Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed legislation Friday authorizing special primary elections if courts allow the Republican-controlled legislature to replace its current court-ordered congressional map — one that contains two majority-minority districts — with a 2023 Republican-drawn map that contains only one. The move follows a Supreme Court ruling on Louisiana's map that Republicans across the South are now treating as a green light to undo remedial maps imposed by federal courts. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a new map Thursday carving up that state's only majority-Black House district; South Carolina is weighing similar action.
Said state Sen. Vivian Davis Figures: "Today we are not debating maps, we are debating democracy itself. We're debating whether power matters more than principle."
The long arc here is not subtle. Since Reconstruction, federal intervention has been the primary mechanism for securing Black representation in Southern states — and the primary target of state-level resistance the moment federal will weakens. That cycle is running again, in real time, before the November midterms.