The Republican-led South Carolina Senate voted Tuesday against advancing a new congressional map, ending the redistricting effort in the state for now.
The failed vote on a motion to end debate on the proposal was a surprise rejection of President Donald Trump, who had urged lawmakers to pass the redrawn map that eliminated the state’s single majority-Black district, represented by longtime Democratic Rep. James Clyburn.
The South Carolina House approved the map last week in hopes of putting it into place for this year’s midterm elections. As part of the effort, lawmakers also sought to set another primary election for the affected districts in August. But after early voting began Tuesday for the previously scheduled June 9 primary, some Republicans in the state Senate changed their tune, arguing it was too late to enact new district lines.
“Neither my conscience nor my common sense will allow me to stop an election that is already underway,” said Republican state Sen. Richard Cash, who changed his vote due to timing.
Following the vote, another prominent Republican, state Sen. Tom Davis, condemned the effort. An earlier redistricting process took nine months of consideration, he said, while this push moved forward over a few weeks.
“We have completely outsourced our constitutional obligation to prepare a congressional redistricting map to a consultant in Washington, D.C. We have no idea, no idea how that map was created,” Davis said.
Advisers close to the White House — which has pressed Republicans across the country to pass new maps over the past year to shore up the party’s narrow House majority — said they were caught off guard by the failed vote in the South Carolina Senate, with one calling it a “betrayal.”
“We knew it was bumpy all along, never a guarantee,” one adviser told NBC News. “But the votes were there on the last vote, and nothing changed.”
The adviser also said that the White House was not given a heads-up about the vote from South Carolina Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, which they would have expected if votes were changing. The person said they were alerted by Attorney General Alan Wilson and “a couple” of state senators.
NBC News reached out to McMaster’s office for comment.
In a post on X Tuesday, McMaster said he was “confident that one day South Carolina’s congressional delegation will be completely Republican,” but that he was “disappointed that day has not yet come.” He encouraged South Carolinians to vote in the upcoming primary called on lawmakers to pass a budget.
South Carolina isn’t the first Republican-controlled state to rebel against Trump’s redistricting agenda. In December, the Indiana Senate rejected a redrawn congressional map in a dramatic floor vote despite heavy White House pressure.
Trump exacted revenge this month, successfully backing five primary challengers to the Republican lawmakers who bucked him.
In South Carolina, all members of the state Senate are up for re-election in 2028.
“These next two years are going to bring hell from the MAGA grassroots wing of the party already skeptical of many of these old-guard GOP senators,” said one longtime South Carolina Republican operative.
Republicans in the South Carolina Senate had signaled their resistance to redrawing the state’s congressional map earlier this month, refusing to take up a new proposal as part of its regularly scheduled session. But amid pressure from the White House and national Republicans, McMaster quickly called lawmakers back for a special session to tackle the issue.
Republican state Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey said at the time that the effort would be shortsighted.
“I believe that our state is stronger with vibrant parties. I think we, as a whole, are stronger when we have a clash of ideas. I think that’s true at the national level. I think it’s true at the state level. We are stronger when we have a clash of ideas and we can discuss those policy goals,” Massey said at the time. “Republicans are stronger when the Democrat Party is vibrant and viable.”
Election officials in South Carolina had also raised concerns about making the last-minute changes and setting up additional primaries. Conway Belangia, the executive director of the South Carolina Election Commission, told a state Senate committee that it would cost an additional $6 million to implement the district lines for this year’s election.
South Carolina is one of several states that rushed to take up new congressional boundaries after a major Supreme Court ruling last month on racial gerrymandering. In recent weeks, Florida and Tennessee have enacted new maps, while Louisiana Republicans are advancing their own proposal.
Some of the battles over the maps are still playing out in the courts. On Tuesday, a panel of federal judges blocked Alabama from using a Republican-drawn map that could net the party an additional seat. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said the state would appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
The mid-decade redistricting battle will also extend beyond the 2026 election. Republicans in Georgia and Mississippi are expected to pursue new maps for the 2028 cycle, and South Carolina lawmakers could do the same.
