Alabama Republicans push primary reset as redistricting fight nears federal courts

Alabama lawmakers could vote Friday on legislation that would scrap the state’s May 19 congressional primary in some districts and replace it with a fresh ballot if the federal courts let Republicans switch to a more advantageous US House map ahead of the November midterms.

The bill, which needs only a final Senate vote to reach Republican Governor Kay Ivey’s desk, is the latest move in a national redistricting fight set off by a recent US Supreme Court ruling in a Louisiana case that significantly weakened Voting Rights Act protections for minority voters. The Alabama House passed the measure on a party-line vote Wednesday and a Senate committee advanced it Thursday.

“It is an if, and only if, the courts take action,” Republican state Senator Chris Elliott told the Senate committee, according to The Associated Press.

What the bill would do

Alabama has asked federal judges to lift a court order that requires the state to maintain a second congressional district where Black voters are the majority or close to it. The current second district produced the 2024 election of Democratic Representative Shomari Figures, who is Black. Black residents account for about 48 per cent of the district’s voting-age population today.

Republicans want to switch back to a map drawn by the legislature in 2023 that a federal court rejected at the time. Under that map, the share of Black voting-age residents in the district would drop to about 39 per cent, a change that Republicans hope would let them reclaim the seat.

If a federal court grants Alabama’s request, the new bill would void the May 19 primary for some congressional seats and direct the governor to schedule a fresh primary on the revised lines. The state’s regular primary calendar would otherwise continue.

Figures pushes back

Addressing the Senate committee on Thursday, Figures told lawmakers his concern was not about his own seat but about the people who fought for decades to gain political representation. “I ran into a gentleman last night, and he said, ‘Hey man, I hear your job is on the line.’ And I told him, ‘No, Shomari Figures is going to be OK. Your voice is on the line,’” he said.

Democratic state Senator Linda Coleman-Madison, who is Black, reminded colleagues that Voting Rights Act districts had reversed centuries of disenfranchisement. “How long are we going to have to repeat history before we realize that all people deserve to be respected and deserve to have the feeling that they are valued?” she asked.

A regional pattern

Alabama’s move arrives as Republican-led states across the South race to redraw their congressional maps. Tennessee enacted new districts on Thursday that carve up a Democratic-held, Black-majority district in Memphis. Louisiana has postponed its US House primaries while lawmakers work on new lines. Republicans in the South Carolina House released a new draft map on Thursday that would split the 6th District, currently held by Democratic Representative Jim Clyburn, into four pieces.

The South Carolina draft also splits the Democratic stronghold of Columbia and its Republican suburbs across four districts. South Carolina state House lawmakers approved a resolution Wednesday allowing them to return after the May 14 end of their regular session to keep working on the plan, but the Senate held off pending more detail. Republican Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey told colleagues on Thursday that as many as four districts could become competitive under the proposal, which could hurt the party in down-ballot races. “If we get too cute with this, we could end up losing seats,” Massey said.

Bigger picture

Since President Donald Trump prodded Texas to redraw its US House districts last summer, nine states have adopted new maps. Republicans estimate the redraws could net them as many as 14 seats by November, while Democrats estimate they could net up to 10 of their own. Both estimates assume the gerrymanders hold. A portion of competitive districts could backfire if turnout swings against the line-drawing party.

Democrats in California pushed back last year by aggressively redrawing the state’s lines, which ended up merging two Republican-held seats into a single Republican-leaning district. Representatives Ken Calvert and Young Kim are now competing in the same June primary, NBC News reported.

The South Carolina primary is set for June 9. Tennessee’s revised map faces a likely lawsuit from Memphis Representative Steve Cohen and is under review by the Department of Justice. Louisiana’s new lines remain under federal review.

What happens next

The Alabama Senate could pass the primary-reset bill as early as Friday afternoon. Federal courts in the Northern District of Alabama and the 11th Circuit are weighing the state’s request to lift the second-majority-Black-district order under the Supreme Court’s revised Voting Rights Act standard. Republican state officials have not said when they expect a ruling, but a decision before the May 19 primary date would force the governor’s hand.

If the courts decline, the May 19 ballot proceeds on the existing lines and Figures would face a Republican challenger for the seat. If they grant the state’s motion, Alabama voters could see a second congressional primary on a date the governor sets, with Republicans betting that the redrawn lines tip the seat their way.