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Republicans in Alabama approved plans Friday for new primary elections if courts allow a set of GOP-drawn House districts to be used in the midterms, a move that could eliminate one of the state’s two Democratic seats.
The legislation, which was passed by lawmakers this week and quickly signed into law by Republican Gov. Kay Ivey on Friday, is part of an effort by Republicans in multiple southern states to respond to last week’s Louisiana v. Callais Supreme Court ruling, which weakened the Voting Rights Act.
The new Alabama law would effectively set aside the state’s May 19 primary results for some congressional seats and direct the governor to schedule new primaries, if a court issues a ruling that allows the district lines to change.
A court injunction from last year requires Alabama to use its existing congressional map until after the 2030 census. That map — which has five GOP-leaning districts and two Democratic-leaning districts where Black voters are a substantial portion of the electorate — was drawn by a court-appointed expert in 2023, after the Supreme Court and a lower court rejected two earlier maps crafted by state lawmakers, finding they violated the Voting Rights Act.
But last week, the Supreme Court significantly narrowed Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which had historically required states to draw majority-minority districts in some circumstances.
Alabama Republicans responded by seeking to restore a 2023 map with just one Democratic-leaning, plurality-Black district. Ivey called a special session of the state legislature to make plans for new primary elections.
“With this special session successfully behind us, Alabama now stands ready to quickly act, should the courts issue favorable rulings in our ongoing redistricting cases,” Ivey said in a statement.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall on Friday asked the Supreme Court to halt last year’s lower court injunction and allow the state to use its 2023 map. Justice Clarence Thomas asked the other side for a response by Monday. Also on Friday, the court that issued the injunction rejected a request to stay the ruling.
At the Alabama Statehouse, a chaotic scene erupted as one protester was dragged from the packed House gallery by security officers. Demonstrators outside the Statehouse on Friday shouted “fight for democracy” and “down with white supremacy.”
Mike Stewart / AP
During debate inside, Black lawmakers argued the Republican legislation harks back to the state’s shameful Jim Crow history. Senate Democrats shouted “hell no” and “stop the steal” as senators voted.
“What happened here today is that we were set back as a people to the days of Reconstruction,” Democratic state Sen. Rodger Smitherman said after the vote.
Republican lawmakers in Louisiana and South Carolina also faced staunch opposition from civil rights activists and Democrats as they presented plans Friday to redraw their congressional districts.
The action came just a day after Tennessee enacted new congressional districts that carve up a Democratic-held, Black-majority district in Memphis. The state Democratic Party sued on Friday, seeking to prevent the districts from being used until after this year’s elections because of the tight time frame.
Even before last week’s Supreme Court ruling on Louisiana’s congressional maps, Republicans and Democrats already were engaged in a fierce redistricting battle, each seeking an edge in the midterm elections that will determine control of the closely divided House. That battle tilted further toward Republicans when the Virginia Supreme Court ruled Friday that Democratic lawmakers had violated constitutional requirements when placing a redistricting amendment on the ballot.
Democrats had hoped to gain as many as four additional U.S. House seats under new districts narrowly approved by Virginia voters in April. But the state’s highest court invalidated the measure because it said the Democratic-led legislature violated procedural requirements.
