Trump-led push to redraw Congress maps faces setbacks in Southern states

A push by President Donald Trump to redraw congressional district maps across the US to boost the Republican Party before the midterm elections has faced major setbacks in the Southern states of Alabama and South Carolina.

A three-judge federal panel blocked Republicans in Alabama from moving forward with a new map that would eliminate one of the state’s two districts with major Black populations.

“Ultimately, we cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination,” the panel wrote.

Republican officials in Alabama, which had previously postponed scheduled primary elections for four congressional seats to draw up new maps, have said that they will appeal Tuesday’s decision to the US Supreme Court.

Several Republican lawmakers in South Carolina separately joined with Democrats to shoot down a new map that would redraw a district held by the powerful Congressman James Clyburn, a Black Democrat who has been in office for more than 30 years.

The design of congressional district maps is a fraught issue in the United States, where it has historically served as a key tool of efforts to disenfranchise Black voters in states with records of segregation.

Republicans have pushed for years to loosen rules put in place to safeguard against such practices, an effort that was recently galvanised by a landmark Supreme Court ruling that critics say will effectively gut the Civil Rights-era protections and diminish political representation for Black voters.

The ruling, hailed by Trump as a “big win”, prompted a dash by several Republican-led states to redraw their maps in time for the upcoming midterm elections, where the party is hoping to defend its majorities in the House and the Senate as Trump struggles with low popularity.

States in the US are tasked with drawing House districts and organising elections.

For decades, both political parties have pushed electoral maps that favour their candidates – a manoeuvre known as gerrymandering.

But Trump has taken the practice to a new level, openly demanding that state parties redraw their map to help Republicans retain control of the House.

Democrats have responded with similar efforts in states that they control, including California, where voters approved a map that would give three to five more seats to the Democratic Party.

But the Democratic effort has also hit some snags. A Democratic-drawn map in Virginia was struck down by the state’s top court earlier this month.

Some analysts have said that such efforts by both parties risk diminishing the integrity of the elections, but Democrats have framed their efforts as a necessary counterweight to the push from Republicans.