South Carolina GOP Senators Defy Trump and Kill Redistricting Push; Missouri Supreme Court Unanimously Upholds Republican Map; Alabama Sets August Special Primary

South Carolina: Five Republicans Tell Trump No

President Trump personally intervened Monday night on Truth Social, demanding South Carolina's Senate "BE BOLD AND COURAGEOUS" and push through a redistricting plan. The Senate responded Tuesday by voting 29-17 to allow redistricting work — short of the two-thirds threshold required, according to The Daily Signal.

Five Republican senators crossed the aisle: Sean Bennett (Dorchester), Chip Campsen (Charleston), Tom Davis (Beaufort), Greg Hembree (Horry), and Shane Massey (Edgefield). Republicans could only afford to lose three votes. They lost five.

The plan, had it passed, would almost certainly have ended the congressional career of Rep. Jim Clyburn — an 85-year-old Democrat who has held his South Carolina seat since 1993 and was the kingmaker who delivered Joe Biden the 2020 primary. Clyburn's 6th Congressional District is majority-Black.

Gov. Henry McMaster can still call a special session, according to The Daily Signal. He has not done so. Without a special session, the Legislature cannot return until January — after the primary calendar has already locked in.

The Washington Post framed the outcome as Republicans "blocking" the plan. Fox News called it GOP senators defying Trump. The sine die resolution requiring two-thirds is the procedural wall here, not a simple majority vote.

Missouri: A Clean Win for Republicans

While South Carolina dominated the headlines, Missouri delivered a unanimous victory. The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously rejected legal challenges to the state's GOP-drawn congressional map on Tuesday, according to The Hill.

This is a significant pickup opportunity. The ruling clears the way for Republicans to use a map expected to deliver an additional U.S. House seat in the 2026 midterms. No split decision, no drama — every justice on the court signed off.

A unanimous state supreme court decision locking in a favorable map is a durable win. A failed state Senate vote can be revisited. Missouri's ruling is done.

Alabama: August 11 Special Primary, Two Tracks Running Simultaneously

Alabama's situation is the most legally tangled of the three. Gov. Kay Ivey scheduled an August 11 special primary for four of Alabama's seven congressional districts — the 1st, 2nd, 6th, and 7th — after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday vacated a lower court ruling that had blocked Alabama's 2023 map, according to NPR.

The 2nd and 7th districts are currently held by Black Democrats. The 1st and 6th are Republican-held and border those districts. The new map would eliminate the second majority-Black district the lower court had ordered Alabama to create.

The conservative Supreme Court majority acted following its recent Louisiana v. Callais ruling that weakened the Voting Rights Act. The three liberal justices — Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson — opposed the Alabama order. Justice Sotomayor specifically warned the ruling could disenfranchise Black voters, per The Daily Signal's reporting on the dissent.

Meanwhile, voting rights groups have already run to federal court asking for the current map to stay in place. Their argument, per NPR: absentee ballots have already been mailed for the May 19 regular primary, and every filing deadline has passed. Alabama is now running two electoral tracks simultaneously — a regular primary next Tuesday for three unaffected districts, and a special primary in August for the four redrawn ones.

Ivey called it "plain common sense." Voting rights groups called it chaos in their federal court filing.

What the Mainstream Coverage Is Getting Wrong

Left-leaning outlets are leading with the South Carolina defeat as if it's a fatal blow to Republican redistricting. Missouri just handed Republicans a guaranteed seat gain. Alabama is likely to deliver another. The redistricting math on Tuesday still moved in the GOP's direction — just not as much as Trump wanted.

Right-leaning outlets are playing up South Carolina as a temporary setback while underreporting the legal challenge already filed in Alabama. If a federal court blocks Alabama's reversion to the 2023 map, the August special primary becomes a mess. That risk is real and getting glossed over.

Rep. Jim Jordan told Fox Business on Tuesday that redistricting is "going to be a huge help" for Republicans keeping the House majority. He's correct on Missouri and Alabama. But Jordan didn't mention that five members of his own party's state caucus just handed Trump a public defeat in South Carolina.

The Numbers

Tuesday's scoreboard: Republicans 2, Trump 1. Missouri is locked in. Alabama is moving — with legal turbulence ahead. South Carolina is dead for now, but not permanently. Five Republican senators made a political calculation that defying Trump on this one was survivable. The test comes in November.