South Carolina
Southern US state; special Senate election follows Graham's death, congressional map fight ongoing after Callais.
South Carolina joined a multi-state redistricting rush within days of the Supreme Court's 29 April Callais ruling, but its own state Senate then blocked a post-Callais congressional redraw in mid-May, leaving all six of its Republican-held seats unchanged for now.
Last refreshed: 26 July 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
With an all-Republican delegation, what does South Carolina actually gain from redistricting now?
Timeline for South Carolina
Mentioned in: Four committees put $3.39m into three weeks
US Midterms 2026Nine certified, three refused, filing shut
US Midterms 2026Mentioned in: Sanford files a day before the deadline
US Midterms 2026Missed UOCAVA's 45-day ballot-mailing deadline before the vacancy existed
US Midterms 2026: The deadline that beat the vacancyApplied the Democratic-voter exclusion to its special primary
US Midterms 2026: Nobody sued over the crossover banBackground
South Carolina is a Southern US state whose government is entirely Republican-controlled: a Republican governor, a Republican-majority General Assembly, and a US House delegation holding all six of the state's seats. That single-party control shapes its role in the redistricting cascade that followed the Supreme Court's Callais ruling on the Voting Rights Act: with no Democratic incumbents to target, any new congressional map instead tightens existing Republican margins, potentially by concentrating Black and Democratic voters into fewer districts .
The state carries its own history of Voting Rights Act litigation over its congressional lines, predating Callais, so any map the legislature does pass will still face federal court scrutiny, even though Callais narrowed the grounds on which a Section 2 challenge can succeed.
South Carolina has not sent a Democrat to the US Senate since 1998. When Governor Henry McMaster appointed Darline Graham Nordone to the seat Left vacant by her brother Lindsey Graham's death, she became the first woman to represent the state in the Senate, a historical first that stands regardless of who wins the seat permanently .
South Carolina redraws its safe seats
Within days of the Supreme Court's 29 April Callais ruling, South Carolina's legislative leaders confirmed staff were already drawing new congressional maps, joining Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama in a redistricting push that could ADD an estimated 12 to 15 Republican-leaning House seats nationwide .
South Carolina's own state Senate then blocked a post-Callais congressional redraw, a check from within the chamber rather than the courts . With all six of the state's House seats already held by Republicans, any map that does eventually pass would tighten existing margins rather than flip a seat, likely concentrating Black and Democratic voters into fewer districts under a Callais framework that narrows the grounds for a Section 2 challenge.