Why South Carolina likely won't join call to redistrict its congressional seats

Joseph Bustos, The State (Columbia, S.C.) on Aug 7, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

COLUMBIA, S.C. — U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, a Republican running for governor, wants South Carolina to join the redistricting fight that has started in Texas and could spread to other states such as California and Indiana.

But his idea will probably not be well received in the GOP-controlled State House.

South Carolina already has a congressional map that has produced a six Republican to one Democrat split in the state’s U.S. House delegation, despite President Donald Trump only carrying 58% of the vote in the 2024 election.

The lone Democrat is U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, who represents a majority-minority district that stretches from the Charleston-area and the Lowcountry to the Midlands. Clyburn was first elected to Congress in 1992.

All the other districts are reliably Republican where the winners for the biennial elections are traditionally decided in the June primaries.

Norman says the state, where Republicans hold supermajorities in both legislative chambers, should redraw the districts to make them slightly more competitive in order to achieve a 7-0 map, and oust Clyburn.

“I have no doubt Republicans can be successful in every part of our state,” Norman said in a statement. “That will help increase Republican control of Congress and help President (Donald) Trump pass his agenda. Every vote counts toward a conservative Speaker Mike Johnson rather than a liberal Speaker Hakeem Jeffries of New York City.”

Trump called on Texas to redraw its congressional map to gain five Republican seats in Congress to stem off potential losses in the narrowly divided House in the midterm elections where the party that controls the White House traditionally suffers losses.

But such a move in South Carolina would require the state legislature to make it a priority.

When asked what are the chances lawmakers would even consider a middecade redistricting, House Majority Leader Davey Hiott said, “Is (there) anything less than zero?”

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Luke Rankin, whose committee oversaw redistricting in the upper chamber in 2021, said there’s no appetite to take up redistricting now.

“It is gubernatorial season. It’s not redistricting season,” said Rankin, an Horry County Republican.

Here’s why such a plan may not happen in South Carolina.

The last time Democrats won more than one House seat was in 2018, when Joe Cunningham flipped a seat blue when he defeated Republican Katie Arrington. U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, who is running for governor, flipped the seat back in 2020.

It was a midterm election with Trump in the White House. When lawmakers in the Republican-controlled State House redrew the map after the 2020 census, their goal was to make sure the First Congressional District would be reliably Republican instead of a toss-up.

The map has since been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court when the map was challenged for racial gerrymandering, but now has another challenge that is being reviewed by the state Supreme Court as the League of Women Voters of South Carolina argues the state constitution forbids partisan gerrymandering.

“Why in the world would we take up another redistricting map when the 2022 map is still in litigation?” Hiott said. “My constituents would rather have the roads and bridges fixed instead of the map drawn.”

Norman also has aligned himself with the S.C. House Freedom Caucus, a group hard-line conservative lawmakers often at odds with the House GOP Caucus. Norman has already been endorsed by 12 members of the group. House GOP Caucus leadership will probably be in no hurry to give that group a win.

The GOP holds about 85% of the state’s congressional seats, even though only 60% of voters in 2024 supported a Republican candidate.

“Republicans control this state. I know we would like to have 100% but Republicans control this state. That map we drew, everyone signed off on it, except for those in Washington,” Hiott said.

“This state has more important things to do than to keep drawing lines on a map,” Hiott added.