The State newspaper

by Zak Koeske

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The South Carolina House redistricting committee has released a congressional map that rearranges representation in Richland County and keeps the state’s lone swing district competitive, rectifying a major complaint raised about the Senate plan. 

The proposal, published online Monday, is the lower chamber’s first attempt at redrawing congressional district lines. The House redistricting committee will discuss the plan Thursday. 

Lawmakers last week adopted new state House and Senate voting maps, but delayed adoption of new congressional districts until January, due to pushback over the Senate’s congressional proposal. 

State Rep. Jay Jordan, R-Florence, who chairs the House redistricting committee, said the House map would not replace the much-maligned Senate proposal. Rather, both maps are on even footing and will proceed through their respective chambers on separate tracks before being converted into a single map in January. 

“It’s really not that different than a regular legislative process,” he said. “They’ll drop a bill, we’ll drop a bill on the same issue and it’ll look very different. It’ll go through the process and by the time it comes out the other end we’ve worked something out more often than not.” 

The House map differs considerably from the Senate proposal, but Jordan said it wasn’t developed to address complaints with the Senate plan or even with the Senate plan in mind. “I don’t think we considered different versions,” he said. “We just started putting the pieces together.” 

While the House’s redrawn state map caught considerable heat for favoring Republicans, protecting incumbents and halving the number of competitive seats in South Carolina, its congressional proposal is actually more compact, proportional, competitive and splits fewer counties than the current congressional map and Senate congressional plan, according to Dave’s Redistricting, a map drawing and analysis tool. 

That’s not to say, however, that it’s beyond reproach, or even good, said Lynn Teague, vice president for issues and action with the League of Women Voters of South Carolina.  

“We’re not enthusiastic about this map because it doesn’t honor communities of interest,” she said, describing the House proposal as “not terrible.” The plan significantly alters district lines in Richland County and the Lowcountry, but does so without addressing concerns about the amorphous 6th District, which still stretches from Columbia to Charleston, Teague lamented. 

“We believe they need a map that respects the communities of interest, and doing that will keep Charleston County whole,” she said,expressing a sentiment shared by former U.S. Congressman Joe Cunningham, who Monday launched a “Keep Charleston Together” advocacy campaign. 

Cunningham, a Democrat who represented South Carolina’s 1st District from 2019 to 2021 and currently is running for governor, has lambasted the Senate congressional plan as “terrible” and claimed it was drawn by a “partisan hack in DC” to shore up Republican seats. 

He said Tuesday the House plan was significantly better than the Senate’s, but still fell short. 

 “Although it keeps more of Charleston County together, it still intentionally carves out North Charleston in a blatant attempt to pack African American voters into the 6th Congressional District,” Cunningham said. “There is no logical reason Charleston County should be split into two congressional districts, especially based on race.” 

 Creating a more compact district that keeps Charleston whole and maintains communities of interest is the simplest solution, he said. 

“The House’s new map is a step in the right direction,” Cunningham said. “But there is much more work to be done to provide equitable representation to the people of the Lowcountry.”  

Teague said she also wouldn’t be surprised to see the plan get worse over time, as it’s amended to appease the interests of lawmakers. 

“The tendency has been for these maps to become less voter-friendly as they progress through the process,” she said. 

Jordan said Wednesday that he hadn’t sought or received input from any U.S House members prior to the map’s release, but couldn’t speak for other members of the committee or its staff. He acknowledged, however, that the plan is a work in progress and could change substantially in the coming weeks. “It’s a starting point for us to give full discussion, consideration and debate to,” he said. “Is it going to be what the final product looks like? I have no idea.” 

MAJOR CHANGES PROPOSED IN 4 US HOUSE DISTRICTS 

Unlike the proposed Senate map, which made largely imperceptible adjustments to South Carolina’s congressional landscape, the House plan introduces sweeping changes to four of the state’s seven U.S. House districts. 

Rather than focusing solely on rightsizing the populations of the unbalanced 1st and 6th districts, as was the Senate’s purview, the House plan also vastly reshapes the 2nd District and brings the 5th District from Rock Hill all the way down into Columbia. 

The result is a map that makes the 1st District, represented by U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-Daniel Island, even more competitive, while expanding the Republican advantage in the 2nd and 5th districts. 

The 3rd, 4th and 7th districts would remain safe Republican seats and the 6th District, represented by House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-Columbia, would stay reliably blue. 

Overall, Republicans would hold either a 6-2 or 7-1 advantage, hinging on the outcome of the 1st District race, as has been the case the past two U.S. House cycles.  

While the results may end up being similar from a partisan perspective, the makeup of South Carolina’s districts would shift considerably under the House proposal. 

The 1st District, which currently hugs the coast from Beaufort County to the Georgetown County line, would lose its stake in Beaufort and lower Colleton County in the redraw, but expand farther north into upper Colleton, Berkeley and Charleston counties. 

The 2nd District, a Midlands district represented by U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, would undergo perhaps the greatest change of any district, if the House plan is adopted. 

It would leave Richland County entirely, ceding Fort Jackson and the county’s northwest corner, including parts of Irmo and Lake Murray, to the 5th District.  

The district would still include all of Lexington, Aiken and Barnwell counties, but instead of stopping there, would stretch the rest of the way down the state’s western border with Georgia to Jasper County, and head back up the Atlantic Coast, picking up Beaufort County (Hilton Head) and the lower half of Colleton County, much as it did prior to the 2011 redistricting. 

The 3rd and 4th districts, represented by Upstate Republican Reps. Jeff Duncan and William Timmons, are mostly unchanged in the House proposal. The plan makes Newberry County whole in the 3rd District — it had been split between the 3rd and 5th districts — and moves part of northeast Spartanburg County, including a portion of Boiling Springs, from the 4th to the 5th District. 

The 5th District, a northern Midlands district represented by Rep. Ralph Norman, R-Rock Hill, would gain part of northern Spartanburg County and northwest Richland County, stretching into Forest Acres, southeast Columbia and the Fort Jackson area. It would pull out of Lee, Sumter and Newberry counties entirely. 

Clyburn’s 6th District, a majority-minority district that includes many of the rural counties between Columbia and Charleston, picks up Sumter, Lee and Orangeburg counties in the House plan, while sacrificing portions of Berkeley and Florence counties. It also expands into northern Richland County to include Blythewood and the surrounding areas that currently are in the 2nd District. 

The House congressional plan hardly changes the 7th District, which includes much of the Pee Dee region and is represented by Rep. Tom Rice, R-Myrtle Beach. The primary difference is the addition of a portion of southwestern Florence County. 

Representatives for Mace, Norman and Clyburn declined comment on the House plan. Wilson said in a statement that he supported the Senate’s congressional plan, which made minimal changes to his district, because it was compact. 

A House redistricting panel is scheduled to take public testimony on the congressional proposals released by both chambers at noon Thursday. Jordan said he hopes to hold at least one more public hearing on the House plan before the end of the year, although the details are still being worked out.  

“We’re trying to wrap this up as soon as is practical,” he said.