COLUMBIA — A proposed overhaul of South Carolina's voting lines for Congress would draw U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn out of the district he's represented for 34 years. It could also make ruby red districts up and down the ballot suddenly in play for Democrats in November, warned Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey.
A map endorsed by the White House circulated Thursday at the Statehouse, as House Republicans introduced legislation that could change the entire congressional map. One bill would draw the map. The other would set a new schedule for congressional primaries, which would be delayed by two months. Parties would have to re-open filing next month for candidates.
A first hearing is set for Friday morning.
Whether the process gets underway is up to the Senate, which on Thursday postponed debating a resolution that would allow the Legislature to take up redistricting after the regular session ends May 14. Senators wanted to look at the map backed by the White House before voting on whether to jumpstart a process that would upend primaries less than five weeks away. A vote on the Senate floor is now expected Tuesday.
Proceeding with the possibility will take two-thirds approval in the chamber.
The GOP has supermajority control in both chambers. The House approved the resolution 87-25 along party lines Wednesday. But at least some GOP senators, including Massey, oppose the idea.
Looking at the map only strengthened his opposition. He contends several districts would become winnable for Democrats, which will bring an influx of dollars that will make holding onto seats more difficult for Republicans.
"If you're making three or four seats competitive, you're going to get better Democratic candidates, and you're going to get more money for those candidates," Massey said. "And when more money gets spent on the Democratic side, you're going to affect down-ballot races."
That includes state House seats to county councils, the Edgefield Republican said.
"There's lots of things that we need to be concerned about, and nothing in that map has changed my opinion," he said.
His predictions are opposite of what the GOP's trying to do. The goal is to pick up a Republican seat ahead of congressional midterms. Party leaders hope to flip the 6th District represented by Clyburn, the state's lone Democrat in Congress.
He's held the seat since a 1992 major redraw of the congressional map made the 6th a majority-Black district. Clyburn is seeking an 18th term in November to a seat that remains reliably blue, though it's no longer majority-minority due to population changes. The state's longest-serving congressman worked with GOP legislators in the post-2020 census redistricting to preserve the district's "strong Democratic tilt," the U.S. Supreme Court noted in its 2024 ruling that rejected claims of racial gerrymandering. Now GOP legislators are looking to move the 6th District entirely in an attempt to have an all-Republican congressional delegation.
"Republicans are trying to break apart South Carolina's 6th District. Not because voters demanded it, but because Donald Trump requested it," Clyburn wrote Thursday on X.
How the map changes
The most divided county in the proposed map is Richland County, home to the state's capital and a Democratic stronghold, which splits three ways. Currently represented by Clyburn and U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, as part of the 2nd District, portions of Richland County would become part of the 3rd District along the border with Georgia to the state's northwest corner.
That means Clemson and downtown Columbia would be in the same district — in other words, Tigers and Gamecocks would be grouped together, though the University of South Carolina's central campus may be just barely in the 2nd District.
The northeastern chunk of Richland County would become part of the 5th District with counties along the border with North Carolina. And the Kershaw County suburbs of Columbia would be in the reworked 6th District.
The overhaul shifts the 6th District north. It would newly span the entire Pee Dee region up to the suburbs of Charlotte, North Carolina, while splitting York County. The map even splits the Fort Mill School District. Indian Land (the panhandle of Lancaster County) and Fort Mill east of Interstate 77 would be in the 6th District, while the rest of York County — including Baxter Village and Tega Cay — would stay in the 5th District.
That's a "real problem for that base," Massey said. "Those communities, they go together. They do everything together."
No other incumbent is drawn out of the district they represent. Wilson, of Springdale, would still live in the district he's represented since 2001. But the 2nd District would newly pick up lots of blue areas that were in the 6th: all of Orangeburg and Calhoun counties as well as rural Allendale, Bamberg and Hampton counties.
Along the coast, Charleston County would split between the 1st and 7th districts, with much of it getting wrapped in with Georgetown and Horry counties along the Grand Strand. Massey said putting two of South Carolina's fastest-growing counties in the same district is a bad idea. While both Charleston and Horry are coastal counties, they're "not the same culturally; they are not the same economically," Massey said.
The effort follows the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last week that threw out Louisiana's congressional map as unconstitutional gerrymandering based on race.
President Donald Trump called Massey twice earlier this week to ask him to look at the ruling. Massey, who's described the conversations as cordial and without pressure, said he's opposed to the redistricting proposal, not the president.
"I like the guy," he said. "But I want to make sure that it's good for the people that I represent, and South Carolina as a whole, because that's my job."
If senators vote Tuesday to allow redistricting, the process would affect congressional primaries only. Primaries for other statewide and legislative races would remain on schedule June 9.
Even so, primary ballots have already been printed. Absentee ballots for military service members and other voters overseas were mailed more than a week ago and 193 ballots have already been turned in, according to state election officials. Early voting for the primaries begins May 26.
Unknowns include the cost of the process, to include holding a second set of primaries and potential runoffs for Congress in August. Lawsuits are almost certain. The House put $2 million toward "redistricting litigation" in its second draft of the budget passed Wednesday.