The Alabama House may debate legislation that would allow the state to hold a special congressional primary, if the Supreme Court clears the way for the state to change its U.S. House districts. The current primary vote is currently set for later this month. Actions in the Alabama House and Senate are drawing an unusual rebuke from the, otherwise non-partisan, State League of Women Voters.
Alabama’s LWV is taking a stand against Governor Kay Ivey and the legislature, which is working to possibly erase two U.S. House districts, currently held by African American Democrats, Terri Sewell and Shomari Figures. League President Kim Bailey told APR news that her group’s actions aren’t departure from its efforts to preserve democracy.
“We are a basically one party state (in Alabama) at this point, it does appear that we are against a party (the Democrats,)" said Bailey. “However, these issues are not partisan issues. These are the same issues we have stood for. Others have made them partisan. Voting and fair elections are part of democracy, and that should not be made partisan, and we have to stand up for that, because our democracy is at stake.”
Moving the Alabama primary election to accommodate the legislature’s efforts to remove Democratic leaning seats appears to be a particular sore point for Bailey. She says voting is already underway for the primary, which takes place on May 19th. Her concern is confusion among voters on when and where to cast ballots. Bailey complains the state isn’t doing much to help.
“I was just watching the hearing, and an amendment was offered to be sure that the secretary of state and the county election officials notified voters of the date and the location of polling sites, and that amendment was voted down, and there is nothing in the bill at this point that requires notification to be given to voters. And I think that that is, I fear that is a statement,” said Bailey.
In calling the special session, Governor Kay Ivey said Alabama knows what’s best for itself. Attorney General Steve Marshall later said voters in currently Democratic U.S. House districts would be better off going for GOP.
In light of the court’s ruling on Louisiana’s districts, Alabama officials have asked courts to set aside a judicial order to use a U.S. House map that includes two districts with a substantial number of Black voters. Republicans instead want to use a map passed in 2023 by the Legislature that could help the GOP win at least one of those two seats currently held by Democrats.
If the Supreme Court grants the state’s request after or too close to the primary, the legislation under consideration would ignore the results of that primary and direct the governor to schedule a new primary under the revised districts. Democrats denounced the legislation as a Republican power grab that harkens back to the state’s shameful history of denying Black residents equal rights and representation.
Republicans are “working to secure an electoral victory by taking Alabama back to the Jim Crow era, and we won’t go back,” Democratic U.S. House member Terri Sewell told a crowd gathered outside the Alabama Statehouse.
An election-year redistricting movement has spread to South Carolina as Republicans attempt to redraw majority-Black congressional districts that have suddenly become susceptible because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling upending protections for minority voters. Alabama’s state House and Senate are already in special session, drawing unusual criticism from the otherwise non-partisan League of Women Voters.
Urged on by President Donald Trump, South Carolina Republicans are attempting to redraw a district long held by a Black Democratic lawmaker in their quest for a clean sweep of the state's seven congressional seats.
Louisiana lawmakers also are making plans for new congressional districts after the Supreme Court last week struck down the state’s current map. Tennessee’s GOP is doing likewise.
The high court’s ruling said Louisiana relied too heavily on race when creating a second Black-majority House district as it attempted to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The ruling significantly altered a decades-old understanding of the law, giving Republicans grounds to try to eliminate majority-Black districts that have elected Democrats.
The ruling revved up an already intense national redistricting battle ahead of a November midterm election that will determine control of the closely divided House. Since Trump prodded Texas to redraw its U.S. House districts last year, a total of eight states have adopted new congressional districts. From that, Republicans think they could gain as many as 13 seats while Democrats think they could gain up to 10 seats. But some of the new districts could be competitive in November, meaning the parties may not get all they sought.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn has represented South Carolina’s 6th Congressional District since it was redrawn to favor minority voters in 1992. He’s running for an 18th term. But it could get harder for him to win reelection if Republicans redraw his district. Leaders in the state House and Senate said a redistricting effort needs to start with a two-thirds vote in each chamber. The issue could come up as soon as Wednesday. But if only a few Republicans aren’t on board, it can’t succeed.
Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey has warned that redistricting could backfire because of thin political margins, resulting in a second Democrat in the U.S. House. Massey told reporters Tuesday that he had a cordial conversation with Trump about redistricting, each laying out their concerns.
The state’s primaries are June 9 and early voting starts in three weeks.
Republican Governor Bill Lee called Tennessee lawmakers into a special session to consider a plan urged by Trump that could break up the state’s lone Democratic-held U.S. House district, centered on the majority-Black city of Memphis. Republicans didn't say much about the plan Tuesday.
But as the Senate began work Tuesday, shouts of “shame, shame, shame” could be heard inside the chamber from protesters gathered in the hallways. On the chamber floor, Senator Raumesh Akbari, a Black Democrat from Memphis, called the redistricting “an act of hate.”
Martin Luther King III sent a letter to Tennessee legislative leaders expressing “grave concern” about the plan to divide Memphis, saying the move could undermine the work for voting rights carried out by his father, Martin Luther King Jr.
The candidate qualifying period in Tennessee ended in March, and the primary election is scheduled for August 6th.
After last week’s Supreme Court decision, Republican Gov. Mike Landry postponed the state’s May 16 congressional primary to allow time for lawmakers to approve new U.S. House districts. State Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, a Republican, said a redistricting committee he leads plans to hold a public hearing Friday.
Louisiana voters had already sent in more than 41,000 absentee ballots by last Thursday, when Landry suspended the House primaries, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. That’s about a third of all the absentee ballots sent out to voters. Around 19,000 were from registered Democrats, 17,000 from registered Republicans and the remainder belonged to neither party.
Democrats and civil rights groups have filed several lawsuits challenging the suspension of Louisiana’s congressional primary.
