1st Congressional District illegally gerrymandered, judges rule

Key local Democrats say Dr. Annie Andrews of Mount Pleasant might have been elected to Congress representing the Charleston area had the coastal First Congressional District’s lines been drawn without racial gerrymandering.

On Friday, a panel of three federal judges ruled South Carolina legislators racially gerrymandered the district’s map in a constitutionally required remapping in 2021.

“The movement of over 30,000 African Americans in a single county [Charleston County] from Congressional District No. 1 to Congressional District No. 6 created a stark racial gerrymander in Charleston County,” the judges wrote. “The percentage of African Americans in Charleston County in Congressional District No. 1 fell from 19.8% at the time of the enactment of the 2011 plan to 10.3% in the 2022 plan.”

In a 33-page order, U.S. District Judges Mary Geiger Lewis and Richard Gergel, both of South Carolina, and U.S. Circuit Judge Toby J. Heytens of Virginia said no elections could occur in the 1st District until there was a new map. It said the General Assembly could present a redrawn map by the end of March. Republicans have said they likely will appeal the three-judge panel’s ruling.

“I maintain that the House drew maps without racial bias and in the best interest of all the people of this state,” S.C. House Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, said in a statement reported by the Associated Press.

Democrats say Andrews might be in Congress with different district

In 2020, Republican Nancy Mace of Daniel Island beat then-Congressman Joe Cunningham of Charleston to win the 1st District race by 5,415 votes, or 1.3%, in what was considered one of the most competitive congressional campaigns in the country. In 2022 after the district was redrawn into a safer GOP seat, Mace beat Andrews by almost 38,000 votes, or 14%.

“It is no surprise that the three-judge panel ruled that South Carolina’s First Congressional District map was racially gerrymandered,” said Charleston County Democratic Party Chairman Greg Perry, who recently announced a bid for North Charleston City Council. “This was a tool employed by Republicans to ensure that we didn’t have a fair election.

“I firmly believe that if the Republican-drawn map weren’t created to disenfranchise minority voters, Dr. Annie Andrews would be representing the folks in the First Congressional District today.”

Mace told the City Paper, “I look forward to continuing to deliver results for the Lowcountry no matter what the lines of [the 1st District] look like. I will always work hard and serve as an independent voice for the Lowcountry.”

The case was brought on behalf of the S.C. State Conference of the NAACP and a voter represented by the ACLU of South Carolina and other legal representatives.

According to the ACLU, “the court found that aspects of South Carolina’s congressional map had ‘bleached’ Black voters out of a district and made a ‘mockery’ of traditional districting principles [and] ruled that the legislature unconstitutionally set out to achieve an artificially low target Black population in Congressional District 1, which includes Charleston County.”

Charleston political operative Tyler Jones, who was a consultant for Andrews, said if all of Charleston County had been part of the 1st District, it would have been competitive — a true swing district that either a Democrat or Republican could have won.

“There’s just no way for them [Republicans] to accomplish the objective to make it virtually impossible for a Democrat to win the First — and comply with the law and make it as competitive as possible,” he said.