‘Disappointed, but not surprised’: Clyburn says of South Carolina’s push to redistrict
(WCIV) — As the South Carolina Legislature moves at breakneck speed to redraw the state’s congressional maps, U.S. Rep. James Clyburn called the situation “disappointing.”
FILE – In this Feb. 29, 2020, file photo Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C. listens to Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speak at a primary night election rally in Columbia, S.C. Clyburn is now the highest-ranking Black lawmaker in Congress, the House Democratic Whip, and one of the few leaders of civil rights movement still in elected office today. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
South Carolina’s lone Democrat in Congress said he believed Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican and longtime ally of President Donald Trump, would keep his word and avoid calling a special session to address mid-decade redistricting. But after lawmakers failed to pass a sine die resolution that included redistricting, McMaster reversed course and called legislators back to Columbia specifically to draw maps that would eliminate Clyburn’s longtime congressional seat.
“I was disappointed,” Clyburn said on MS NOW. “I was led, like everybody else, to believe that the governor would respect what the Supreme Court did two years ago, because they looked at this district and declared that the district was, in fact, constitutional. … But within 24 hours, he changed his tune, and I guess we all have the right to change our minds. Disappointed, but not surprised.”
Within South Carolina, Democrats make up approximately 43 percent of the electorate, according to the Independent Voter Project.
In maps passed by the South Carolina House on Wednesday morning, Republican lawmakers are looking to take six safe Republican seats and one safe Democratic seat and flip the U.S. House delegation to an all Republican outfit. Lawmakers in the state are already working against the clock, with early voting for congressional primaries currently scheduled to begin on Tuesday, May 26.
The House measure, if approved by the Senate and signed into law by the governor, would delay primaries until Aug. 18 for the state’s seven U.S. House seats. But as ballots have already been printed, the candidates’ names will still appear on June 9 ballots. As of Tuesday, the state Election Commission had already mailed out 11,300 absentee ballots to voters, including military service members stationed overseas. It is also expected to cost the state an estimated $3.5 million to run a second set of primaries, according to reporting from the South Carolina Daily Gazette.
“What you all are doing is wrong,” said state Rep. JA Moore, a Democrat from North Charleston. “You can justify it, rationalize it, but it’s wrong.”
There remains the question of lawsuits, as well. Already, the process has been challenged in court by the League of Women Voters and the American Civil Liberties Union. And local Republican mayors of Charleston and Mount Pleasant have been outspoken against the push to redraw congressional boundaries.
Despite the headwinds, Republicans have pressed on. For Clyburn’s part, he, too, is moving forward, at least for now.
“I’m supported by Blacks and whites, Democrats and Republicans, and Independents,” Clyburn said. “In my congressional district, it is a 45% African American district, and I’ve been getting 59 and 64 percent of the vote. So if it’s only 45% African American, then that must mean that I’m getting some votes from people who are not African American, and that’s a fact.”
