Black leaders across the South have expressed a visceral shock in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision gutting the Voting Rights Act. But as the surprise wears off, a sense of isolation has begun to set in among some.
Black lawmakers and activists across the Deep South argue they have been abandoned by the Democratic Party to fight an existential crisis on their own. They say they’ve been let down by nearly all corners of the party: would be-presidential hopefuls who have flocked to early and swing states but don’t bring their megaphones elsewhere; congressional leadership focused on majority-making battlegrounds while safe Black seats are drawn out; and years of chronic underfunding that has allowed local party apparatus to wither away.
“Folks who lead our party go to swing states like North Carolina and Georgia, but states like Mississippi and Tennessee and Alabama and South Carolina are really neglected and are really forgotten and are really treated as if it is inevitable that we’ll always stay in such systems of what I call apartheid type of politics,” said Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones.
The feeling of neglect is compounding what the lawmakers called a crisis for Black representation already underway in the wake of Louisiana v. Callais, the April Supreme Court decision that took aim at the VRA.
While Black Southern lawmakers sound the alarm on the long-term consequences for their congressional delegations and legislatures, Republican leaders in several Southern strongholds have already signaled plans to redraw district lines ahead of 2028.
Florida state House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell said that between the Supreme Court, the White House and GOP-controlled statehouses, there is a “concerted effort to suppress Black votes” — a refrain many Black leaders have been shouting recently.
“Republicans in the Legislature and the Supreme Court have said that it’s okay to turn back the clock and reverse civil rights progress in this country,” Driskell said. “They’re basically giving these Southern states what they have consistently and persistently wanted, which is to suppress Black voices.”
Though many Black leaders said they ultimately hold Republicans responsible for the Callais decision — andthe subsequent redistricting efforts — a sense of frustration at congressional Democrats is also palpable, especially among younger Black Americans.
“The Democrats sort of allowed for this behavior to regularly happen,” said Yolanda Renee King, the granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr., noting that the party fumbled its chance to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act during the Biden administration. “I think that there could have been an opportunity before this second surge in MAGA. As of right now, I’m not sure if we necessarily have the infrastructure for that.”
Black elected officials and activists who spoke to POLITICO did not call out particular party leaders by name, with Jones’ team arguing it is a broader problem in a “political system that continually abandons Black voters.”
“This crisis of multiracial democracy is bigger than any one person’s failing, and will require a unified movement if we are going to stop the largest assault on Black representation since the end of Reconstruction,” Chandler Quaile, Jones’ chief of staff, said in a later statement.
But it comes at a time when the party’s three most prominent leaders — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and DNC Chair Ken Martin — face discontent from various wings of the party.
The DNC defended its work with Black communities and voters, saying it has been providing some tools to Southern states — such as training and staffing for those in need of infrastructure, including a 10-week training for states without a voter protection director. And since the start of the year, Martin has traveled to cities including Atlanta; Selma, Alabama; and Memphis, Tennessee.
“The DNC will use every tool at our disposal to protect the right to vote and to fight against the dilution of Black political power as a result of the disastrous Callais decision,” said Angelo Fernández Hernández, spokesperson for the DNC, in a statement.
And Republicans rejected Democrats’ characterization of their post-decision redistricting scramble. In a statement, White House spokesperson Allison Schuster said the Supreme Court’s ruling ended “the unlawful practice of drawing congressional districts on the basis of race” and was “a win for all Americans and our colorblind constitution.”
But Black Democrats say it’s hard to build a defense when party leaders are clashing over what their offensive strategy should be. Some have called for redrawing maps in blue states to favor Democratic candidates, while others are relying on lawsuits challenging new GOP maps.
Some have called for both.
“I don’t need anybody to hold my hand, but what I need is strategy,” Driskell said. “I need us to be thoughtful, and I think that that is what is missing.”
Like Jones, Driskell didn’t direct her frustrations at any one specific party leader, but added that Black leaders across the South “definitely understand” the potential repercussions Callais could have on their communities — and that “it would be great for the national dialogue to pick up on that.”
Jeffries’ office did not respond to a request for comment, and a spokesperson for Schumer declined to comment, instead directing questions to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Jessica Knight Henry, deputy executive director for the DSCC, said in a statement that Democrats are working to meet Republican-led attacks on voters through the courts and investments.
“Democrats have worked to meet these attacks head on in court, in campaigns, and we will continue to invest strategically in states that offer opportunities for Democrats to flip seats and take back majorities so we can fight to pass legislation that advances voter protections and rights, like the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act,” Knight Henry said.
Still, over the last year, the party’s main focus has been on winning back the House and Senate. Even the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus PAC, the campaigning arm of the entirely Democratic 62-member caucus, said in a previous interview that its focus remains taking back Congress.
“The PAC has always been focused on electing Democrats in tough seats so that we can reclaim the majority. That goal, that focus, has not changed,” Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) told POLITICO in May, shortly after the Callais ruling came down.
The fight over redistricting could dramatically weaken Black representation, both in Congress and in state governments; CBC leadership has projected that roughly a third of their members could see their seats erased with redistricting efforts.
And in The POLITICO Poll in May, 45 percent of Democratic voters said the party should consider countering Republican efforts by drawing their own maps that create more Democratic seats, even if it means reducing the number of majority-minority districts.
Black leaders in the states said that dual reality — Republicans targeting seats in the South and a Democratic Party rank and file seemingly willing to abandon other seats for more political power — only deepens the isolation they feel. Non-Black voters fail to grasp the gravity of the moment, they argued.
For these leaders, the stakes are personal, citing a direct, familial connection to a pre-VRA era, when Jim Crow laws were flourishing across many Southern states.
Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones recalled sitting across the dinner table from his father, who integrated a public school at just 7 years old, while Driskell shared stories of her father seeing “colored only” water fountains at public parks as a child.
“A lot of Black people feel like, in some ways, we’re fighting this by ourselves,” Justin Jones, the Tennessee lawmaker, said. “We need the wider community — particularly our white allies — to step up and see that this is not just a fight for Black people, but it’s a fight for all Americans who really believe in multiracial democracy.”
Some state leaders are now leaning on each other to try and get ahead of potential issues come the midterms this November. Jay Jones said his office is using “every tool at our disposal” to maintain “free elections,” including collaborating with other Democratic attorneys general to brainstorm voter protection tactics.
“We want to make sure that everybody participates and steps up, that they can go do so freely, without fear of intimidation, retribution, or being denied a ballot,” said Jay Jones, the commonwealth’s first Black attorney general.
Meanwhile, activists are leading their own charge as well, trying to rally a groundswell movement that they hope cannot be ignored.
“Every major question of whether America is going to be a democracy — that question was asked and answered in the South,” said LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter. “And so, once again, we’re being asked. And our question is: Is America going to be a democratic nation with free and fair elections? That question is for America, but the South will answer it.”