United States President Donald Trump has said Tennessee will redraw its electoral map following a US Supreme Court ruling that gutted a key provision of the landmark US Voting Rights Act.
While the Supreme Court’s ruling on Louisiana’s electoral map has wide-ranging implications across the 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 sparked calls from Republicans to revisit redistricting in several states ahead of the consequential midterm elections in November.
The shift comes amid a largely unprecedented redistricting spree that began last year with US President Donald Trump heaping pressure on Texas to redraw its congressional maps to favour 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 on Wednesday passed a new congressional map, creating 24 districts expected to go to Republicans, up from 20 currently held by members of the party.
In a post on his Truth Social account on Thursday, Trump said he had spoken with Tennessee’s Republican Governor Bill Lee, “wherein he stated that he would work hard to correct 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 solidly Republican district in the state, increasing Republicans’ chances of keeping control of the US House of Representatives in November.
Louisiana to redraw map
The Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday concerned Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which has long been cited as a means to prevent state officials and lawmakers from diluting the voting power of racial minorities in how they draw congressional districts.
The ruling raised the bar for a map to be considered illegal under the law, requiring challengers to prove racist intent behind how districts are drawn.
It deemed Louisiana’s current map, which includes two Black majority districts, unconstitutional, and is expected to imperil 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 it sought to redraw its map, which was expected to create another Republican dominated district.
Beyond Louisiana and Tennessee, Georgia’s Republican governor has also said he would review whether his state would seek to redraw its map ahead of the midterms.
The Supreme Court ruling could eventually see a raft of other states pursue redistricting, including Indiana, Kentucky, Kansas, Mississippi, and South Carolina, although, for various reasons, they are unlikely to do so this election season.
Concerns over gerrymandering
Redistricting typically occurs once every decade following the US Census to account for population changes. The process has long been subject to gerrymandering, in which districts are drawn to favour one political party over the other.
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 kicked gerrymandering into overdrive, as both parties hope to shift the electoral math in their favour ahead of the midterm vote.
Political analysts generally favour Democrats retaking the US House amid slumping approval ratings for the Trump administration, but margins are expected to be tight, with only a handful of seats making the difference.
