Republican governors in Alabama and Tennessee have called lawmakers into special sessions this week to draw new congressional districts after the U.S. Supreme Court weakened a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.  Race should not be considered.

     Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey called legislators back to Montgomery starting Monday to approve contingency plans for special primary elections in hopes the Supreme Court will let the state switch congressional maps ahead of the November midterms. It’s a move that Republican legislative leaders said would “give our state a fighting chance to send seven Republican members to Congress.” The seven-member delegation currently has two Democrats.

     In Tennessee, Republican Gov. Bill Lee also announced a special session starting Tuesday for the GOP-controlled Legislature to break up the state’s one Democratic-held House district, centered on the majority-Black city of Memphis.  Last week’s Supreme Court decision striking down a majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana said the drawing of the map relied too heavily on race. The ruling began reverberating through statehouses across the South as Republicans eyed the possibility of getting new voting district lines in place for the 2026 midterm elections, or at least for 2028.

     President Donald Trump encouraged more states to join in redistricting in a social media post, saying his party could gain 20 House seats. “We should demand that State Legislatures do what the Supreme Court says must be done,” Trump said. “That is more important than administrative convenience.”  Legislative voting districts typically are redrawn only once a decade, after a census, to account for population changes. But Trump urged Texas Republicans last year to redraw U.S. House districts to give the party an advantage. Democrats in California responded by doing the same, and then other states joined in.