'Don’t rig our map': White House effort backfires as ruby red state rejects Trump plan

COLUMBIA — The Senate on Tuesday rejected a push to redraw the state’s congressional lines just weeks before the primaries, with GOP leaders saying it’s legally unnecessary and wrong for South Carolina.

Senators’ 29-17 vote fell short of the two-thirds majority approval needed to proceed. Officially, senators refused to add redistricting to a resolution setting the rules for what the Legislature can do after the session ends Thursday.

That’s despite pressure from President Donald Trump, who called GOP senators personally over the last week and publicly prodded the majority caucus through his social media platform.

“I’m watching closely, along with all Republicans across the Country who are counting on their Elected Leaders to use every Legal and Constitutional authority they have to stop the Radical Left Democrats from destroying our Country,” the president wrote Monday night on Truth Social.

But Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey said legislators need to stand up for what’s best for South Carolinians. And an overhaul that postpones congressional primaries and discards absentee ballots already cast — especially from military members overseas — to maybe create an all-GOP delegation will ultimately backfire, said the Edgefield Republican.

Overall, the confusion will lower voter turnout for a second set of primaries, he said, while motivating angry Democrats to vote in force in November.

Plus, he said, South Carolina shouldn’t just take orders from Washington, no matter who’s in the White House.

“The states are sovereign independent creatures,” Massey said, giving his colleagues a history lesson of the country’s founding and the rebel nature of South Carolinians.

“I’ve got too much Southern in my blood. I’ve got too much resistance in my heritage” to just rush through a map not created by South Carolinians, he said.

Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto agreed it’s not right to take a “map someone else gave us,” which will only exacerbate political divisions. The Orangeburg Democrat called it unfair to voters and the congressional candidates who may suddenly live in a different district.

Sen. Chip Campsen, R-Isle of Palms, noted that early voting starts in just 14 days. Other states that have changed their voting lines for the midterm elections did so months before people went to the polls.

“It’s almost impossible for us to pull this off, not without a tremendous amount of error added in,” he said. “What if we do pull it off? What do we have? Those who crafted this map had no interest whatsoever — they could care less about our communities.”

The entire effort started a week ago with a House GOP Caucus meeting. On Wednesday, the House voted along party lines to add redistricting to the off-session rules.

Legislation was fast-tracked at the president’s request.

After the U.S. Supreme Court threw out Louisiana’s congressional map as unconstitutional racial gerrymandering, the White House urged Republican leaders in both chambers to look at the ruling and South Carolina’s map.

As Massey spoke, shouting in the Statehouse lobby briefly got security’s attention. About 10 people paraded through yelling, “This is what democracy looks like. Don’t rig our map.” They were escorted down the steps and outside without issue.

Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee took up legislation on the next steps — bills that would delay the congressional primaries until Aug. 18 and advance the White House-endorsed map.

That map, which was first circulated by the House GOP last Thursday, uses “political data” to create seven GOP seats, said the map’s author, Adam Kincaid, executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust.

According to the trust’s writers, the overhauled map gives Republicans the advantage in every district, with the smallest spread at 11 percentage points in the overhauled 6th District.

That’s the one safe seat for a Democrat, held by U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn since 1992. The map would draw him out of the district he’s represented for 34 years.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Luke Rankin said senators are being asked to just trust the map does as advertised, with no record or testimony to back it up.

“What you think you’re getting may not be what you get,” said the Myrtle Beach Republican, who ultimately voted “yes” anyway.

House hearing

Almost everyone who testified about the House bills opposed the effort.

The exceptions were two Republicans running for governor: Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and Attorney General Alan Wilson.

Evette, who touts her alignment with Trump, told legislators they need to do what the president’s asking.

Trump “has made his expectations unmistakable. There is no more time for hesitation or half measures,” she said. “We must finish this redistricting work now, by any means necessary.”

Wilson, in his comments, decried gerrymandering along racial lines: “But partisan lines are a very different thing.”

“I know there’s a lot of disagreement, probably a lot of frustration and anger, but I do think this is a cause worth taking up,” he added.

While the House proposal would delay primaries for South Carolina’s seven congressional seats, it would leave contests for U.S. Senate, state House and statewide elections on schedule for June 9, with runoffs two weeks later.

Holding a second set of primaries in August could also cost taxpayers more than $3 million, when factoring in almost-certain runoffs. That does not include spending by county elections offices. It also doesn’t include the redistricting process itself.

The House bill originally suggested an Aug. 11 primary. But a House panel voted Tuesday morning to bump that back a week to give the elections agency time to retool its databases and mail out overseas ballots the required 45 days in advance.

Parties would have to re-open filing for candidates between June 1 and June 5. Should a runoff be necessary, it would take place Sept. 1.

Even so, elections Director Conway Belangia warned everything would have to go exactly right, otherwise “staff would have to work probably 24 hours a day to meet the deadlines.”

Meanwhile, nearly 8,247 total absentee ballots have been mailed and 354 of those have already been turned in, according to the election commission. And early voting begins May 26.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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