This spring, the Supreme Court approved district boundaries in South Carolina that Republican state legislators claimed were designed to benefit their party. The 1st District, represented by Rep. Nancy Mace (R) for the past four years, was previously competitive but is now considered solidly Republican by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. The redrawn boundaries increased the number of Republican voters in the district and kept the percentage of Black voters at 17 percent, preventing any increase.
A federal three-judge panel last year determined that the district lines constituted an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, which “exiled” tens of thousands of Black voters, who predominantly vote for Democrats, to a neighboring district.
