Hello, and welcome back to The Franchise!
Red states are scrambling to redraw their congressional maps in the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling last week that struck down Louisiana’s second Black-majority congressional district in Louisiana v. Callais. The decision obliterated the Voting Rights Act and paved the way for red states to reshape majority-Black congressional districts. In that sense, it has also revitalized the Trump administration’s once-floundering redistricting campaign, giving some red states the greenlight to squeeze in a new gerrymandered map ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
But the implications of this rush to gerrymander away Black electoral power in the South will have sweeping and devastating impacts that extend far beyond this election cycle and Trump’s presidency. Here’s the latest:
Last week, Louisiana’s Republican Gov. Jeff Landry suspended an already-active congressional primary election to give state lawmakers the chance to approve new GOP-favoring maps that are expected to flip at least one of the state’s two majority-Black districts for Republicans.
The suspension comes after more than 100,000 mail-in ballots had already been sent out for this May 16 primary election.
Tennessee, Alabama, and South Carolina have followed suit.
Last week, Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee immediately called for a special session on redistricting, in the hopes of flipping the state’s only Democratic congressional seat Republican. On Wednesday, the GOP-controlled state House and Senate advanced the proposal, which, if adopted, will flip the only Democratic districts by carving out Shelby County, which includes Memphis, into three districts. U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), in a post on X on Wednesday, called the proposal a “corrupt power grab that would destroy the Black community’s and our entire city’s voice.”
Meanwhile, Alabama Republican Gov. Kay Ivey similarly called upon the state legislature on Friday to convene a special session on redistricting.
Per a 2025 federal court injunction, Alabama is not allowed to redraw its maps until 2030. But following the Callais decision, Republican Attorney General Steve Marshall filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court to remove that injunction and clear the way for the state to go back to using a congressional map passed in 2023 that was struck down for being racially gerrymandered.
On Wednesday, the Alabama Republican-controlled House approved a bill that would allow Republicans to flip a congressional seat. The proposal requires Ivey to convene a special primary if a federal court lifts the injunction on the earlier map.
South Carolina has also faced pressure from Trump to approve a new map, specifically one that targets Rep. Jim Clyburn’s (D-SC) district.
On Wednesday, the South Carolina House, in a vote along party lines, advanced a proposal that will allow lawmakers to convene a special session on redistricting. The proposal will now go to the Senate for a vote.
For the most up-to-date info about this race to redraw maps across the South, you can check out TPM’s live coverage here, from Kate Riga and me.
As always, there’s a lot more to cover this week. Let’s dig in.
DOJ Demands 2020 Fulton County Election Workers’ Personal Info
As my colleague Nicole LaFond reported this week, the DOJ is demanding that the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections release the names and personal information of every single Fulton County election worker and volunteer from the 2020 election, per a subpoena filed in April.
It is a major escalation in the Trump administration’s supposed ongoing investigation into the 2020 election, which the public was tipped off to when the FBI raided Fulton County’s election hub and seized equipment and records from the 2020 election earlier this year. The back story:
In January, the FBI executed a search warrant at a Fulton County election office related to the 2020 election. As you may remember, Fulton County was bombarded with election conspiracy theories in 2020 and beyond. The MAGA conspiracy theorists spread baseless rumors about “suitcases” of illegal ballots, massive ballots dumps in favor of would-be President Joe Biden and ballot harvesting — all used to help Trump perpetuate the myth that the 2020 election was stolen from him. The feverish spread of conspiracy theories about Fulton County culminated in January 2021 with Trump calling Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to urge him to “find” votes needed to overturn the election results in Georgia.
This latest subpoena in the Trump administration’s effort to keep lies about the 2020 election alive and well was initiated by U.S. attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina Dan Bishop — a former congressman who voted against certifying the 2020 election — who was given the task of overseeing election-related investigations by former Attorney General Pam Bondi.
In response to these latest demands from the DOJ — which includes a demand for the names, addresses, emails and phone numbers of 2020 election workers — the Fulton County Board of Registrations and Elections filed a motion in a federal court to quash the subpoena.
“Its purpose is to target, harass, and punish the President’s perceived political opponents; it is grossly overbroad and untethered to any reasonable need; it cannot yield any evidence that could result in a criminal prosecution (because, among other things, the statutes of limitations have expired for any purported 2020 election crimes); it burdens the First Amendment rights of election workers and will chill their participation in elections; and it unreasonably interferes with Georgia’s sovereign authority to administer elections,” the motion reads.
Fulton County Chairman Robb Pitts told me in an interview this week that the long-term goal of the administration’s investigation is to “take over elections nationally.”
“We are the target, we have been the target, and we’ll continue to be the target for him and his followers,” Pitt said, referencing Trump and his fervent base of supporters. “This wasn’t surprising to me, who knows what’s next because they cannot get away from the fact they lost in 2020.”
Pitts added that he thinks this latest subpoena is just the latest example of the federal government misusing the criminal process.
“It’s another act of outrageous federal overreach that is designed to, in my judgement, intimidate and chill participation in our elections in 2026, but also in 2028,” he told me.
Pitts believes that this is just the beginning of a new era of federal government overreach in elections. As Pitt describes it, he thinks that the Trump administration will “take this show on the road and go to other states and other counties.”
We have already seen evidence of this trend, as the Trump DOJ has recently expanded its election probe to Arizona and Michigan.
And in some even more bad news for Fulton County, on Wednesday, a federal judge denied a request by Fulton County officials that the seized materials from January be returned, ruling that the DOJ is not required to return the ballots it seized from the county.
“The Court disagrees with Petitioners’ argument that the Affidavit is “woefully deficient” just because, in their view, allegations of intent are lacking,” U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee wrote in his order.
“While the Affidavit was certainly far from perfect, this is not a situation where an officer left out all the facts that might undermine probable cause or where an officer intentionally lied,” The order said.
“…I strongly disagree with the judge’s denial of Fulton County’s request for the FBI to return the election records it wrongly seized on January 28,” Pitts said in a statement.
An (Illegal) Call for Law Enforcement Officers at Polling Places in Detroit
In more disturbing election news, Michigan GOP Senate candidate and former congressman Mike Rogers recently told the Kalamazoo County GOP that he was working with the Republican National Committee to recruit former and current law enforcement officers to be poll watchers in Detroit, according to an audio recording obtained by The Detroit News.
(Wayne County, which houses the city of Detroit, is one of the areas that Trump and his election deniers fixated on in the aftermath of the 2020 election, and the 2024 election as well. The Justice Department recently demanded the county turn over its 2024 ballots.)
“And I’ve been telling them, ‘You know what, let’s put police officers — retired or off-duty police officers — as our poll watchers in Detroit.’ Because, go ahead: Try to intimidate them. Please,” Rogers reportedly said.
“We’re trying to find them,” he continued. “I mean, they wouldn’t be able to wear their uniforms, but they would, you know, all you got to do is open your jacket and you see the badge on the belt, right?” Rogers added.
Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum told the Detroit Free News that Rogers is trying to “intimidate and disenfranchise the city with the largest concentration of people of color in the state.”
It is worth emphasizing here that it is a federal crime for anyone, including federal, state, or local officials, to intimidate voters. It’s also a crime for U.S. officials to deploy “armed men at any place where a general or special election is held.”
These remarks come against the backdrop of the Trump administration being dodgy and generally confusing about whether or not it would send ICE agents to polling places during the 2026 midterm elections. This is illegal, but the administration has not ruled it out.
In Other Election News
TPM: Indiana Republicans Who Wouldn’t Cave to Trump Pressure See Sweeping Losses in Primaries
Politico: DeSantis signs Florida’s new GOP-friendly congressional map into law — and is swiftly sued
Iowa Public Radio: Iowa shares sensitive voter data with the Department of Justice
