Republicans appear to have come out on top of a national fight over congressional maps, in what could be a major boon to their efforts to protect their narrow majority ahead of the midterm elections in November.
In recent weeks, the Supreme Court’s decision to gut a significant part of the Voting Rights Act led to new efforts in several Republican states and a decision from Virginia’s highest court blocked a new Democratic-friendly plan voters had approved.
The developments mark a major shift in Republicans’ favor in the battle that President Donald Trump and his party launched last year. It had previously appeared headed towards a virtual draw, with Democratic states all but canceling out Republican redraws.
In the wake of the Supreme Court decision, Republicans in Tennessee enacted a new map dismantling the state’s only Democratic-held district and Alabama Republicans reverted to a map the state drew in 2023, which aims to drop their Democratic delegation from two to one. The plan to use the Alabama map was temporarily blocked by federal judges and will likely again go to the Supreme Court. Louisiana is still proceeding with a redraw, which would target one or two Democratic members, while state senators in South Carolina rejected a Republican plan that would have eliminated the state’s only Democratic district.
