MONTGOMERY — Democratic leadership continues to accuse Republican state lawmakers of being furtive with their true motivations for redistricting, which include a stifling of black votes and seizing total control of the state's seven congressional seats.
Members of the Alabama Legislature will meet on Friday for the final day of this special legislative session, but Democrats have continued their onslaught of accusations against the Republican supermajority throughout the week.
The special session was called after the 6-3 majority ruling in Louisiana v. Callias, in which the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) held that race-based redistricting is unconstitutional. Alabama swiftly reacted, filing motions to have the injunction on the congressional and state senate maps approved by lawmakers lifted. The 2023 Congressional map followed an initial map that a federal court blocked, forcing lawmakers to redraw it. Despite the redrawing, a three-judge panel likewise found that the 2023 map likely violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Alabama's state senate map faces a similar injunction, which the state is also challenging.
From the start of the session, civil rights advocates and lawmakers alike have slung accusations of racism toward the governor's office and Republicans in the legislature.
Republicans in both the House and the Senate have been curiously silent about their push to revert to the 2023 maps, let alone about calling for total GOP control of Congress.
SEE: Self-imposed gag order? Republican lawmakers dodge public comment during special session
Although some members of Alabama's federal delegation have done so, thus far, State Rep. Rhett Marques (R-Enterprise), who is running his own congressional campaign, and State Sen. Donnie Chesteen (R-Geneva) are the only people in the Alabama Legislature to push for a 7-0 map.
Although this special session fix reverts a possible upcoming special election to the 2023 map, speculation is that, should SCOTUS apply the Callias standard in Alabama, lawmakers could return with maps far more favorable to the GOP for the next congressional election.
Despite Republicans' less-than-loquacious demeanor, Democratic leadership continues to accuse their Republican counterparts of seeking total electoral domination of the congressional map, painting the special session's purpose as thinly veiled racial discrimination.
"My colleagues are attempting to eliminate every congressional district that's represented by a Democrat in the entire state of Alabama," House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels (D-Huntsville) said. "But more importantly than a Democrat, an African American. See, this is not about electoral politics of 'D' vs 'R'. This is about a community being able to represent their own interests and have the opportunity to elect their person of choice."
Daniels also stressed repeatedly that the battle for total Congressional control was not ultimately about political hegemony, but the nullification of the black vote.
He continued, "This is about race. This is not about Republican or Democrat. This is about race. Giving the African American community the opportunity to elect their person of choice."
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