More states on Friday began planning special sessions next week to revisit their congressional maps as they consider the fallout from a Supreme Court ruling this week limiting the Voting Rights Act.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee joined Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey in announcing a special session as states race to respond to the court ruling as they prepare for this year’s midterm elections.
“We owe it to Tennesseans to ensure our congressional districts accurately reflect the will of Tennessee voters,” Lee said in a statement.
The Tennessee special session is set to begin Tuesday. The GOP holds eight of the states’ nine House seats, but since Wednesday’s Supreme Court decision, state Republicans have been calling for a new map that would give their party a chance to flip the Memphis-based 9th District.
Ivey, a Republican, on Friday said she was hopeful the state would “receive a favorable outcome” from the Supreme Court, which could weigh in on legal challenges to Alabama’s congressional map after the justices invalidated Louisiana’s map earlier this week. On Thursday, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry postponed his state’s May 16 primaries for the House in light of the decision.
By convening a special session, Ivey said the state would be able to respond when a ruling comes in from challenges to her own state’s districts.
“By calling the Legislature into a special session, I am ensuring Alabama is prepared should the courts act quickly enough to allow Alabama’s previously drawn congressional and state senate maps to be used during this election cycle,” she said in a statement. “If the court-ordered injunction is lifted, Alabama would revert to the maps drawn by the Legislature for congressional districts in 2023 and state senate districts in 2021.”
The decision to call a special session is a reversal from Ivey’s initial response to the Wednesday ruling, when she reportedly said the state was “not in position to have a special session at this time,” according to the Alabama Reflector.
Alabama’s congressional map has been tied up in legal challenges for several years. The state used a court-mandated House map in the 2024 elections, which led to Shomari Figures’ election in the 2nd District, becoming the second Democrat in the state’s House delegation.
After the Supreme Court’s ruling Wednesday limiting the Voting Rights Act, state Attorney General Steve Marshall asked the Supreme Court to lift three injunctions blocking the original 2023 map.
Ivey also said she would ask the legislature to consider legislation to set up special primary elections for the House and the state Senate for districts affected by court actions. That would likely affect at least the 1st District, which Rep. Barry Moore is vacating to run for Senate, and Figures’ 2nd District seat.
Alabama’s regularly scheduled primaries are set to be held May 19.
The high court’s decision has also triggered a special session in Mississippi. And on Friday, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster sounded open to the state legislature revisiting the state’s House map, of which Republicans currently hold six out of seven seats.
“In light of the Court’s most recent decision on the Voting Rights Act, it would be appropriate for the General Assembly to ensure that South Carolina’s congressional map still complies with all requirements of federal law and the U.S. Constitution,” he said in a social media post.
