Republicans in South Carolina defy Trump to reject voting map changes

Republicans in South Carolina defy Trump to reject voting map changes 1 hour agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleNardine SaadGetty ImagesPeople fill out ballots during early voting on 26 May 2026 in Hopkins, South CarolinaRepublicans in South Carolina have defied US President Donald Trump ahead of the November midterm elections by blocking a measure to redraw voting maps in their favour.They allowed the state's only Democrat in the US House of Representatives, Jim Clyburn, to keep his seat intact, foiling Republican chances of gaining another seat in the House.They cited the fact that some South Carolinians were already heading out to the polls.With the midterms less than six months away, the two parties are locked in a fight to gain control of the House by having states redraw their voting maps, in a process known as redistricting."Neither my conscience nor my common sense would allow me to stop an election that is already underway," South Carolina Republican state Senator Richard Cash said during the vote. Despite the decision, South Carolina's Republican Governor Henry McMaster encouraged South Carolinians to "vote confidently in a safe and secure election".It was a second victory for Democrats, with an Alabama court also temporarily blocking voting maps that it ruled were "intentionally discriminatory". Republicans in Alabama have already appealed the decision to the US Supreme Court.Republicans feared losing midterms - but fight over voting maps changed all thatVirginia approves redistricting measure, boosting Democrats' hopes for midtermsThe Democrat wins come after last month's Supreme Court decision, which reversed a decades-old precedent and ruled that the Voting Rights Act, passed during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, did not require states to create congressional districts that provided minority voters with the opportunity to elect candidates roughly in proportion to their overall population in...