United States President Donald Trump has said that Tennessee will redraw its electoral map following a US Supreme Court ruling that struck down a key provision of the landmark US Voting Rights Act.
While the Supreme Court’s decision on Louisiana’s electoral map has broad implications for the entire country, it also has implications for the broader electoral landscape.
It removes some race-related restrictions on how congressional district maps can be drawn and, in turn, has fueled calls from Republicans to revisit redistricting in many states ahead of the resulting midterm elections in November.
The change comes amid a largely unprecedented redistricting spree that began last year with U.S. President Donald Trump pressuring Texas to redraw its congressional maps to favor Republicans. Both parties have since sought to gain seats in redistricting in seven states, including Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, California, Utah, and Virginia.
Most recently, Florida’s legislature passed a new congressional map on Wednesday that is expected to send 24 districts to Republicans, up from the 20 currently held by party members.
In a post on his Truth Social account on Thursday, Trump said he had spoken to Tennessee’s Republican Governor Bill Lee, “who told him he will work hard to fix the unconstitutional flaw in the congressional maps of the great state of Tennessee”.
Lee did not immediately confirm the statement.
A new map in Tennessee is expected to net another strongly Republican district in the state, increasing Republicans’ chances of taking control of the U.S. House of Representatives in November.
The map of Louisiana will be redrawn
The Supreme Court’s decision on Wednesday concerns Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which has long been cited as a means to prevent state officials and lawmakers from diluting the voting power of racial minorities in drawing congressional districts.
The decision raised the threshold for a map to be considered invalid under the law, requiring challengers to prove racist intent behind drawing the districts.
It deemed Louisiana’s current map, which includes two black-majority districts, unconstitutional, and is expected to jeopardize other black-majority districts across the country. Black voters have historically leaned heavily Democratic.
On Thursday, Louisiana’s governor announced the state would delay its primary vote as he sought to redraw its map, which is expected to create another Republican-dominated district.
In addition to Louisiana and Tennessee, Georgia’s Republican governor has also said he will review whether his state will seek to redraw its maps before the midterms.
Several other states, including Indiana, Kentucky, Kansas, Mississippi and South Carolina, may eventually attempt redistricting following the Supreme Court’s decision, although, for a variety of reasons, they are unlikely to do so this election season.
Concern over gerrymandering
Redistricting typically occurs once every decade after the U.S. Census to account for population change. This process has long been subject to gerrymandering, in which districts are drawn to favor one political party over another.
In most cases, state legislatures and officials oversee the redistricting process, while a handful of states rely on independent commissions to do so.
But critics say the latest redistricting campaign has intensified gerrymandering, as both parties hope to shift the electoral mathematics in their favor ahead of the midterm votes.
Political analysts generally favor a return of Democrats to the US House amid falling approval ratings for the Trump administration, but the margin is expected to be thin, with only a few seats making a difference.
