The remaking of the U.S. political map accelerated this week in courts and legislatures, all of it in this round expected to boost Republicans in their attempt to keep control of Congress in November’s elections.
This week’s major action came in Southern states, with a significant state court ruling in Virginia and continued fallout from a U.S. Supreme Court decision last month.
Here’s a look at where things stand.
Virginia court undoes new map drawn to help Democrats
In a 4-3 decision Friday, the Virginia Supreme Court stuck down a Democratic congressional redistricting plan that was approved by voters in April.
The new map was intended to give Democrats an inside track for 10 of the state’s 11 seats in the U.S. House — a jump from the six they currently hold. The new lines were drawn as part of a push by both parties to redistrict for their advantage in time for the 2026 midterm elections.
The court majority cited procedural reasons for rejecting the amendment to the state constitution that paved the way for new maps. To send a constitutional amendment to voters, lawmakers are supposed to approve the measure twice — once before and once after a legislative election. The court found that they didn’t comply because the initial approval came in October after early voting had begun for the general election.
The result is that the state’s previous maps will remain in place for this year’s elections.
Fallout from US Supreme Court ruling leads to quick redistricting
Multiple GOP-controlled Southern states pushed this week to redraw their congressional maps in the aftermath of an April 29 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a Louisiana congressional district drawn to have a Black majority of constituents.
The ruling was seen as a blow to a provision of the Voting Rights Act that requires political maps to include districts where minority populations’ preferred candidates can win elections.
Louisiana quickly suspended primaries scheduled for May 16 so lawmakers could create new districts. Voting rights activists there packed the statehouse to oppose proposals for new maps that could eliminate at least one of the two current majority-Black districts.
Republicans in Alabama enacted a law Friday that would ignore the results of its May 19 congressional primaries and instead hold a new election — if a federal court agrees to lift an order for the state to have a second congressional district where a majority or near-majority of residents are Black. Republicans currently hold four of the state’s six seats in the House and want to instead use a map that could allow them to win an additional seat.
South Carolina’s GOP-dominated legislature met Friday to discuss a proposal to create a new map that gives the party a shot at winning all seven of the state’s House seats. But some worried that breaking up the one Democratic-controlled district could make some other districts vulnerable to Democratic election wins.
Tennessee enacted a law Thursday creating a new U.S. House map that carves up a majority-Black House district in Memphis, the only one now held by a Democrat. That would give Republicans a strong chance of winning all nine of the state’s seats.
The balance of power could be tipping more to Republicans
Normally, House districts are reworked only after results from the once-a-decade U.S. Census are tallied.
This time it’s different.
President Donald Trump urged Texas officials to draw new districts to help his chance of keeping Congress in GOP control after the 2026 midterm elections. Texas officials complied with a plan designed to bring them as many as five new seats.
Democratic-dominated California responded with a map intended to bring them five new states. Other states have followed. And in the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling, the pace has picked up, though it’s been mostly in states where Republicans have nearly all the seats already and thus not much room for gains.
Without counting the pending possible map changes in Alabama, Louisiana and South Carolina, the mid-decade redistricting has created 14 more House seats that Republicans believe they could win and six that could give Democrats an edge. Overall, that would mean a potential eight-seat advantage for the GOP ahead of a midterm election, when the president’s party normally loses seats.
But as changes and court challenges play out — along with voters having their say — the results aren’t certain.
Currently, Republicans have 217 seats in the House to Democrats’ 212. There’s one independent member. Five seats are vacant.
Geoff Mulvihill, The Associated Press
