President Donald Trump delivers a speech at the World Economic Forum on January 21, 2026, in Davos, Switzerland. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump on Thursday began to profit from a U.S. Supreme Court decision weakening the federal Voting Rights Act, urging one governor to gerrymander his state and praising another for suspending the upcoming primary election.
Wednesday’s court decision invalidated Louisiana’s congressional map as unconstitutional and authorized other Republican states break up neighborhoods where most of the inhabitants are black for partisan advantage.
The opinion could reinvigorate Trump’s efforts to get states to redraw their maps to give Republicans an advantage in November’s midterm elections. The president’s party typically performs poorly in the midterms, and Trump’s support has dropped in the polls, giving Democrats hope they can retake the House of Representatives.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry and state Attorney General Liz Murrill announced on Thursday that the state’s congressional primary elections scheduled for mid-May would be suspended. The pause gives state lawmakers time to draw a recent map aimed at ousting at least one, if not two, Black Democrats.
Trump thanked Landry on his social media platform, Truth Social, for “taking action so quickly to correct the unconstitutionality” of the state’s map. In a separate post, Trump wrote that he spoke with Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, who is facing calls to immediately take control of the state.
“I had a very good conversation with Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee this morning, during which he stated that he will work hard to correct an unconstitutional flaw in the congressional maps of the great state of Tennessee,” he added. Trump wrote.
A spokesman for Lee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The redistributive rush
Historically, states draw recent maps once every decade after each census, but eight states broke that norm after Trump encouraged Republicans to gerrymander.
Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Utah drew recent GOP-leaning maps, as did Florida, whose legislature approved the gerrymander hours after the Supreme Court’s decision. California and Virginia passed recent maps favorable to Democrats.
Before Wednesday, the redistricting war was basically nonsense. But the court’s decision gives Republicans more opportunities to gain an advantage this year if states can act quickly.
Alabama, Georgia, Missouri and Tennessee are among the red states with upcoming primaries where lawmakers could theoretically still act. In some states – such as Georgia and Tennessee – leading Republicans have not ruled out taking action. In others, such as Alabama and Georgia, GOP leaders have ruled out or downplayed the possibility of taking action this year.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, has urged states to change their maps before the midterm elections.
“I think all the states that have unconstitutional maps should look at this very carefully, and I think they should do it before the midterms.” – Johnson he told CNN on Thursday.
Democrats are also talking about gerrymandering
Democrats also raised the possibility of introducing additional gerrymanders – either this year or before the 2028 elections.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on social media after the court’s decision that she would work with the Legislature to change the state’s redistricting process. New York currently uses a commission system for drawing maps, which limits the possibility of partisan manipulation of land.
At a news conference hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus on Wednesday, Alabama Democrat Terri Sewell suggested she would support additional Democratic gerrymanders.
“It values partisan politics over discrimination,” Sewell said of the court’s decision. “It really, really, really – I mean, it takes us back. So to the extent that it’s urgent, it encourages red states to completely take away all of their Democrat seats and go completely red, it also encourages blue states to do exactly the same thing.”
