McMaster OKs controversial SC congressional map that protects GOP advantage

BY ZAK KOESKE

COLUMBIA - A redrawn South Carolina congressional map expected to deepen Republicans’ advantage in the state was signed into law Wednesday, a couple hours after House lawmakers signed off on a version passed by the Senate last week. Rather than hash out the relatively minor differences with the Senate’s map, House Republicans simply agreed with the changes adopted by the upper chamber. “I am glad the House concurred with the Senate map,” S.C. House Majority Whip Brandon Newton, R-Lancaster, said. “This map is similar to the one passed by the House a couple of weeks ago and is based heavily on our current map that has served us well during the last decade.”

The new map is expected to solidify the GOP’s existing 6-1 advantage in the U.S. House for the next decade and is almost certain to draw a legal challenge. The constitutionality of South Carolina’s maps have been challenged in each of the last six decennial redistricting cycles, including a pending suit over the new state House map. The final product, a slight deviation from the current congressional map, splits 10 counties, maintains the 6th Congressional District as a majority-minority district, and expands Republican influence in the competitive 1st District. 

Dave’s Redistricting, a popular map drawing and analysis tool, rates both maps quite poorly, but ranks the new map slightly worse than the current one on measures of competitiveness, proportionality, splitting and compactness.

Republicans have defended the redrawn congressional map on the grounds it hews closely to the current map, which was precleared by the U.S. Department of Justice and withstood a legal challenge. Democrats and public interest groups, on the other hand, criticize both maps as racial gerrymanders that carve up the area around Charleston along racial lines and ensure largely uncompetitive U.S. House races.

Lynn Teague, vice president for issues and action with the League of Women Voters of South Carolina, called the new congressional map a “distorted map made worse” and state Sen. Dick Harpootlian, D-Richland, said it was “the most racially divisive plan” one could design. “That benchmark plan was a Frankenstein monster and there was no effort to change it in any meaningful way,” said Harpootlian, whose alternative map proposal was tabled by the Senate.

Republicans have denied allegations that the new map intentionally dilutes the power of Black voters or confers any significant partisan advantage beyond that which was ingrained in the current map.

State Sen. Chip Campsen, R-Charleston, who on the Senate floor last week presented and defended the most controversial aspects of the map, said the data backed up his contentions.The 1st District, represented by U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-Daniel Island, would become only marginally more Republican under the new map, Campsen said. The 6th District, a majority-minority district created in the 1990s to give African American voters the ability to elect candidates of their choice, would remain that way, he said. Campsen countered critics who argue the 6th District, represented by U.S. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-Columbia, is packed with more Black voters than necessary by arguing the new map actually reduced the Black voting age population by roughly 5 percentage points.

“Certainly the allegations of packing are not panned out when you look at the statistics,” he said. 

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