South Carolina GOP Gov. Henry McMaster is expected to announce a special session on redistricting, teeing up the state legislature to pass a Republican gerrymander that would almost certainly cost Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn his seat in this year’s midterms.
Clyburn is the sole Democrat in South Carolina’s House delegation; the new map would dismantle his district, leaving the state with 7 likely red seats and no Democratic-leaning ones.
McMaster’s plan — confirmed by four people familiar with the decision, who were granted anonymity to share private details — is a reversal of his position earlier this month and follows pressure from President Donald Trump and his allies to gerrymander the state.
The looming special session comes after five Republican state senators voted with Democrats to block a measure that would have allowed them to redraw South Carolina’s districts this cycle without a call from McMaster.
The special session will let lawmakers pass a new map with a simple majority, making it likely that it will advance given the GOP’s margins.
McMaster is expected to announce the plans later Wednesday, but he cannot formally call the special session until lawmakers adjourn their regular session, which will happen Thursday. And until the decision is official, it is possible he could change his mind.
McMaster’s office did not respond to requests for comment. Fox Carolina News first reported McMasters’ plans to call the special session.
“South Carolina isn’t done,” James Blair, who is leaving the White House to run midterm operations for Trump, posted on X Tuesday after lawmakers failed to reach the two-thirds threshold required to consider redistricting without a special session.
The Supreme Court’s decision earlier this month to narrow the Voting Rights Act has kicked off a rapid-paced round of redistricting across the South, with Tennessee passing a new map and Louisiana poised to do the same.
A new map in South Carolina would likely lock in a 7-0 House delegation for Republicans, though some of the GOP senators who opposed Tuesday’s vote said the map is no guarantee. Democrats are also bullish that a redraw could put a new seat in play, and the party’s top House campaign arm has begun recruiting in the state, as POLITICO reported earlier this week.
State Senate leader Shane Massey, who was one of the five Republicans who opposed the measure on Tuesday, has begun communicating McMaster’s decision to lawmakers, one person familiar with the conversations said. It’s still unclear if Massey will try to sway Republicans who voted to open the door to a redraw to switch their votes.