Virtually a 3rd of the membership of the Congressional Black Caucus — 19 of its 62 members — are liable to shedding their seats via the 2028 election cycle as Republicans in southern states the place they management the legislature transfer swiftly to redraw congressional maps lower than two weeks after the Supreme Court dealt a blow to Part 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
The mid-decade redistricting push is a continuation of an effort that started in 2025 and that President Donald Trump has inspired in hopes of accelerating the chance that the GOP will retain management of the Home of Representatives in November’s midterm elections.
Republicans have argued that they’re redrawing congressional maps to adjust to the Supreme Court docket and that the districts that could possibly be modified should still elect Black representatives to Congress.
Congressional Black Caucus Chair U.S. Consultant Yvette Clarke speaks throughout a Congressional Black Caucus information convention Capitol Hill in Washington, April 29, 2026.
Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters
A spokesperson for the Congressional Black Caucus instructed ABC Information that the group is coordinating with teams akin to Elias Regulation Group and the Authorized Protection Fund to problem the GOP’s redistricting efforts.
The Supreme Court docket on Monday night opened the door for Alabama to get rid of at the very least considered one of its majority-Black congressional districts earlier than this yr’s midterm elections, doubtlessly handing Republicans an extra Home seat within the struggle for management of the intently divided chamber.
Following Republicans’ redistricting efforts within the South in states like Louisiana, South Carolina and Tennessee, Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries vowed a robust response, itemizing particular states with out sharing particular actions.
“Over the following yr or so, what you are going to see in state after state are Democrats making clear that we aren’t going to unilaterally disarm,” Jeffries stated.
“And because of that, in locations like New York, New Jersey, Oregon, in addition to Washington, in Colorado and, in fact, in Illinois and Maryland, we’ll take the steps vital to make sure that prematurely of the 2028 election, now we have a decisive and overwhelming response.”
Alabama Rep. Shomari Figures, whose seat is now in jeopardy because of the Supreme Court docket’s 6-3 ruling, stated in a press release to ABC Information that the choice “units the stage for Alabama to return to the Nineteen Fifties and 60s by way of Black political illustration within the state.”
Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver of Missouri, whose seat was one of many first focused by redistricting, stated that the continued redistricting efforts are “making an attempt to ship us again to Reconstruction.”
Cleaver instructed ABC Information that he’s supportive of Jeffries’ stance of “most warfare” in opposition to GOP-led redistricting efforts, however he worries that “if we struggle fireplace with fireplace, nothing could be left within the station however ash.”
Cleaver has held his seat for greater than twenty years and is operating for reelection, however now says he has “no concept” what district he is operating in and that Democrats might have to redistrict in states like Illinois, Maryland, New York, New Jersey and Colorado to struggle again.
Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries and members of the Congressional Black Caucus communicate to reporters on the Capitol in Washington, April 29, 2026.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Rep. Jim Clyburn, who can be liable to shedding his seat if redistricting succeeds in South Carolina, took intention at a sequence of U.S. Supreme Court docket selections that he stated had enabled this type of focusing on of Black legislators, in addition to actions by Trump that he stated threaten American democracy.
“You already know, that is whether or not or not you are going to have a democracy. And that is not a one-party factor, that is not a one-person factor; that’s, this nation has come to grips with the truth that we’re on the verge of a kleptocracy,” Clyburn stated.
Whereas CBC members have continued to push for the passage of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Development Act, Cleaver stated that within the present Congress, the laws “couldn’t get a listening to in the USA of America proper now.”
Final Thursday, Tennessee became the first state after the Supreme Court docket’s Louisiana ruling to formally redraw and move a brand new map on the urging of the president, who referred to as the state’s governor concerning the matter simply at some point after the ruling. And in a single week, a brand new congressional map was created, offered and handed. The brand new map will give Republicans an opportunity to flip the state’s lone present Democratic-held, majority-Black district, which is primarily made up of Memphis.
Following the Supreme Court docket’s ruling on Monday night that opened the door for Alabama to get rid of at the very least considered one of its majority-Black districts earlier than this yr’s midterms, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has set new particular major elections for the affected districts within the state: the first, 2nd, sixth and seventh.
Louisiana and South Carolina are additionally working via their very own redistricting course of in hopes of delivering extra Home seats to the GOP forward of November’s elections. In South Carolina, Republicans on Friday formally unveiled a brand new proposed congressional map that may redraw the district held by Clyburn.
Rep. Jim Clyburn broadcasts his intent to hunt an 18th U.S. Home time period, throughout an occasion on the South Carolina Democratic Social gathering headquarters, March 12, 2026, in Columbia, S.C.
Meg Kinnard/AP
However as Republicans look so as to add Home seats, Black illustration in Congress is liable to dropping considerably over the following couple of years.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson stated in a press release to ABC Information, “We’re witnessing a return to Jim Crow. And anyone who’s alarmed by these developments — as everyone ought to be — higher be making a plan to vote in November to place an finish to this insanity whereas we nonetheless can.”
“This Supreme Court docket didn’t dismiss the case, so the litigation will definitely proceed. My hope is that this can be a momentary setback and that three-Republican appointed judges will once more discover what they discovered the primary time: that the State of Alabama deliberately discriminated in opposition to Black voters in drawing its congressional district traces,” Figures added.
ABC Information’ Oren Oppenheim and Jeff Ballou contributed to this report
