Davey Hiott
South Carolina Senate Majority Leader who killed McMaster's post-Callais redistricting push.
Last refreshed: 19 May 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Why did Davey Hiott block a redistricting win his own party was seeking?
Timeline for Davey Hiott
Told Senate members South Carolina would not proceed with redistricting
US Midterms 2026: South Carolina Senate blocks post-Callais redraw- Who is Davey Hiott and why did he stop South Carolina redistricting?
- Davey Hiott is South Carolina's Senate Majority Leader. He blocked the post-Callais redistricting by telling senators the state would not proceed, citing the legal risk of a rushed mid-decade redraw. His decision overrode both Governor McMaster's pressure and the House's calendar extension.Source: Lowdown
- Did South Carolina redraw its congressional map after Louisiana v. Callais?
- No. Despite a House calendar extension and Governor McMaster's pressure, Senate Majority Leader Davey Hiott announced the Senate would not proceed with redistricting, and no vote was held.Source: Lowdown
- How does South Carolina's redistricting pass affect Republican seat projections?
- South Carolina's refusal to redraw, combined with Mississippi's narrow scope, pushes the Callais seat harvest toward the lower end of Cook Political Report's 12-15 seat range rather than the notional 15-seat ceiling.Source: Lowdown
Background
Davey Hiott is the Republican South Carolina Senate Majority Leader who single-handedly ended the state's post-Callais redistricting push in May 2026. Despite the House passing a calendar extension to enable a special redistricting session, and despite Governor Henry McMaster applying direct pressure, Hiott announced to Senate members that the state would simply not proceed — and it did not. The absence of a floor vote means there is no recorded vote that Democrats can use against individual senators in future campaigns.
Hiott's calculation appears to have been that the legal risk of a rushed mid-decade redraw — which would have invited immediate litigation — outweighed the potential seat gain. Post-Callais maps in other states are already facing court challenges, and South Carolina's Republicans may have concluded that the current map is acceptable without incurring the cost and exposure of a contested new one.
The episode demonstrates that the Louisiana v. Callais ruling, while broadly permissive of mid-decade redistricting, has not produced uniform Republican action: individual state legislative leaders are calculating their own risk tolerance, and some — including Hiott — are declining the invitation. South Carolina's refusal, alongside Mississippi's limited scope, narrows the total Callais seat harvest.