GOP-led South Carolina Senate fails to pass Trump-backed redistricting effort

South Carolina lawmakers in the state senate voted against a plan to advance a new congressional map that would likely increase the number of GOP seats in Congress, putting a halt to efforts to redistrict the state's congressional boundaries. Several GOP senators voted against the measure, bucking the efforts of President Donald Trump.

“I can no longer support the passage of this bill for one simple reason: South Carolina citizens are going to the polls today,” Republican state Senator Richard Cash said. “Neither my conscience nor common sense will allow me to stop an election that has already begun.”

A motion that would have ended debate on the map and then put it to a vote failed to pass in the upper chamber of the South Carolina legislature, with several Republicans voting to not pass the map.

The map had been approved by the Republican-controlled South Carolina House last week in hopes of carving up the congressional map before elections took place. Early voting started on Tuesday for the June 9 primary in the state.

After the vote, another prominent Republican in the state Senate, Tom Davis, condemned the effort to change the map. “We have completely outsourced our constitutional obligation to prepare a congressional redistricting map to a consultant in Washington, D.C. We have no idea, no idea how that map was created,” he said, per NBC News.

Those close to the White House said that they were surprised by the failed vote, with one calling it a “betrayal” of the president.

The vote on Tuesday will effectively block more action from being done in order to change the South Carolina district map. As the vote failed, South Carolina State Attorney General said that the map is “moving one step closer to becoming law” in the future.

If the state Senate picks up the map again, any map redraw would likely target the seat held by South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, the lone Democrat from South Carolina in the House of Representatives.