South Carolina governor calls special session for congressional redistricting push

Gov. Henry McMaster moved to force South Carolina’s congressional map back into play, calling lawmakers into special session even as he stopped short of ordering them to redraw the lines so Republicans could try to sweep all seven House seats. The decision put fresh pressure on a state where Donald Trump has urged Republicans to eliminate the party’s lone Democratic district, held by Rep. Jim Clyburn.

South Carolina now sends seven members to the U.S. House, with Republicans holding six seats and Democrats holding one. That lone Democratic seat, anchored by Clyburn’s 6th District, has become the central target of the redistricting drive. The state’s current congressional lines have already survived court challenges, with judges upholding them as constitutional partisan gerrymanders rather than invalid racial gerrymanders.

The push now runs through a legislature that is already in session. South Carolina’s 2026 lawmaking year convened on Jan. 13, making a special session an additional and unusual step. In the House, H. 4717 was introduced on Jan. 13 to establish congressional election districts beginning with the 2026 general election. The House Judiciary Committee later reported H. 5683 with amendment on May 13, signaling that lawmakers were still advancing an alternate redistricting track even before McMaster’s formal call.

The latest setback for Trump-aligned mapmaking came in the South Carolina Senate on Tuesday, when a bid to redraw the congressional lines and wipe out the state’s Democratic House seat failed after some Republicans broke with the pressure campaign. That defeat underscored a limit that now defines midcycle redistricting in the Trump era: presidential pressure can move state leaders toward reopening maps, but it does not guarantee votes, especially when the governing party already holds a dominant delegation and the courts have previously blessed the lines.

The calendar is tightening. South Carolina’s 2026 general election is set for Nov. 3, leaving only a narrow window for any new map to clear both chambers, survive any legal challenge and take effect before filing and campaign deadlines harden. If Republican leaders cannot unite quickly, the special session may become less a path to a new map than a test of how far Trump’s influence can reach inside a state legislature that is not fully aligned with his demand.