WASHINGTON, D.C. — Republican lawmakers are redrawing congressional districts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, with new U.S. House maps enacted in Tennessee and Alabama and proposed maps clearing at least one legislative chamber in Louisiana and South Carolina. President Donald Trump urged Republican-led states to redraw voting districts ahead of the 2026 midterms to try to hold on to the party's narrow House majority.

Voting districts are typically redrawn after a census at the start of a decade. A president's party typically loses congressional seats in the midterm elections. Republicans estimate they could win up to 15 additional House seats from new districts in seven states, while Democrats hope to pick up six House seats from new districts in two states.

In South Carolina, Governor Henry McMaster called a special legislative session to consider congressional redistricting. The state House passed a redistricting plan that would improve Republicans' chances of winning the state's only Democratic-held congressional seat, and state senators met for three consecutive days to consider the plan. South Carolina's congressional primaries are scheduled for June 9, 2026, and the proposed legislation would set a new congressional primary for August 2026.

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down Louisiana's congressional map, which contained two majority-Black districts held by Democrats, as an illegal racial gerrymander. A recent Supreme Court decision weakened minority protections under the federal Voting Rights Act. The Louisiana House is expected to debate a revised congressional map that would reshape one majority-Black district and improve Republicans' chances of winning it. A Louisiana House committee made changes to a map previously passed by the Senate, and the two chambers have competing proposals for how to divide certain parishes. If they pass different versions, a joint legislative committee could negotiate a compromise before the session ends June 1, 2026. Governor Jeff Landry postponed the state's May 16, 2026, congressional primary until later in the summer to allow time for redistricting.

A federal court heard arguments on May 22, 2026, on a request to block Alabama from using new congressional districts that could help Republicans gain an additional seat in the midterm elections. State lawmakers approved a congressional map in 2023 with one majority-Black district. A court previously blocked that map and ordered a new one that resulted in Democrats winning two seats in which Black residents comprise a majority or near majority. The Supreme Court directed the lower court to reexamine the Alabama case in light of the Louisiana decision. Attorneys for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the ACLU asked the federal court to issue a preliminary injunction blocking Alabama from using the 2023 map, contending the map was intentionally discriminatory against Black voters. Alabama's primary elections were held on May 19, 2026, and new congressional primaries are scheduled for August 2026 for districts changed under the 2023 map.

A state court panel heard arguments on May 21, 2026, in an NAACP lawsuit seeking to invalidate Tennessee's new congressional map, which divides a Memphis-based, majority-Black district represented by a Democrat. The map could give Republicans an improved chance to win all nine of the state's seats. The lawsuit asserts the Tennessee General Assembly included provisions in the redistricting legislation that were not specifically authorized under Governor Bill Lee's special session proclamation, including a provision repealing a state law that prohibits mid-decade redistricting. The suit argues that if the legislature exceeded its authority, then the new map cannot be used.