EXCLUSIVE: ‘Earliest Opportunity’ — Gov Opens Door To Redrawing Maps After SCOTUS Nukes Race-Based Districting

Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves is opening the door to redrawing several of his state’s election maps after the Supreme Court handed Republicans a major victory against race-based redistricting.

Reeves told the Daily Caller in an exclusive interview Wednesday that Mississippi lawmakers were already preparing for a special session focused on the state’s Supreme Court districts, but said he had the authority to expand that call to include other redistricting issues — potentially including its congressional and state legislative maps.

“In Mississippi, the answer is a little more complicated,” Reeves said when asked about the implications of the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais. “As we speak, we are in the middle of a Section 2 Voting Rights Act case in the federal courts.”

The decision of the Supreme Court in Callais found that Louisiana’s congressional map amounted to an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, sending shock waves through Southern states where majority-black Democratic districts have often been defended under the VRA.

Mississippi, Reeves said, now has three separate redistricting fights at stake.

“We have Supreme Court districts, we have Congressional districts — which is what everyone in Washington, D.C. cares about — and then we have legislative districts,” Reeves said.

The most immediate problem is the Mississippi State Supreme Court map. A federal judge ruled last year that Mississippi’s three Supreme Court districts violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, triggering a corrective phase that could force lawmakers to redraw the districts.

“My first call for a special session… was specifically for Supreme Court redistricting in the event the federal judge forces our legislature to redraw those districts,” Reeves said.

But the governor made clear the special session couldn’t stop there.

“I have the ability as governor, constitutionally, to either remove this call for the special session or add to it for any other matter, which could include other redistricting issues,” Reeves explained.

That means Mississippi could join other Republican-led states that reevaluate their maps after Callais. Reeves specifically pointed to Mississippi’s congressional map, which includes a majority-minority district currently represented by Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson. (RELATED: Alabama to Redraw Congressional Map Despite Court Order)

“We know that the majority-minority district in Mississippi was deliberately drawn,” Reeves said.

“I anticipate that the Mississippi Legislature will certainly re-evaluate our state’s congressional map as soon as possible,” he added.

Reeves stressed, however, that no final decision has been made regarding congressional redistricting. Mississippi’s schedule is complicated because the state has already held its primaries for the 2026 elections, unlike several other Southern states that may still have more flexibility before voters cast their ballots.

“No final decisions have been made on congressional redistricting,” Reeves said, adding, “We are also looking at whether or not new maps might apply in 2026 or 2028.”

Reeves cast the Supreme Court’s decision as a long-overdue correction to decades of race-based litigation under the Voting Rights Act, arguing that left-wing groups had used it to help Democrats gain power in the South. (RELATED: Florida rolls out congressional map that could erase Virginia Democrats’ Gerrymander advantage)

“When the Voting Rights Act passed Congress in 1965, a higher percentage of Republicans voted for it than Democrats, and we were in a very different time in our country in 1965 than we are in 2026,” Reeves said.

“The unintended consequences of what happened are literally 60 years of litigation from professional plaintiffs, the ACLU, the NAACP, and most recently the Southern Poverty Law Center,” Reeves said.

Asked if he thought claims that black voting blocs would be used as a pretext to create more Democratic districts, Reeves responded bluntly.

“100%,” he said.

“I absolutely believe that that has been their goal: to increase the power of the Democratic Party,” Reeves said.

Reeves also pushed back against claims that Mississippi Supreme Court districts prevent black-favored candidates from winning. He noted that the state Supreme Court districts were designated in 1987 and previously approved by the Department of Justice.

He argued that the central district in question produced diverse winners in several offices.

“As we sit today … we have one white man, one white woman and three black men,” Reeves said of the district’s five elected officials.

Still, Reeves said a federal judge had determined under the pre-Callais interpretation of the Voting Rights Act that black voters did not have a fair chance to elect their preferred candidates.

“Some of the interpretations were, in my opinion, very disturbing and problematic,” Reeves said.

Mississippi’s legislative maps could also be revised. A separate Voting Rights Act case resulted in two state Senate districts and one state House district being thrown out under the old legal framework, forcing a special election in 2025. He argued the Supreme Court’s new ruling could change how those maps are judged in the future. (RELATED: ‘Trivial, Baseless and Insulting’: Justice Alito Tears in Ketanji Brown Jackson)

“There also needs to be a conversation in Mississippi about redrawing our legislative maps,” Reeves said.

The timing of this fight is different, he noted, because the next Mississippi state legislative election will be in 2027, with qualifying beginning Jan. 1 of that year.

The result is that Mississippi could soon face redistricting in the Supreme Court, Congress and the Legislature at the same time.

“While there are a lot of states that are looking at and discussing around the question, ‘Hey, what would this district or that district look like in congressional races,'” Reeves said, “in our state, it’s a little more complicated, because we’re dealing with Supreme Court redistricting, legislative redistricting and Congressional redistricting at the same time, all with different deadlines.”

For Reeves, the Supreme Court’s decision marked a victory for equal treatment under the law.

“That’s why Callais “It was so important and why it was the right decision,” Reeves said, “because it reaffirms what we’ve known all along, that all Americans, regardless of race, are equal.”