Court picks new Alabama congressional map that will likely flip one seat to Democrats

A federal court has picked Alabama’s new congressional map, which will likely result in an additional Black — and Democratic — member in the delegation.

The new map came after the same panel of federal judges twice found that lines drawn by the GOP-dominated Legislature likely violated the Voting Rights Act by weakening the power of Black voters. The new lines will be used for at least the 2024 elections, the state's Republican secretary of state said on Thursday, though Alabama Republicans have vowed to fight them for future cycles.

The map gives greater electoral power to Black residents, who make up about one-quarter of the state's population. And it will very likely mean Republicans lose one seat in their thin majority, imperiling their already tenuous hold on the lower chamber even before battleground districts come into play.

"With this new, fairer map, and for the first time ever, Black voters in Alabama could have two members of Congress representing their interests at the same time," Eric Holder, the former Democratic attorney general who now helms the party's redistricting arm, said in a statement. Holder's organization was involved in the lawsuit that ultimately brought about the new maps.

Alabama is the first state this year to get new congressional lines, but others — including North Carolina — are expected to be redrawn by the end of the year.

The map was chosen Thursday by a panel of three federal judges — Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus, who has been appointed to posts on the federal bench by Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, and District Judges Anna Manasco and Terry Moorer, both appointees of President Donald Trump. The map was one of three drawn by a court-appointed special master after a long-running legal battle that reached all the way up to the Supreme Court.

The new map results in one majority-Black district and one in which Black residents make up just under half of the population. Both districts were designed to give black voters a direct opportunity to elect their preferred member of Congress. As a result, voters in both have a strong likelihood of electing Black Democrats to Congress.

The lines used in the 2022 midterms were redrawn by the GOP-dominated legislature following the decennial census and had one majority-Black district out of the state’s seven. That district was represented by the only Democrat in the congressional delegation: Rep. Terri Sewell.

The new map largely maintains Sewell’s 7th District. It creates the second “opportunity district” for Black voters by transforming the state’s 2nd District into one that runs across the state.

The map chosen by the court on Thursday was one of three put forward by a court-appointed special master. The new 2nd District has a Black voting age population of just under 49 percent.

The new lines endanger GOP Rep. Barry Moore, whose district is transformed from one that was solidly Republican to one that’s much more Democratic. Moore recently said that he and his family are “seriously praying” about his next move and that he would make a decision once the map is finalized.

One possibility is that Moore runs in a primary against GOP Rep. Jerry Carl in Alabama’s 1st District, which has now been drawn to include Moore’s home. Carl said last week that he would seek reelection in the 1st, setting up the potential for an intraparty fight there.

In an interview last week, Alabama Democratic Party executive director Tom Miro said that there were a handful of candidates who could get in the race in the new 2nd District, saying he expected a “really healthy primary.” He named five Black politicians as potential candidates: Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, state Rep. Napoleon Bracy, and state Sens. Kirk Hatcher and Merika Coleman.

Sewell is expected to run again in her district. But she may also face a primary challenge as well. State Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton — who is one of the plaintiffs in the cases that led to the lines being tossed — has floated a run, telling the Alabama-based 1819 News that he has created an exploratory committee for a run.

Alabama Republicans have been fighting the forced redistricting process tooth and nail, losing twice in front of the Supreme Court.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court affirmed the initial lower-court order that tossed the GOP-drawn map, a surprise to many court watchers who expected the conservative-leaning majority to use the case as an opportunity to weaken the Voting Rights Act. The GOP-controlled legislature was given another opportunity to draw the lines, yet ignored a court directive to draw either two majority Black districts or one majority district and one very close to it.

The three-judge panel then angrily tossed out those new legislatively drawn lines, appointing an expert to draw new maps and setting up Thursday’s decision to pick this one.

Alabama Republicans asked for an emergency order from the Supreme Court to step in and block the court from drawing the lines. The nation’s highest court declined to do so late last month, a loss for Republicans.

At the time, state Attorney General Steve Marshall, a Republican, acknowledged that this means the court-drawn map will almost certainly be used for the 2024 election cycle. Republicans are prepared to challenge this new court-drawn map now that it is finalized, but it is unlikely that any challenge would be resolved in time for next year’s elections.

"The Office of the Secretary of State will facilitate the 2024 election cycle in accordance with the map the federal court has forced upon Alabama and ordered us to use," Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen, a Republican, said in a statement. "It is important for all Alabamians to know that the legal portion of this process has not yet been completed."

Other states may also get new congressional maps soon.

Similar court cases arguing for more Black representation are ongoing in other Southern states — including Louisiana and Georgia — and new maps may emerge there by the end of the year.

"Other states with pending [racial gerrymandering] cases should view this map, and this process, as both an example of basic fairness and a warning that denying equal representation to Black voters, violating the Voting Rights Act, and defying federal court orders is a direct tie to an odious past and will no longer be tolerated," Holder, the former attorney general, said on Thursday.

And two other big states may also redraw their lines. In North Carolina, a newly conservative state Supreme Court said it would not police partisan gerrymandering earlier this year. Now, GOP supermajorities in the Legislature are set to soon redraw the political boundaries to benefit their party. A new congressional map could be revealed as soon as next week and could see the 14-seat delegation go from an even partisan split to as many as 11 GOP seats.

And in New York, Democrats are challenging court-drawn lines that resulted in a very competitive map. Republicans ultimately carried 11 of the state’s 26 districts, but should Democrats in the state get a chance to redraw maps to benefit themselves, as many as six of those GOP-held seats could be in play.