The Supreme Court just handed Republicans a massive redistricting victory in Alabama, Missouri's top court upheld the GOP's new congressional map, and Louisiana's racial gerrymander got torched by SCOTUS — all in the same news cycle. Democrats tried to rig the maps. The courts said no. Multiple times. In one day.
You almost have to feel bad for them. Almost.
Let's start with Alabama, where the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a lower court order that had mandated two largely Black congressional districts. The ruling effectively switches Alabama back from its 2024 map — which contained two majority-Black districts — to its 2023 map with one. Governor Kay Ivey's state now has a special primary set for August 11 to sort out its seven congressional districts under the restored map.
Democrats had been banking on that second majority-Black district to guarantee themselves an extra seat. SCOTUS looked at the scheme, looked at the law, and said absolutely not.
Then there's Missouri, where the state's top court upheld the new congressional map that was redrawn at President Trump's urging. The old map featured a Kansas City-based district held by Democratic Representative Emanuel Cleaver that stretched 200 miles across 15 counties. For context, the original district covered about 20 miles and two counties. Cleaver's district looked less like a congressional seat and more like a long-distance hiking trail designed by a DNC intern with a crayon.
Missouri Solicitor General Lou Capozzi defended the new map, while attorney Jonathan Hawley argued for the voters who sued to challenge it. The court sided with the state, and Missouri's primary is now set for August 4. Catherine Hanaway, the Republican Attorney General, and Secretary of State Denny Hoskins can move forward with maps that actually make geographic sense.
And then Louisiana. SCOTUS invalidated a majority-Black district as an illegal racial gerrymander. Read that again — the Supreme Court of the United States called their map an illegal racial gerrymander. Democrats spent years screaming that Republicans were the ones gerrymandering, and then the highest court in the land caught them doing exactly that.
The national picture is even uglier for the left. Republicans are projecting 14 seat gains from new maps across the country. Democrats? They're claiming six. And even that number looks generous when you consider that Virginia's Supreme Court just struck down a Democratic redistricting effort that could have handed them four seats.
President Trump himself weighed in on social media, urging lawmakers to "be bold and courageous" on redistricting. South Carolina Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey responded with perhaps the best quote of the week: "I got too much Southern in my blood. I've got too much resistance in my heritage." That's the energy.
Now, not every fight went the GOP's way — South Carolina's Senate voted 29-17 on a proposal that would have eliminated the state's only Democratic-held seat, held in part thanks to former Representative Jim Clyburn's influence. The vote fell short of the two-thirds majority needed, with five Republicans joining Democrats to block it. But one state not hitting a supermajority threshold doesn't change the scoreboard.
The redistricting battle that kicked off about 10 months ago is playing out across Alabama, Missouri, Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, California, and Utah. And the trend line is unmistakable: Democrats drew cute maps, courts threw them out, and the grown-ups are redrawing them.
As Newsmax reported, the walls are closing in on every gerrymandering trick the left has tried. Three courts in one day told Democrats the same thing — you don't get to rig the game just because you can't win it fair.
They're going to need a bigger box of crayons.