Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., hit again at a 2023 report that alleged he labored with Republicans to take care of a “grip” on his South Carolina district by ensuring “30,000 Black voters” could be redrawn into his district for the 2024 elections, which he stated was “absolutely not true.”
“ProPublica has a report that you actually worked with Republicans on this map to maintain a tighter grip on your own district by ensuring that 30,000 Black voters would move from a neighboring swing district into your own. Was that the case?” NBC Information host Kristen Welker requested Clyburn.
“No that is not the case at all,” Clyburn stated. “When somebody picks up the cellphone and asks you, ‘what are your suggestions as we are about to get these lines drawn,’ I offered my suggestions,” he said. “And I certainly didn’t ask my district to be turned into a minority district, and that’s what it is. People keep publishing that I have a majority minority district, that is absolutely not true, check the numbers.”
A federal court in South Carolina ruled on Thursday that this year’s congressional elections in South Carolina will be held under a map that it had already deemed unconstitutional and discriminatory against Black voters, with time running out ahead of voting deadlines and a lack of a decision on the case by the Supreme Court.
Rep. James Clyburn joined “Meet the Press” on Sunday, March 31, 2024.
A panel of three federal judges from South Carolina wrote that “with the primary election procedures rapidly approaching, the appeal before the Supreme Court still pending, and no remedial plan in place, the ideal must bend to the practical.”
The case hinges on South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, at present held by Republican Rep. Nancy Mace. Final yr, the identical 3-judge panel ordered South Carolina to redraw the district, which runs from Charleston to Hilton Head Island, after discovering that the state used race as a proxy for partisan affiliation in violation of the equal safety clause of the 14th Modification to the Structure.
Clyburn stated folks had been misrepresenting what occurred and that it had been occurring for years.
“Yes, I offered my suggestions. Did they follow my suggestions? Absolutely not, and so when you say you spoke to me, and that there’s an agreement, that is absolutely not true,” he continued, including that the reporter was making an attempt to make a “headline” reasonably than “headway” on the story.
Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., is 82 years outdated. He has served as a South Carolina consultant since 1993. (Brian Stukes/Getty Pictures)
ProPublica alleged in 2023 that Clyburn despatched an aide, Dalton Tresvant, to satisfy with state Republicans in regards to the new congressional map. The report claimed Clyburn’s advised map would profit his standing inside his personal district and Republicans in a neighboring district.
“Some of Tresvant’s proposals appealed to Republicans. The sketch added Black voters to Clyburn’s district while moving out some predominantly White precincts that leaned toward the GOP. The Republicans kept Tresvant’s map confidential as they worked through the redistricting process for the following two months,” ProPublica reported.
In accordance with ProPublica, a spokesperson beforehand confirmed that they “engaged in discussions regarding the boundaries of the 6th Congressional District.”
Home Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., listens to DeAndrea Gist Benjamin, of South Carolina, nominee to be U.S. Circuit Decide for the Fourth Circuit, testify throughout her Senate Judiciary Committee affirmation listening to on Tuesday, November 15, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Name, Inc by way of Getty Pictures)
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After South Carolina’s Legislature, which Republicans lead, redrew the district, civil rights teams swiftly filed a lawsuit, charging state lawmakers with selecting “perhaps the worst option of the available maps” for Black voters, arguing that they had eliminated Black voters and made it a safer seat for Republicans.
Final yr, a 3-judge panel — the identical that issued Thursday’s order — concluded that South Carolina’s legislature “exiled” 30,000 Democratic-leaning Black voters from the first District to assist safeguard Mace. The state appealed that ruling, and the Supreme Court docket heard arguments in October however has but to subject a call.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
