President Donald Trump delivers a speech at the World Economic Forum on January 21, 2026 in Davos, Switzerland. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump on Thursday sought to capitalize on a U.S. Supreme Court decision weakening federal voting rights law, urging one governor to gerrymander his state and praising another for suspending an upcoming primary.
The court’s decision Wednesday declared Louisiana’s congressional map unconstitutional and bolstered other Republican states Districts break apart where most of the residents are black for party political reasons.
The Opinion could reinvigorate Trump’s push to get states to redraw their maps to give Republicans an advantage in November’s midterm elections. The president’s party typically performs poorly in midterm elections and Trump’s approval rating has fallen in polls, giving Democrats hope they can retake the U.S. House of Representatives.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill announced On Thursday, he announced that the state’s congressional primary, scheduled for mid-May, would be suspended. The recess gives state lawmakers time to draw a fresh map aimed at ousting at least one, if not two, black Democrats.
Trump thanked Landry on his social media platform Truth Social for “acting so quickly to fix the unconstitutionality” of the state map. In a separate post, Trump wrote that he had spoken with Tennessee’s Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who is facing calls to immediately gerrymander the state.
“I had a very good conversation with Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee this morning in which he stated that he will work hard to correct the unconstitutional error in the Great State of Tennessee’s congressional maps.” Trump wrote.
A spokesman for Lee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The redistribution rush
Historically, states draw fresh maps once a decade after each census, but eight states have now violated that norm after Trump urged Republicans to gerrymander.
Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Utah have drawn fresh GOP-leaning maps, as has Florida, whose legislature agreed to a gerrymander hours after the Supreme Court’s decision. California and Virginia have enacted fresh maps favorable to Democrats.
Before Wednesday, the redistribution war was essentially a failure. But the court’s decision gives Republicans more opportunity to gain the upper hand this year if states can respond quickly.
Alabama, Georgia, Missouri and Tennessee are among the red states with upcoming primaries where lawmakers could theoretically still take action. In some states – like Georgia and Tennessee – leading Republicans have not ruled out action. Elsewhere, like Alabama and Georgia, GOP leaders have ruled out or downplayed the possibility of action this year.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, urged states to change their maps before the midterm elections.
“I think all the states that have unconstitutional maps should look at this very carefully and I think they should do it before the midterm elections,” Johnson said said CNN on Thursday.
The Democrats also talk about gerrymandering
Democrats have also raised the possibility of more gerrymanders, whether this year or before the 2028 election.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said on social media after the court decision that she would work with lawmakers to change the state’s redistricting process. New York currently uses a commission system for drawing maps, which limits opportunities for partisan gerrymandering.
At a Congressional Black Caucus press conference on Wednesday, Rep. Terri Sewell, an Alabama Democrat, suggested she would support more Democratic gerrymanders.
“Partisan politics becomes more important than discrimination,” Sewell said of the court’s decision. “It’s really, really, really – I mean, it’s taking us backwards. To the extent that it’s pushing red states to take all the seats away from Democrats and be completely red, it’s also encouraging blue states to do the exact same thing.”
