Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his colleagues in Congress are getting even more bad news as Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has called for a special session to move the state’s primary election date, giving lawmakers as much time as possible to redraw the district maps. Louisiana is currently the most pivotal state in the case challenging the Voting Rights Act.
While hearing oral arguments, justices on the Supreme Court seemed ready to weaken, if not completely overturn, the controversial law. Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Clarence Thomas appeared to be leaning toward banning any use of race in redistricting, arguing that race-conscious district lines could be unconstitutional. That would, if the ruling goes the GOP’s way, give Republicans 19 seats to redistrict to their advantage across the southeast, a huge benefit in the 2026 midterms.
If the law is struck down, lawmakers will face a major time crunch to produce new maps before the 2022 midterm elections. For example, if a ruling doesn’t come until next summer — the time when the high court typically tackles high-profile cases — it could prevent many states from redrawing lines before the election.
One factor giving Republicans hope for a faster decision on the case is that it’s a rehearing from the Court’s previous term. This could result in the GOP making a mad dash to redistrict and potentially having a greater impact during the midterms than already forecast. Even if the decision doesn’t come as quickly as they hope, Republicans still have several options to pursue redistricting.
According to Politico, one such strategy involves pushing back the date of primaries, which an anonymous GOP strategist said is probably the best solution to the problem. The downside, however, is the amount of pressure required to convince lawmakers to change their own election timelines, making this particular path to redistricting less likely to happen.
While this legal battle unfolds, the Trump administration is urging congressional representatives from red states without Voting Rights Act limitations to get moving and redraw their maps. So much pressure is being applied that the administration has reportedly threatened to primary New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte. A source revealed that the White House has not yet begun talks with lawmakers from states that have seats protected by the VRA.
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It’s clear, however, that the Trump administration fully expects those in states without restrictions to take up the issue of redistricting as soon as possible. Redistricting is already proving to be a successful strategy for the GOP, as they’ve picked up a total of seven seats across three states — Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina.
One state facing major pressure from the president to redistrict is Indiana. Many Republicans are feeling betrayed by the Hoosier State as members of the state legislature claim they don’t have the votes necessary to pass new maps. Another state with Republican holdouts is Kansas. Responding to reports that the administration is trying to pressure the GOP to support redistricting efforts, Rep. Mark Schreiber said, “If they want to threaten me with something, I don’t know what it’d be. I’m fine with the stance I’m at.”
In both Kansas and Nebraska, Republican leadership needs to hit high support margins to redraw district lines, which means the holdouts are gaining a lot of media attention and seemingly have more power over how these efforts turn out.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video