South Carolina Republicans Advance Map That Aims to Eliminate Jim Clyburn’s Seat
Hello and welcome to another dark edition of The Franchise! (How’s that for an opening line?)
As the midterm primary season heats up, so do attacks on election administration, which we’ll discuss in more detail below.
But first…
The red state’s painful rush to completely gut congressional district maps and eliminate black voting power in the South continues in the wake of Louisiana v. Callais, the Supreme Court decision that invalidated Louisiana’s majority-black 2nd Congressional District and set off a depressing race to redraw majority-minority districts across the former Confederacy.
Here’s the last one.
In Missouri, a citizens group, People Not Politicians, filed a lawsuit this week to force Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins to decide whether a referendum vote on the state’s new three-dimensional map, known as HB1, qualifies for the November ballot.
In their filing, People Not Politicians accuses Hoskins and Republican Attorney General Catherine Hanaway of “attempting to bully and intimidate local election officials into establishing congressional districts that, according to the Missouri Supreme Court’s opinion and the evidence, should be considered suspended effective December 9, 2025.”
The new map, which is poised to give Republicans a 7-1 advantage in the House of Representatives, specifically targets the district of Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D), a Methodist pastor and longtime Democratic politician in the state who was Kansas City’s first black mayor.
Meanwhile, in South Carolina, lawmakers called a special session on redistricting this month after some Republicans initially resisted the effort, and a new hand-picked map passed the South Carolina House this week. The map now goes to the full Senate for a vote. The new map specifically targets Rep. Jim Clyburn’s (D-SC) district and, if approved, will give Republicans all seven of the state’s congressional seats.
In Virginia, the Supreme Court rejected an emergency appeal from Democrats to try to resurrect the state’s Democratic-led redistricting proposal.
And finally, in Louisiana, a gerrymander proposal — which, if approved, would eliminate one of the state’s two majority-black districts — was heard Thursday by the House Parliamentary and Governmental Affairs Committee.
As always, there’s a lot to unpack. Let’s dig.
Todd Blanche auditions for AG with ‘rigged’ 2020 election remarks
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, like most in the Trump administration, is still talking about the “rigged” 2020 election. It’s an easy place to plant his flag as the Acting Attorney General actively auditions to make his position permanent by publicly highlighting all of Trump’s priorities, grievances and corruption.
During an interview on Fox on Sunday, Blanche responded to a video clip of White House chief of staff Susie Wiles saying that Trump actually won many states that he lost badly in 2020, saying, “there’s a ton of evidence that the [2020] the election was rigged, that’s not something the DOJ needs to tell you about.
“There has been evidence of this for many years,” Blanche added. “What I can tell you is that there are several investigations underway in Arizona, in Fulton County, Georgia.”
He then accused the amorphous “them” of being “very good at covering up misconduct,” which is why, he said, the DOJ is “very focused on finding out whether the right people voted, whether the people who were supposed to vote voted, whether there was one vote cast per voter.”
For months now, the DOJ has baselessly investigated past elections in Maricopa County, Arizona, Fulton County, Georgia, and Wayne County, Michigan. It’s all part of a broader effort to reinforce Trump’s belief that the 2020 election was stolen from him and that widespread fraud actually exists in counties that tend to be purple or vote Democratic.
The FBI demanded voter data and voting records from all of these counties, all of which were hotbeds of misinformation about the 2020 election, apparently in an effort to prove that Trump did not in fact lose the 2020 election and, in the case of Wayne County, the 2024 election.
“I assure the American people that as soon as we have something to say, whether it be charges, a report, or the results of an investigation,” Blanche continued, “the American people will know what we have discovered.”
Despite her confidence in saying the 2020 election was stolen, Blanche appeared doubtful when Fox host Maria Bartiromo asked her to comment on whether there would soon be a “definitive answer as to whether or not the 2020 election was stolen.”
“I’m not going to promise that there will be a definitive answer,” he replied. “It wouldn’t be fair to you or anyone else, but we’re looking into it and we’re hoping to get one.”
RIGHT.
FBI expands 2020 investigation into Wisconsin
Speaking of unnecessary investigations into the 2020 election, the DOJ appears to be expanding its investigation into Wisconsin.
As a reminder, earlier this month, sources confirmed to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the FBI had questioned Wisconsin Elections Commission Deputy Administrator Robert Kehoe about the 2020 election.
This comes against the backdrop of Wisconsin Democratic Governor Tony Evers specifically stating in March of this year that he would resist exactly this type of effort by the FBI.
Federal investigators are now reportedly attempting to speak with at least two Milwaukee city employees who played a role in administering the 2020 election, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“Let me make this clear: Donald Trump won presidential elections in Wisconsin in 2016 and 2024. He lost the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin to Joe Biden,” Milwaukee Democratic Mayor Cavalier Johnson said in a statement last week, responding to the announcement that the DOJ would investigate the 2020 election there.
“Milwaukee’s elections are being conducted with the highest level of integrity and accuracy,” he continued. “Multiple objective reviews of our elections bear this out. »
Trump is now attacking Maryland
Trump announced this week that he was asking the DOJ to visit Maryland to investigate mail-in voting after reporting a vendor error with some mail-in ballots in the state.
In a statement released Friday, the Maryland State Board of Elections said it had been “made aware of an error on the part of our absentee ballot vendor, which resulted in some voters receiving the incorrect ballot for the gubernatorial primary election.”
The Board acknowledged the error and said it would send new ballots to all affected voters.
“While it is possible that only a small number of voters received the incorrect ballot and most voters received the correct ballot, all voters should receive a replacement ballot,” the statement said. “This ballot return action maintains the integrity and security of mail-in voting.”
Trump used the opportunity to accuse Maryland of being involved in some sort of election fraud scheme hatched on behalf of Democrats.
“In Maryland, they sent out 500,000 illegal mail-in ballots, and they got caught! So now they’re going to send out 500,000 more mail-in ballots, but nobody knows what’s going on with the first 500,000 that they sent out,” Trump said on Truth Social on Monday.
“Also, many of these ballots went to Democrats, so any Republican running in Maryland doesn’t stand a chance! This was done by the state’s corrupt governor, Wes Moore,” he added. “He allowed this to happen to ensure that Democrats won. It never made sense to me that Maryland would automatically be considered a Democratic state, but now I understand why. I’m sure this has been going on for years. I will ask the United States Attorney General and the DOJ to immediately open an investigation into this situation.”
A spokesperson for Maryland Gov. Wes Moore told WBAL News Radio that Trump’s statement was “false and irresponsible.”
And in an article on X, Maryland state elections administrator Jared DeMarinis said Trump’s statement “creates an environment of misinformation about voting rights.”
“Mail-in voting is not a partisan issue,” he added. “Voting by mail is legal. »
In Other election news
TPM: Election deniers say they’re setting the stage for a DOJ investigation into Michigan
Brennan Center: Summary of State Election Laws: May 2026 Voters across the country will face new voting restrictions in the coming terms.
NBC News: A DOJ official told a GOP ally that big payouts were coming to the Jan. 6 defendants.
