In Defiance of Trump, South Carolina Senate Kills Pre-2026 Redistricting Push

This is your TPM evening briefing.

May 26, 2026

*President Trump. TPM illustration/Getty Images.*

‘Neither My Conscience Nor Common Sense Will Allow Me to Stop an Election’

South Carolina on Tuesday joined the outlier southern states that will not redraw their lines to snuff out Black voting power before the 2026 midterms.

Twelve Republicans in the state Senate joined Democrats on a procedural vote that killed the bill for the special session on redistricting called by the governor at the White House’s behest. That number included rock-ribbed conservatives.

“Neither my conscience nor common sense will allow me to stop an election that is already underway,” said state Sen. Richard Cash (R), per the Post and Courier.

Thousands of votes had already been cast in the primary, and Tuesday saw record turnout as early in-person voting began. Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey (R), who spoke out early against the redistricting effort, had cited the mobilization of Democrats as a reason not to redraw. He and a small group of Republicans reportedly worked with Democrats on delay tactics to run out the clock on the session.

Other South Carolina GOP senators bristled at the full-court press from the White House.

“We pass this map, it is going to stand for the proposition that a legislature can outsource its obligation to the federal government, it can truncate its obligations to proceed in good faith, it can do all of these things,” said Sen. Tom Davis (R) on the Senate floor. “I don’t want that infection to spread, I don’t want that infection to spread to other parts of the country, I especially don’t want South Carolina to be the reason that it spreads.”

The votes seem to end the effort to jam through a new map before the midterms, after Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster was bullied into calling a special session for the purpose of redistricting. It’ll also at least temporarily preserve the seat of Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), the most powerful Democrat in the state whose district President Trump wanted South Carolina Republicans to carve up before November.

South Carolina may take another bite at the apple before 2028 — especially since the whole state Senate will be up for reelection. Both Georgia and Mississippi passed on redrawing before 2026, but have committed to eliminating Black-majority seats before the presidential cycle.

— Kate Riga

Worse News for Fair Map Advocates Elsewhere

Tuesday also saw court losses for those trying to block the Republican gerrymanders.

In Florida, where the voter-passed amendments that ban partisan gerrymandering apparently continue to mean zilch, a state judge and appointee of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) turned down a challenge to the new map that the governor signed into law earlier this month, designed to give Republicans a 24-4 advantage (up from the current 20-8). He said that the plaintiffs didn’t prove partisan intent and invoked the dreaded Purcell (which is for federal courts, but whatever) to decide that it’s too close to the election to change the maps.

The good government group plaintiffs have vowed to appeal, but their odds of success are near nonexistent, given the DeSantis-stocked and rabidly right-wing Florida Supreme Court.

Over in federal court in Tennessee, a Trump-appointee likewise ruled against an attempt to block Tennessee’s post-Callais redraw that would eliminate its sole Democratic seat. Judge William Campbell wrote that the plaintiffs failed to show that Florida officials were motivated by race as well as partisanship, and that it’s uncertain whether the redraw would infringe on affected voters’ First Amendment rights.

And get a load of this Purcell pretzel: “On balance, given the timing of the legislation vis-a-vis the election, Plaintiffs’ immediate request for relief, and the relative burdens, it does not appear to the Court that this is a case where the Purcell principle alone warrants denial of an injunction. The Court does, however, give strong weight to the likelihood of voter confusion in the face of ongoing litigation close to an election regardless of the outcome of that litigation. This consideration counsels strongly against the issuance of an injunction.”

So Tennessee implementing a new map a couple months before the primary election doesn’t violate Purcell, but blocking that map so Tennessee has to proceed with the map it’s been using since 2022 does. Fascinating.

— Kate Riga

Dem AGs Didn’t Attend Vance’s Retribution Forum Guised As Anti-Fraud Roundtable

As TPM has reported, the Trump administration is using its supposed interest in combatting fraud as a mechanism through which to punish blue states and cities whose elected leaders Trump wants political leverage over. It appears Democratic attorneys general are seeing through the charade.

Vice President JD Vance, whom Trump has appointed as a sort of fraud czar to oversee this retribution effort, hosted a roundtable on the administration’s anti-fraud initiatives on Tuesday. The panel discussion was reportedly originally intended only for Republican attorneys general, but Vance invited their Dem counterparts on Friday. They declined to attend.

“While we would appreciate the opportunity to engage in serious discussions, the invitation was provided with less than one business day’s notice with no agenda,” 24 attorneys general wrote in a letter to Vance dated Tuesday.
“This short notice does not match the spirit of collaboration that has long defined our joint efforts with federal partners,” the letter said. “Accordingly, we respectfully decline to attend at this time.”

— Nicole LaFond