Republican disenfranchisement bid drives Black voters to polls, study finds
Black voters in south motivated to turn out by Republican push to redraw maps after supreme court ruling
A new analysis of Black voters in the south indicates that Republican attempts to dilute their political power is driving them to the polls in larger numbers and shifting their counties further left
After the supreme court effectively gutted section 2 of the Voting Rights Act protections in late April, Republican legislatures across the south rapidly pushed to disenfranchise Black voters by redrawing congressional maps. Louisiana, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama all immediately worked to pass new maps, while the Mississippi governor has said that he wants legislators to redraw maps before the upcoming midterm elections
The analysis by VoteHub, a data-focused election organization, indicates that the efforts have only motivated Black voters in the 78 Black belt counties it tracked. All but one shifted left in partisan turnout compared with 2024. Further, majority-Black counties that voted after Louisiana v Callais, the landmark supreme court decision that triggered the Republican-led redistricting efforts, had a surge in voter participation
The trend was clear earlier this year when Louisiana, South Carolina, Alabama and Georgia held primaries after the supreme court ruling. Louisiana, from which the Callais decision stemmed, disregarded votes that had already been cast until the state was able to redraw congressional maps, while nearby Alabama quicklysplit its majority-Black districts
South Carolina and Georgia moved to dilute Black political power in the state by redrawing maps, though neither state ultimatelydid so
Alabama produced one of the strongest shifts of all, with one of the largest positive turnout differentials and a significant partisan turnout that indicates increased Black voter mobilization in states with substantial Republican redistricting efforts
Alabama’s Greene county surpassed 50% turnout in the primary election, a positive turnout differential of 27.6 percentage points. Bullock, Lowndes, Macon and Montgomery counties, all of which are in Alabama’s second congressional district that was targeted by Republican legislators, also experienced significant turnout. Bullock county, which is more than 70% Black, had the third-largest turnout in the state
In nearby Louisiana, Black voters made up 35.7% of the primary electorate, despite making up only 32.1% of the population. The state experienced increased voter turnout across partisan groups and race, but 30.9% of Black voters cast ballots in the primary election – 3.2 points more than white voters
In contrast, Mississippi and North Carolina held their primaries before the Callais decision. In those states, turnout in majority-Black counties only outpaced statewide averages by 1.1 points on average
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