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 redrawBackground
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.