The lines on a congressional map can determine whether your neighborhood has a representative who looks like you, fights for you or even acknowledges you exist. Right now, those lines are being redrawn at a pace this country hasn’t seen since the Civil Rights Movement.
Texas, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, California, Utah, and Maryland have already adopted new congressional maps ahead of the November midterm elections. Several more are considering joining them, part of a partisan redistricting battle that accelerated following a Supreme Court ruling last week that weakened the federal Voting Rights Act.
President Trump set off a redistricting race when he called on Texas Republicans to tilt their congressional map in the GOP’s favor. Pro-redistricting groups also spent more than $6 million in ads targeting the seven vulnerable state senators, with national organizations including Turning Point USA and Club for Growth joining the effort. What followed was a full-scale partisan arms race, with Black voters caught in the crossfire.
The legal backstop that protected Black communities for six decades took the hardest hit. On April 29, the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Louisiana v. Callais. The 6-3 decision eviscerated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, one of the most consequential setbacks for multiracial democracy in a generation.
The fallout was swift. Louisiana suspended its May 16 primaries so lawmakers could draw new maps. Tennessee convened a special session to consider eliminating the district that includes majority-Black Memphis, the only congressional seat in the state currently held by a Democrat. Georgia’s Republican governor announced he would review whether to pursue redistricting, and the ruling is expected to imperil Black-majority districts across the country.
In North Carolina, the new Republican-drawn map redrew the First Congressional District, which previously included all eight of the state’s majority-Black counties, replacing them with more conservative-leaning counties. In Texas, a federal court found the legislature had likely conducted a racial gerrymander by drawing maps that diluted the voting power of Black and Latino communities, ruling the Supreme Court ultimately set aside to let the maps stand.
Meanwhile, the ballot box folded to the SAVE America Act, Trump’s sweeping voting overhaul, as it passed the U.S. House with support from every Republican in the chamber. The bill would require documentary proof of citizenship to register and a photo ID to vote. It would severely disrupt in-person voter registration drives, which have been essential for mobilizing political participation in Black communities and other historically marginalized communities.
The Brennan Center for Justice found that more than 21 million Americans lack ready access to the documents the bill would require, and that younger voters and voters of color would suffer disproportionately.
Voters will have their say on Nov. 3. The question is whether the system will still be designed to hear them.