Trump-led push to redraw Congress maps faces setbacks in Southern states

Conservatives across the country have dashed to draw new district maps to boost their prospects in midterm elections.A push by President Donald Trump to redraw congressional district maps across the US to boost the Republican Party before the midterm elections has faced major setbacks in the Southern states of Alabama and South Carolina.A three-judge federal panel blocked Republicans in Alabama from moving forward with a new map that would eliminate one of the state’s two districts with major Black populations.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3US Supreme Court reinstates Republican-favoured Texas electoral maplist 2 of 3Why Louisiana paused its US House primary election amid redistricting pushlist 3 of 3NAACP urges athletes to boycott southern US universities over voting rightsend of list“Ultimately, we cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination,” the panel wrote.Republican officials in Alabama, which had previously postponed scheduled primary elections for four congressional seats to draw up new maps, have said that they will appeal Tuesday’s decision to the US Supreme Court.Several Republican lawmakers in South Carolina separately joined with Democrats to shoot down a new map that would redraw a district held by the powerful Congressman James Clyburn, a Black Democrat who has been in office for more than 30 years.Early voting in the June 9 primary was already taking place when state legislators were voting on the new map on Tuesday.“Neither my conscience nor my common sense will allow me to stop an election that is already underway,” local news outlets quoted Republican state Senator Richard Cash as saying.The design of congressional district maps is a fraught issue in the United States, where it has historically served as a key tool of efforts to disenfranchise Black voters in states with records of segregation.Republicans have pushed for years to loosen rules put in place to safeguard against such practices, an effort that was recently boosted by a Supreme Court ruling.