Oh, sweet baby Jesus. Prepare for some mean tweets. Trump called on South Carolina Republicans to “be bold and courageous,” as if he were sending troops into Normandy, and five South Carolina Republican state senators responded with a collective “Nah, we’re good.”
South Carolina's Republican state senators voted against pursuing a mid-decade redrawing of congressional district maps on Tuesday, effectively rejecting President Trump's urging to do so. The motion fell in a 29-17 vote, which didn't reach the two-thirds majority needed to extend the legislative session past its scheduled end — a move that would have allowed lawmakers to revise the maps ahead of the upcoming midterm elections, Bloomberg reports.
The outcome was a setback for Trump, who had earlier that week pushed the state's legislators to delay congressional primary elections and reconsider the existing district boundaries. His encouragement came in the wake of a recent Supreme Court decision that has prompted several Republican-controlled states to revisit their congressional maps in the middle of the decade.
Trump took to Truth Social on Monday to say he's "watching closely."
"The South Carolina State Senate has a big vote tomorrow on Redistricting," he wrote. "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, including leveling the playing field against their decades of egregious Gerrymandering and Census Rigging. South Carolina Republicans: BE BOLD AND COURAGEOUS, just like the Republicans of the Great State of Tennessee were last week! Move the U.S. House Primaries to August, leave the rest on the same schedule. Everything will be fine. GET IT DONE! President DONALD J. TRUMP"
Earlier that same Tuesday, a South Carolina House subcommittee approved a proposed congressional redistricting bill, sending it forward to the Judiciary Committee. The proposed new map would have redrawn the district currently represented by Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn — the only remaining congressional seat held by a Democrat in the state — to give Republicans a stronger advantage there.
Via Bloomberg:
Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, one of the most outspoken Republican critics of the proposal, warned during floor debate that the effort could politically backfire by energizing Black voters and create unintended consequences for Republicans further down the ballot.
“There will be Republican losses in the State House of Representatives because of this,” he said.
It sure looks like Trump is slowly losing his iron-grip control of the GOP, and there’s nothing quite like your own party’s supermajority legislature telling you to pound sand on a pet project. Even better: they’re protecting Jim Clyburn’s seat.
The man who loves to brag about loyalty got stiff-armed by his own side in a ruby-red state. The “America First” wave hits a speed bump made of five Republican senators who apparently still remember what “mid-decade redistricting” sounds like when the other team eventually tries it.
