By Joseph Ax
May 26 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's push for Republican-led states to draw electoral maps more favorable to his party ahead of November's midterm elections suffered twin setbacks on Tuesday, when efforts in South Carolina and Alabama to reshape U.S. House of Representatives districts were stymied.
In a rare break with Trump from members of his own party, several Republican state senators in South Carolina voted with Democrats to abandon a new map aimed at dismantling the U.S. House
district held by congressman James Clyburn, a Black Democrat first elected to the seat more than three decades ago.
Separately, a panel of three federal judges blocked Alabama Republicans from installing a new map that would eliminate one of the state's two districts with major Black populations, ruling that state lawmakers intentionally discriminated against Black voters in reconfiguring the boundaries.
At Trump's urging, Republicans in several Southern states have rushed to implement new maps following a U.S. Supreme Court decision in April that weakened protections for U.S. House districts with significant Black or Latino populations.
Tennessee already has approved a new map that broke up a majority-Black, Democratic-held district based in Memphis, while Louisiana is advancing a plan to eliminate one of two districts with sizable Black populations in that state.
Black voters typically support Democrats.
Democrats and civil rights advocates have called the Republican efforts racially discriminatory. Republican backers have said they are focused on partisan advantage, not race.
Republicans are seeking to retain their narrow U.S. House majority in the midterms at a time when Trump is registering low approval ratings in public opinion polls, thanks in part to the unpopular Iran war and the higher gasoline prices it has caused.
SOUTH CAROLINA MAP FAILS
The proposed map in South Carolina would have positioned Republicans to sweep all seven U.S. House districts in the state after taking apart the seat held by Clyburn, 85, a Democratic power broker.
Tuesday's vote was the second time that the effort stalled in the state Senate. Five Republicans joined Democrats earlier in the month to deny the two-thirds majority needed to advance the plan during a regular session of the chamber.
Republican South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, who had previously had rejected White House pressure to call a special session, reversed course and brought lawmakers back to consider the map.
Early voting began in the state on Tuesday in party primaries. Some Republican senators said they could not support changing the map and postponing the primaries once ballots had already been cast.
"As far as I can tell, there is no historical precedent for a legislature to change the date of an election and redraw the maps once voting has begun," Senator Richard Cash said during floor debate.
Cash noted that tens of thousands of votes had been recorded by midday.
ALABAMA MAP DEEMED ILLEGAL
In Alabama, a three-judge panel decided that a Republican-backed map intentionally discriminated against Black voters and could not be used for the 2026 elections. Instead, the court said, Alabama must continue to use a map that has two districts with sizable Black populations, not just one.
Republican officials in Alabama immediately said they would appeal to the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court.
Republican Alabama Governor Kay Ivey previously postponed until August the party primaries for four U.S. House districts that were redrawn as part of the disputed map, which was first approved in 2023.
The map breaks up a district in which Black people comprise just shy of 50% of the population. White people make up about 40% of the district, with other minorities including Asian and Hispanic people filling out the balance. Black people make up about a quarter of Alabama's population. The district is currently represented by congressman Shomari Figures, who is Black.
The same panel of judges found the map discriminatory in 2023 and blocked it. Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court granted Alabama's request to lift that block, and directed the judges to reconsider their findings in light of its April decision that raised the bar for challenging electoral maps on the basis of race.
But the panel reached the same conclusion: that the map purposefully and unlawfully targeted Black voters.
"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," wrote the panel, which includes two judges appointed by Trump and one appointed by Democratic former President Bill Clinton.
Democrats hold Alabama's two districts with sizeable Black populations. Republicans control the state's other five districts.
(Reporting by Joseph Ax; editing by Paul Thomasch)
