South Carolina’s governor orders a special session so lawmakers can change voting lines

Editor’s note: This information was updated in accordance with the governor’s order at 5:30 p.m

COLUMBIA — Just 12 days before early election polls open, lawmakers will begin a special session to redraw South Carolina’s congressional lines.

Governor Henry McMaster has called a special session beginning at 11 a.m. Friday. He did not dictate what legislators should do because the voivode does not have such powers. However, the introductory part of his executive order alludes to this goal.

“Whereas the General Assembly has begun a debate on South Carolina’s congressional districts… but that debate has not ended with the adjournment of the General Assembly sine” the order reads, referring to state law mandating that the regular session end at 5 p.m. on Thursday.

“An issue of such great public importance and public interest should not only be the subject of debate, but also of decision by the People’s representatives,” he continues.

He gave the order without a statement. He did not call a press conference to ask questions.

Republican Party leaders said McMaster informed them of his plans on Wednesday.

The self-imposed deadline for adopting a recent congressional district map is May 26, House Majority Leader Davey Hiott told reporters Wednesday evening.

“We are fully aware” that this is when early voting begins, the Pickens County Republican said. “We think this is the deadline.”

McMaster’s order is under pressure from the White House, the state Republican Party and Republicans who want to replace him in the governor’s mansion — including the candidate he supports, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, who on Tuesday told the House Judiciary panel to go ahead with it “by any means necessary“

The ruling also comes two days after the Senate declined to add redistricting to a resolution setting the rules for how the Legislature will operate after the end of the regular session.

The 29-17 vote fell two yeses tiny of the required two-thirds majority, as five Republicans joined 12 Democrats in rejecting pressure from the White House.

McMaster has previously said that redistricting is a matter for the Legislature to decide and that he did not expect a special session to be called.

But at one point this week, he “swung a complete 180 degrees on this issue,” Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey told reporters after the session adjourned Thursday.

“If you’re going to change something like this, it would have been a lot better for everyone if you had done it a few months ago,” Massey said. “I talked to this guy four or five times last week.”

Massey suggested that McMaster’s change was due to the White House.

“Based on what I’ve seen this week, I think the governor will do whatever he’s told,” Massey said. “It doesn’t look like there’s going to be much pushback or backbone down here this week.”

Massey was among five GOP senators who voted “no” on Tuesday.

The failure of this resolution also created scope for the governor’s executive order. No out-of-session law allowed McMaster to call the Legislature back.

Legislators sent to his desk separate bill Wednesday, limiting non-session work to the budget and negotiations on various versions of bills that have passed both houses. However, he has until midnight on Tuesday to sign the bill. This will impact future extra-curricular sessions.

Hiott said a separate special session to finalize the budget and other compromises might not be scheduled until after the June 9 primary election.

“Best Case Scenario” schedule.

While McMaster’s order cannot limit the agenda for the special session, Hiott said the sole purpose would be redistricting.

The process will begin in the House with legislation passing the White House-approved map and delaying the congressional primary elections. The House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines on the bill on Tuesday after the Senate rejected the proposal.

Lawmakers will have access to the House’s “map room” over the weekend to work out proposed changes to the lines.

Senators will do nothing until the House sends them this bill.

The House GOP’s goal in this regard is next Tuesday. That’s the “best-case scenario” after a very long and likely confrontational debate, Hiott said.

That would give the Senate a week before early voting to pass a bill that would invalidate some ballots. By delaying the House contests, the House bill keeps all remaining primaries — including statewide offices, state House and U.S. Senate seats — on the June 9 schedule, with a June 23 runoff.

If the congressional primary elections are postponed to August, candidates who have been canvassing for months will still be able to vote on June 9. Any votes cast for congressional candidates simply would not count.

On Thursday, more than 50 people protested against redistricting outside the Statehouse, holding signs that read “this is what democracy looks like” and “black voters matter.”

A half-dozen speakers said they were concerned about the cost to taxpayers of holding a second primary and did not want lawmakers to bow to pressure from President Donald Trump.

Senators’ reasons for rejecting the initiative earlier this week included the confusion it would cause among voters, thousands of absentee ballots already mailed and hundreds already returned.

“These concerns grow every day as we get closer,” Massey told reporters. There will be lively service members overseas who will not be able to vote in the second set of primaries, whether because they are on the move or simply don’t know how to request another ballot, he said.

Massey said he believed the deadline to change the congressional map was about three months ago, before candidates filed to run in districts that may look very different.

“This is all problematic given what is right,” he said, noting that he was too expects legal challenges if the lines are changed. “I think we’re too late to play.”

Why now?

Trump is pushing to take the Republican ticket in November in hopes of helping Republicans maintain their already slim majority in the House of Representatives.

The map created by the National Republican Redistriting Trust would pull U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, the only Democrat in Congress from South Carolina, from the seat he has represented since the boundaries were changed in 1992 to create a majority-Black district. The court-drawn map enabled Clyburn to become the first black South Carolinian to serve in Congress in the year 95 years ancient.

Due to demographic changes and required redistricting after the census, the 6th District is no longer a majority-minority district, although it remains reliably blue.

The attempt to redraw South Carolina’s boundaries to create seven Republican seats followed a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that rejected Louisiana’s congressional map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. While Republicans pushing for a change say that’s why South Carolina needs to revise its map, Republicans opposing a quick rewrite say the Louisiana ruling doesn’t apply to South Carolina.

As Massey noted, 2024 US Supreme Court ruling who upheld the South Carolina map, rejected arguments that the lines were racially manipulated. They were maintained as partisan gerrymandering. The goal of including heavily Democratic districts in the 6th District was to ensure that the coastal 1st District remained Republican, something Massey has repeatedly acknowledged.

Massey’s political concerns about the proposed map are that it could ultimately result in the election of two Democrats or at least generate enthusiasm and an influx of money for Democrats, making it more hard for Republicans to stay in the congressional-to-county board race.

2026-05-14 SUBMITTED Convening of an Extraordinary Session of the General Meeting