, which is the only one represented by a Democrat and was redrawn three decades ago to have a majority of minority voters.