#congressional-redistricting

#congressional-redistricting

Gov. Mike Lee (R) signed into law a new congressional map that will effectively erase the last Democratic, majority-Black district, in a move that some are calling "Jim Crow on steroids." The legislation, which looks a whole lot like racial gerrymandering, comes a whole week after the Supreme Court hollowed out the last of the Voting Rights Act... removing the last protections to prevent racial gerrymandering.

It's true that I was fully prepared to run in [McClintock's district], having tested the waters and with polls showing a favorable outlook in a 'safe' district. But doing what's easy and what's right are often not the same. And at the end of the day, as much as I love the communities in [that] District that I represent now - and as excited as I was about the new ones - seeking office in a district that doesn't include my hometown didn't feel right.

During the rare rehearing of a Louisiana redistricting case in October, the court's conservative majority appeared inclined to weaken the Voting Rights Act's Section 2 protections against racial discrimination in the political mapmaking process. Such a ruling could spark a new wave of congressional redistricting, especially in the South, where voting is often racially polarized and Section 2 has long prevented the dilution of Black minority voters' collective power.