A three-judge federal panel has redrawn Congressional districts in Alabama. The state legislature in Montogomery had drawn two maps before this, which the court rejected. Instead, the judges decided to enter the political process themselves and create two districts with the clear aim of helping Democrats have not one but two black Democrat representatives in Congress.
Republicans are understandably not happy. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall remarked about the Federal judges’ “prioritization of race above all else.” Adding insult to injury, the court-drawn map pits two incumbent Republicans against each other, U.S. Rep. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise) and U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl (R-Mobile), in the 1st District.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied an emergency request to stay the Federal Court’s decision. This allowed the judges to throw out Alabama’s redistricting map, which legislators passed in a special session in July. “The State will now be encumbered with a racially gerrymandered, court-drawn map for the 2024 election cycle,” said Marshall.
He plans to continue the fight to the highest court. He said the legislature’s redistricting map “….was enacted by the people’s representatives and which complies with both the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution’s promise that governments should be colorblind…. We are confident that the Voting Rights Act does not require, and the Constitution does not allow, ‘separate but equal’ congressional districts.”
The contested congressional districts are the 2nd District, which includes Montgomery, and the 7th District, which includes Birmingham. Black voters are now 48.7% in the 2nd District and 51.9% in the 7th District.
The court-appointed special master issued an analysis saying that Democrats would have won 16 of the 17 previous elections in the newly drawn 2nd District and would have won 17 of the previous 17 elections in the new 7th District. The court’s goal is certainly not competitive elections.
Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Birmingham) represents the current 7th District. It is the safest of safe seats for a black Democrat, and she was not too keen on the redraw. By splitting black voters into two districts with only a slight demographic advantage in one district and a slight disadvantage in the other, it is an open question whether Sewell’s once safe seat will remain all that safe.
State Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton (D-Greensboro) has already told 1819 News that he plans to challenge Sewell for the Democrat nomination. While black people, along with federal employees, seem to be among the most reliable Democrat voters in the country, under the new map, a swing of only three or four percent toward the Republicans, or toward a decision to stay home, could make all the presumptions of the court and its special master moot.
Related: That Time Democrats Tried to Overturn an Election in Georgia (and Didn’t Get in Trouble)
The Democrats’ open border and high inflation policies are polling very poorly, even among Democrats. Alabama is the state that has the highest church attendance rate in the nation. It also has a statewide abortion ban. Will the Democrats’ national plan to blitz the country with pro-abortion propaganda peel off enough black voters to cost them one seat or even two? In recent years, the idea that pro-abortion policies are a genteel form of black genocide has gained traction with some black politicians, preachers, and voters. But voting patterns have not shifted markedly — yet.
The federal court has handed Democrats a gift. Given their policy failures and Alabama Democrats’ penchant for party infighting, can they take advantage of the new situation? What is clear is that Republicans will have to overcome their own infighting and fight very hard if they expect to hold either of these seats.
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