Special legislative session begins on redrawing Alabama’s congressional district lines

Congressional district map under consideration by the Alabama Legislature – Click to enlarge

A special session of the Alabama Legislature is underway, with lawmakers facing a Friday deadline to redraw the state’s congressional district lines to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court order.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the state to revise its seven congressional districts to create two districts that are majority Black, or close to it. Currently, the state has one district out of seven that is majority Black, which critics say likely violates the Voting Rights Act. More than one in four Alabama residents is Black.

Today, Republicans who control the legislature proposed a map that would increase the percentage of Black voters in the 2nd Congressional District from about 30% to nearly 42.5%. It is not known whether that would satisfy the court order.

The proposed map would put all of Montgomery County in the 2nd Congressional District and move Dallas County from the 7th Congressional District into the 2nd. Autauga County would be part of the 6th Congressional District and Elmore County would be in the 3rd.

House Speaker Pro Tempore Chris Pringle, who serves as co-chairman of the state redistricting committee, said the proposal complies with the order to provide a district in which Black voters have the “opportunity to elect the representative of their choice.”

“The goal here, for me, was to provide an opportunity for African-Americans to be elected to Congress in the second congressional district,” Pringle said.

The Permanent Legislative Committee on Reapportionment approved the proposal in a 14-6 vote that fell along party lines.

House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter said he believes the newly-drawn district will be a swing district that could elect either a Democratic candidate or a Republican.

“I think that the models will show that it could go either way, probably. I think all the court’s asked for was a fair chance. I certainty think that map does it. I don’t think there’s any question about that,” Ledbetter said.

Democrats accused Republicans of rushing the process and thwarting the court’s directive.

Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, a Democrat from Mobile, said the court was clear that the state should create a second majority-Black district or something close to it.

“Forty-two percent is not close to 50. In my opinion 48, 49 is close to 50,” Figures said. She had urged colleagues to adopt a proposal by the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case that would make the 2nd district 50% Black.

Rep. Chris England, a Democrat from Tuscaloosa, said he also doesn’t think the GOP proposal would satisfy the court’s directive. He said Republican lawmakers pushed through there proposal without a public hearing or producing a voter analysis of how the district will perform.

Pringle said that information will be available Tuesday.

“The map that we adopted, nobody had any input on. There was no public input on it, not subject to a public hearing and now it’s going to be the map of choice,” England said.

Partisan politics underlies the looming redistricting fight. A higher percentage of Black voters increases the chances that a the seat will switch from GOP to Democratic control. The District 2 seat is currently held by U.S. Rep. Barry Moore, a Republican from Enterprise.

(Copyright 2023 The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)