– 12 entries
2026 Mid-Decade Congressional Redistricting Wave
A wave of Republican-led states raced to redraw congressional maps outside the normal decade-long cycle, several targeting majority-Black and majority-minority districts, while President Trump personally pressured state lawmakers to comply. Courts split on the result, striking down at least one map as intentional racial discrimination while allowing others to stand.
In spring 2026 a wave of mid-decade congressional redistricting swept multiple states — an unusual off-cycle scramble to redraw U.S. House maps before the 2026 elections. Several Republican-led maps (Tennessee, Louisiana, South Carolina, Alabama, Florida) eliminated or targeted majority-Black or majority-minority districts, with President Trump personally pressuring at least South Carolina; a Democratic-led Virginia map was struck down in the same window. Courts split — a federal panel blocked Alabama's map as intentional racial discrimination while a Florida judge let DeSantis's map stand for 2026 — and the Tennessee fight spilled into retaliation against Democratic legislators who protested the map on the House floor. Each state action is recorded as its own entry; together they form one coordinated national redistricting fight.
2026 Events (12)
Brian Kemp convened Georgia redistricting session under Trump pressure to reduce minority representation; legislature blocked it
Following the Supreme Court's June 2026 Louisiana v. Callais ruling weakening the Voting Rights Act's Section 2 protections, President Trump pressured Republican-led states to redraw electoral maps mid-decade to reduce minority representation. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp convened a special legislative session on June 17, 2026 to undertake redistricting; voting rights groups estimated ~26 legislative seats with large minority populations were at risk. House Speaker Jon Burns blocked the session before it could proceed, announcing the legislature would not take up redistricting without more public input and further court development of post-Callais doctrine.
Supreme Court lets Alabama use GOP-drawn map eliminating a majority-Black district
On June 2, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court granted Alabama's emergency request to use its Republican-drawn congressional map for the November 2026 midterms, a map with a majority-Black population in only one of the state's seven districts. The unsigned emergency-docket order, decided 6-3 along ideological lines, overrode a three-judge federal panel that had found the map intentionally discriminated against Black voters in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and displaced the court-drawn districts used in 2024. The three liberal justices dissented, with Justice Sotomayor warning that the decision "disregards both democratic values and the rule of law."
Federal panel blocks Alabama's GOP congressional map as intentional racial discrimination
On May 26, 2026, a three-judge federal panel issued a preliminary injunction blocking Alabama from using its new Republican-drawn congressional map in the November 2026 midterms, finding the lines "intentionally discriminated based on race in violation of the Constitution." The map, enacted after the U.S. Supreme Court's Louisiana v. Callais decision that the state read as loosening race-conscious districting requirements, would have eliminated one of Alabama's two majority-Black districts and positioned the GOP to gain a U.S. House seat. The same panel previously found in 2023 that Alabama's map was intentionally discriminatory against Black voters; Attorney General Steve Marshall said the state would immediately appeal to the Supreme Court.
Florida judge lets DeSantis-drawn mid-decade congressional map stand for 2026 elections
On May 26, 2026, Leon County Circuit Judge Joshua Hawkes -- a DeSantis appointee -- denied a preliminary injunction sought by Equal Ground, Common Cause Florida, the League of Women Voters of Florida, LULAC and other plaintiffs challenging Florida's new mid-decade congressional map, leaving the Republican-friendly map drawn by Gov. Ron DeSantis's office in place for the 2026 elections. The map redraws the state's 28 U.S. House districts to produce roughly 24 Republican-leaning seats, flipping about four seats from Democratic to Republican-leaning and helping the GOP defend its national majority. Plaintiffs argued the map violates Florida's 2010 voter-approved Fair Districts Amendment banning partisan gerrymandering; they filed notices of appeal and have signaled the case will likely reach the Florida Supreme Court, where DeSantis appointed six of the seven justices.
South Carolina Senate blocks Trump-pressured mid-decade gerrymander of Clyburn's district
On May 26, 2026, the South Carolina state Senate blocked a Trump-pressured mid-decade redistricting bill that would have redrawn the state's seven congressional districts to dismantle its only majority-Black and only Democratic-held seat, long represented by Rep. James "Jim" Clyburn, and position Republicans to win all seven seats. Twelve Republicans joined twelve Democrats on a procedural vote to deny the 26 votes needed to end debate, killing the map for the cycle. It is the first state in President Trump's national mid-decade redistricting drive where the legislative push has collapsed.
South Carolina Senate advances congressional map dismantling its only majority-minority district
On May 23, 2026, the South Carolina state Senate advanced a new congressional redistricting map on a 27-17 second-reading vote, after invoking cloture earlier in the day to cap each member's floor debate at one hour and abandoning a planned overnight session to move ahead of schedule. The map redraws the state's seven U.S. House districts to break up the 6th Congressional District -- South Carolina's only majority-minority district and its only Democratic-held seat, long represented by Rep. James Clyburn -- positioning Republicans to win all seven seats. The bill also delays the state's congressional primary from June 9 to August 18; a decisive third-reading vote is scheduled for Tuesday, May 26.
Louisiana House committee advances congressional map eliminating a majority-Black district
On May 21, 2026, the Louisiana House and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 10-7 along party lines to advance Senate Bill 121, a mid-decade congressional redistricting plan, to the full House, adopting an amendment by Rep. Dixon McMakin. The map dismantles the majority-Black 6th District held by Rep. Cleo Fields, reducing Louisiana's majority-Black congressional districts from two to one, and is projected to give Republicans a 5-1 advantage in the state's six-seat U.S. House delegation. The redraw follows the U.S. Supreme Court's April 29, 2026 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which struck down the state's two-majority-Black-district map and weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
Tennessee House Speaker strips entire Democratic caucus of all committee assignments in retaliation for May 7 floor protest of anti-Black gerrymander
On May 12, 2026, Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R) removed every member of the state House Democratic caucus from every standing committee and subcommittee assignment. The stated reason was the caucus's conduct during the May 7 special session, where Democrats protested the passage of a new congressional map eliminating Memphis's majority-Black 9th district. The blanket scope of the action — caucus-wide rather than targeting individual members for specific procedural violations — is what makes this distinct from routine legislative discipline and an exercise of institutional power against the minority party itself.
Virginia Supreme Court strikes down Democratic-led mid-decade congressional gerrymander
Virginia's Democratic-led General Assembly advanced a mid-decade redraw of the state's 11 U.S. House districts, first stripping congressional map-drawing power from the voter-established bipartisan redistricting commission through a constitutional amendment that voters narrowly ratified 52% to 48% on April 21, 2026. On May 8, 2026, the Supreme Court of Virginia struck the amendment down, ruling that the legislature had violated the state constitution's multi-step process for placing amendments on the ballot and rendering the referendum null and void. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to revive the plan on May 15, leaving Virginia's existing court-drawn map in place; the Democratic-drawn map, engineered to flip as many as four Republican-held seats, never took effect.
Tennessee enacts mid-decade congressional map eliminating Memphis majority-Black 9th district
On May 7, 2026, the Tennessee General Assembly passed and Governor Bill Lee signed a new congressional district map that splits Memphis — the population core of Tennessee's only majority-Black, Democratic-held U.S. House district — among three Republican-leaning districts. The action followed by eight days the U.S. Supreme Court's April 29, 2026 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which substantially weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and removed a key legal constraint on mid-decade racial-vote-dilution maps.
Louisiana governor suspends U.S. House primaries by executive order, voiding ~42,000 cast ballots
On April 30, 2026, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry issued Executive Order 26-038 suspending only the state's U.S. House primary elections in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's April 29 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which struck down the state's congressional map. The Secretary of State certified the order; the U.S. House races remained printed on the May 16 primary ballot, but votes cast in those races were not counted, after roughly 42,000 absentee ballots had already been returned by early May. Other contests on the May 16 ballot, including the U.S. Senate primary, proceeded as scheduled.
Supreme Court 6-3 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais gutted Voting Rights Act minority-district protections, enabling states to eliminate minority seats
On April 29, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Louisiana v. Callais that Louisiana's court-ordered second majority-Black congressional district was itself an unconstitutional racial gerrymander under the Equal Protection Clause. Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the conservative majority, substantially reworked the 40-year-old Thornburg v. Gingles framework, holding that Section 2 claims succeed only when evidence supports a "strong inference" that a state intentionally drew districts to deny minority voters equal opportunity — replacing the prior effects-based standard with a heightened intent requirement. Justice Elena Kagan, in dissent, said the ruling would "eviscerate" the Voting Rights Act and warned the consequences would be "far-reaching and grave."