Republican Gov. Tate Reeves ignored intense pressure and announced recently he was canceling an upcoming legislative special session where it was speculated that he would try to redraw Mississippi’s four congressional districts with the intent of eliminating a majority-Black district held by longtime Rep. Bennie Thompson.
The governor’s decision must have been gut-wrenching considering his allegiance to President Donald Trump, who has been pressuring states to redraw political maps to create more Republican districts before the November midterm elections. But Reeves’ decision should not be surprising when considering the unique challenges in redrawing the Mississippi districts.
Challenges of redrawing maps
Perhaps the overarching challenge is that Black Mississippians vote Democratic while white Mississippians vote Republican at a higher rate than in any other state.
The state also has the highest percentage of Black residents at about 38%.
As Reeves and others in Mississippi’s Republican political leadership contemplated redrawing district lines before the November midterm elections to eliminate the state’s only Black congressional district while creating another Republican district, they had to realize that Black voters still had to go somewhere if they were unpacked from the majority-Black 2nd District.
Many people believe Mississippi does not have to have a majority-Black district because of the recent controversial U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais. The ruling potentially gutted the Voting Rights Act by overturning decades of established law mandating minority districts when feasible. It also ignored the heroic history of people who died to obtain voting rights for minorities.
Indeed, Reeves has said that he still wants the Legislature to redraw Mississippi’s four U.S. House districts at some point with the intent of eliminating the majority-Black district Thompson has represented since 1993. But the same issues will remain whenever that redistricting effort is mounted — perhaps later this year but more likely in 2027 for the 2028 federal elections..
Perhaps there are smart mathematicians/mapmakers who can draw four sure-fire Republican congressional districts in the state, but it might not be as easy as some people believe it will be.
Remember, the one-person, one-vote rule still applies, meaning the districts have to be nearly identical in population.
Rep. Bennie Thompson discusses key policy concerns during a town hall at Greater Grove Street M.B. Church in Vicksburg, Miss., on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. He spoke on budget impacts related to agriculture, education, job layoffs, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and veterans’ benefits. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi TodayIf there is no majority-Black district, it is likely that one or maybe two of the new districts will have a Black population of more than 40%, making the districts at least purple or competitive and perhaps a little blueish or Democratic-leaning. In a year where the approval rating of Trump is low even in deep red Mississippi, creating potential competitive districts had to be a little scary for Republicans.
Would redrawing of the lines this year hand Mississippi Democrats two U.S. House members instead of the one they have now? Maybe Reeves considered that when he opted not to call the congressional redistricting special session.
The bottom line is that under the current district alignment, Mississippi’s three Republican U.S. House members represent districts that are safe for the GOP and, not surprisingly, they want to keep them that way.
Past redistricting efforts
In 2022 when the Mississippi Legislature was redrawing the congressional districts after the 2020 Census, Thompson requested all of Hinds County and south Madison County be moved from the 3rd District represented by Republican Michael Guest to his 2nd District. The move would have made the 2nd District more compact, and by the way, less Black.
Instead of placing the Jackson metro area in the 2nd District as requested by Thompson, the Republican-controlled Legislature opted to extend his district nearly the entire length of the western side of the state along the Mississippi River.
It was no secret that while Thompson was eyeing a more compact district, he and others also were proposing a map where a Democrat would have a better chance in Guest’s 3rd District.
Even if the affluent white voters in south Madison County were included in Thompson’s district, he concluded there still would be enough Black voters to ensure victory for him and future Democrats while making the Republican 3rd District at least a little more competitive. Republicans also understood that fact.
Redistricting is like putting together a puzzle with complex rules.
That redistricting puzzle was complicated more by the fact Mississippi primary elections already have occurred this year. If the state were redistricted now, those elections would have to be invalidated.
It has gone against all norms for so many states to undertake mid-decade redistricting. Normally, the process occurs after the decennial census, but Trump, fearing he will lose Congress this November, has urged states to act this year to create more Republican districts. The U.S. Supreme Court, as it is wont to do, aided Trump’s effort by gutting the Voting Rights Act, giving Southern states in particular the excuse to eliminate majority-Black districts that normally vote Democratic.
But after looking at the landscape, it appears the governor came to what must have been a gut-wrenching decision for a MAGA supporter: Mississippi is not in a position to help Trump this year.
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