October 1, 2026
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Lawmakers in several Southern states are meeting this week to consider plans that could upend their congressional primaries and redraw U.S. House districts ahead of the November elections, as Republicans move quickly to capitalize on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.
Last week’s Supreme Court decision struck down a majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana.
The high court's ruling said Louisiana relied too heavily on race when creating a second Black majority House district as it attempted to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The ruling significantly altered a decades-old understanding of the law.
A special legislative session responding to the court ruling began Monday in Alabama and is to start Tuesday in Tennessee. Louisiana lawmakers, who are already in session, are also looking at how to redraw their congressional districts. The Supreme Court on Monday essentially gave them a green light to proceed by approving a request to expedite the court's formal judgment.
Civil rights activists have countered with rallies, protests, and lawsuits challenging the new redistricting efforts. Several hundred protesters gathered outside the Alabama Statehouse on Monday.
Trump on Sunday encouraged more states to join in redistricting, saying in a social media post that Republicans could gain 20 House seats. But South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster’s office on Monday said the Republican would not call a special session to redraw the state’s only Democratic-occupied House seat.
As Republicans forge ahead, U.S. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries touted a redistricting effort in his home state of New York. But that isn’t expected to result in a new map until 2028. To adopt new districts, New York lawmakers must pass a constitutional amendment twice in two years, and voters would also have to approve it.
Legislative voting districts typically are redrawn only once a decade, after a census, to account for population changes. But Texas Republicans last year redrew U.S. House districts to give the party an advantage. Democrats in California responded by doing the same, and then other states joined in.
On Monday, Florida became the eighth state to enact new House districts ahead of midterm elections, as Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced he had signed a redrawn map passed by lawmakers last week that could help Republicans win as many as four additional House seats. The new map was immediately challenged in court as a partisan gerrymander that violates a state constitutional provision against drawing districts that favor one political party over another.
All told, Republicans think they could gain as many as 13 seats from new congressional districts in five states, while Democrats think they could pick up as many as 10 seats from new districts adopted in three states. The newly proposed redistricting in southern states could add to the Republicans' tally.
After last week's Supreme Court decision, Louisiana moved quickly to delay its May 16 congressional primary to allow time for lawmakers to approve new U.S. House districts. But Republicans have yet to unveil their planned revisions to district lines.
Democrats and civil rights groups have filed several lawsuits challenging the election suspension, including another suit filed Monday in federal court. They are encouraging people in Louisiana — where early voting already is underway — to go ahead and cast votes in the congressional primaries in case courts later allow them to be counted.
Rather than canceling the state's May 19 primaries, Republican Gov. Kay Ivey called legislators into a special session to consider contingency plans for special primary elections in hopes the U.S. Supreme Court will let Alabama switch congressional maps ahead of the November midterms.
Federal judges previously ordered Alabama to use a court-selected map — with a second district that has a substantial number of Black voters — until a new map is drafted after the 2030 Census. Alabama appealed that decision and has asked the court, in light of the Louisiana ruling, to let it revert to a 2023 map drawn by Republican state lawmakers. That map would substantially alter the district now represented by Rep. Shomari Figures, a Black Democrat.
Redistricting opponents rallied Monday across the street from the historic Alabama Capitol, where the Confederacy was formed in 1861 and where the Rev. Martin Luther King addressed a crowd of thousands after the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march.
In Tennessee, Republican Gov. Bill Lee announced a special session starting Tuesday for the GOP-controlled Legislature to break up the state’s one Democratic-held House district, centered on the majority-Black city of Memphis.
“We owe it to Tennesseans to ensure our congressional districts accurately reflect the will of Tennessee voters,” Lee said.
The candidate qualifying period in Tennessee ended in March, and the primary election is scheduled for Aug. 6.
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This story has been updated.
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