LDF Applauds South Carolina Senate’s Decisions Not to Cancel Ongoing Congressional Primary Elections and Not to Enact Discriminatory Congressional Map

Read a PDF of our statement here.

The South Carolina Senate today, in a bipartisan vote, rejected an unconstitutional late-decade congressional redistricting bill. The bill would have cancelled the ongoing June 9 congressional primary election after tens of thousands of South Carolina voters cast their ballots.

The bill would have also enacted a map that would have eradicated the lone district where Black voters in South Carolina have an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice. If passed, it would have potentially ushered back in an all-white congressional delegation for the first time in over 30 years.

In response, the Legal Defense Fund issued the following statement:

"Rather than take the unprecedented step of implementing a new and discriminatory redistricting map during an ongoing election, enough lawmakers chose to side with the law, facts, and democracy, as they upheld their sacred responsibility to protect the people of South Carolina. The proposed map was a shameful effort to manipulate elections at the expense of over 1.4 million Black people - nearly 25% of the electorate - who were at risk of losing a fair opportunity to participate in the representative democracy that forms the bedrock of the American dream.

"LDF is grateful to our partners on the ground and every single courageous voter and advocate who continuously showed up to defend voting rights in South Carolina. This momentous win for voters would never happen without them."

If a new map was forced through the legislature, millions of taxpayer dollars would have been forcibly funneled into suspending the election and organizing a new congressional primary, sowing mass confusion among voters. The General Assembly was considering this legislation in a rushed, flawed, and non-transparent legislative session. During the session, hundreds of constituents, in addition to LDF, submitted testimony and participated in person, urging lawmakers to leave the election schedule and current congressional map in place.

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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation's first civil rights legal organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957, though it was founded under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall while he was at the NAACP. LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) is a division of LDF that undertakes innovative research and houses LDF's archive. In all media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF (do not include NAACP) and refer to the Institute as LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute or TMI.