Five Republicans joined all Democrats in the state senate to reject a redistricting proposal that Trump is pushing for – key US politics stories from Tuesday 12 May at a glance
As Republicans scramble to redraw congressional maps after the US supreme court rendered ineffective a major section of the civil rights law that prevented racial discrimination, South Carolina state senators have so far defied pressure to do the same.
On Tuesday afternoon, legislators in South Carolina rejected plans to follow the playbook of other Republican-controlled states, with the state’s senate voting 29-17 – two votes short of the two-thirds needed – on the proposal. Five Republicans joined all Democrats in the chamber to reject the proposal.
Trump had urged them to back the redistricting proposal on Monday evening. The US president wrote on social media that he would be “watching closely”, adding: “GET IT DONE!”
Shane Massey, the Republican majority leader in South Carolina’s senate, articulated a different perspective in an address Tuesday.
