Republican governors in Alabama and Tennessee have summoned lawmakers into special sessions this week seeking new congressional districts after the U.S. Supreme Court weakened a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. Governor Kay Ivey reversed her position following the U.S. Supreme Court decision that race should not be a factor in drawing voter maps. Both of the state’s African American U.S. House districts may be at risk. Democrat Shomari Figures was a guest on “APR Notebook.” He’s currently serving in District 2. Figures said he’s not distracted by the on-going uncertainty.
“There's still jobs that need to be created, industry that needs to be supported, there are rights that have to be protected, and so we're here to do that work every single day or every moment that we're in this chair,” he said.
Alabama is under a court injunction to leave District two as it is until 2030. Attorney General Steve Marshall is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn that action. Republican Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has called legislators back to Montgomery to approve contingency plans for special primary elections in hopes that the Supreme Court will allow the state to switch congressional maps ahead of the November midterms. Legal challenges and political maneuvering like what may happen in Montgomery this week loomed in the background during Figures’ first term in the U.S. House. On “APR Notebook,” he talked about remaining focused.
“(It’s) not tough at all,” Figures insisted. “We got elected to represent a certain part of the state of Alabama in district two, and that's what we spend our time doing. I worry about things that I can control. I do not stress out about things that I cannot control.”
You can go to you Spotify, Apple, Youtube and wherever you get your podcasts to listen to the full conversation with Congressman Shomari Figures on "APR Notebook." This week’s special session in Alabama is a move that Republicans legislative leaders said would “give our state a fighting chance to send seven Republican members to Congress.” The seven-member delegation currently has two Democrats.
In Tennessee, Republican Governor. Bill Lee also 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. The Supreme Court decision striking down a majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana said the drawing of the district map relied too much on race. The ruling began reverberating through statehouses across the South as Republicans eyed the possibility of getting new lines in place for the 2026 midterm elections, or at least 2028.
President Donald Trump encouraged the latest round of redistricting in a post on social media on Sunday, saying his party could gain 20 seats in the House.
“We should demand that State Legislatures do what the Supreme Court says must be done,” Trump said. "That is more important than administrative convenience."
Florida approved new districts the day of the Supreme Court ruling, and Louisiana moved quickly to postpone its May 16 congressional primary, drawing lawsuits from Democrats and civil rights groups. The state’s Republican leadership started planning for a redraw that could eliminate one or both of its congressional districts now represented by a Black lawmaker. South Carolina’s governor suggested his state might also reconsider its congressional map.
Senator Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, described the court decision and the redistricting scramble as an attempt to roll back the Civil Rights Movement.
“They said we’re going to allow partisan politicians to gerrymander you, so that even when you show up, your voice won’t have as much impact because we’ll play with the lines,” he said Sunday from the pulpit at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. once served as pastor. “That isn’t a new method. That’s an old method. That’s a Jim Crow method."
The Supreme Court ruling boosted an already intense national redistricting battle by providing Republican officials in some states potential new grounds to redraw voting districts. Federal judges previously ordered Alabama to use a court-selected map with a second district with a substantial number of Black voters. The judges also ordered Alabama to use the new map until after the 2030 Census. Alabama is appealing that decision and is hoping the court, in light of the Louisiana ruling, will let Alabama revert to a 2023 map drawn by state lawmakers.
“As I continue saying, Alabama knows our state, our people and our districts best,” Ivey said.
Tennessee's move comes after a pressure campaign by Trump and other Republicans to reconfigure the state’s 9th Congressional District. Republicans have always been checkmated by the Voting Rights Act in their desire to spread the district’s Democratic voters around neighboring conservative districts and make it winnable, but the law may no longer be an impediment.
“We owe it to Tennesseans to ensure our congressional districts accurately reflect the will of Tennessee voters,” Lee said Friday. The move was encouraged by Trump, who wrote on social media Thursday that Lee had promised to work hard to give Republicans one extra seat.
The candidate qualifying period in Tennessee ended in March, and the primary election is scheduled for Aug. 6. Democrats noted that in 2022 the state Supreme Court checked additional redistricting because it was too close to an election. They argued that the court is their best hope this time around too.
“We cannot keep doing things like this and calling ourselves a democracy," Democratic State Sen. Ramesh Akbari said at a news conference outside the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.
Alabama Democrats also sharply criticized the decision to try to change the maps ahead of looming elections.
“This special session is a blatant power grab by Republican leadership in Montgomery to eliminate seats held by Black Democrats,” said former Sen. Doug Jones, a Democratic candidate for Alabama governor.
Louisiana has suspended its May 16 congressional primary to allow time for lawmakers to approve new U.S. House districts, though that is being challenged in court.
Trump urged Texas Republicans last year to redraw U.S. House districts to give the party an advantage. Democrats in California responded by doing the same, then other states joined the battle. Lawmakers, commissions or courts have adopted new House districts in eight states.
