South Carolina must redraw congressional district

Federal judges ruled on Friday that the state’s Republican-controlled legislature drew the lines of a U.S. House district in a way that diluted votes from black neighborhoods. The legislature redrew the 1st District earlier last year after receiving the results of the U.S. Census in 2020. The district stretches from Charleston to Hilton Head Island and is currently represented in the House by Republican Nancy Mace.

Were the lines really drawn in a harmful way? Mace won the seat from Democrat Joe Cunningham in 2020 by 1 percent of the vote, before the lines were drawn the way they are now. She won the district again this past November by 14 percent of the vote after the Republican-controlled legislature drew the lines. In its ruling, the court requested the legislature redraw the state’s U.S. House maps by the end of March, adding that no elections can take place in the district until the legislature does so.

Dig deeper: Listen to Harrison Watter’s History Book segment on The World and Everything in It podcast about the beginning of gerrymandering.