Well, it was a tough day for the GOP during their redistricting push yesterday, but today is a new day—literally. We took a hit in the South Carolina State Senate, which refused to advance a new map following the Supreme Court's Callais decision. Today, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster announced that a special session will be called to pass this map.
It also seems that new maps will be created for Georgia, but you already know the catch: they won’t be finished in time for this cycle, and Republicans want to make sure they are set under a Republican governor. Gov. Brian Kemp has called a special session for June 17 to address this issue (via the AJC):
Gov. Brian Kemp called state lawmakers for a special session on June 17 to reshape how Georgians vote and to redraw the state’s political maps after last month’s U.S. Supreme Court decision gutted a section of the Voting Rights Act prohibiting racial gerrymandering.
The move, announced Wednesday, thrusts Kemp and his Republican allies back into the center of two of the most combustible debates in Georgia politics a day after the June 16 primary runoffs cement nominees for every statewide office.
The first is a looming crisis over Georgia’s voting system. The second is a redistricting fight over congressional and legislative boundaries for the 2028 elections.
Kemp has ruled out changing the maps for this year’s races, but Republicans are moving to act now while they are certain a GOP governor can sign the new districts into law.
A special session is required to address a statutory July deadline lawmakers left unresolved when they adjourned in April.
[…]
Republicans have long viewed Bishop’s district as one of their best pickup opportunities outside metro Atlanta and see the Supreme Court ruling as a chance to strengthen the GOP’s current 9-5 edge in Georgia’s congressional delegation.
But Republicans could also target metro Atlanta’s boundaries in search of another seat. That would carry risks. An aggressive redraw could dilute GOP voting power elsewhere, and some party leaders are urging caution rather than overreach.
We’ll need to keep an eye out here; it sounds like we have procedural panicans that could torpedo this effort.