Redistricting Battle Weakens Black Representation in Republican-Led States

The mid-decade partisan redistricting battle, which President Trump initiated last year, was supercharged by a U.S. Supreme Court decision weakening the Voting Rights Act.

The redistricting so far has had a particular impact on majority-Black and plurality-Black congressional districts in Republican-led states.

In several of the GOP-led states that have redrawn maps — Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina — Black communities are no longer linked together and are instead absorbed into majority-white areas.

In the six states listed above, voting is generally racially polarized, with Black voters a major voting bloc for the Democratic Party. Nearly 78% of Black voters in the states voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, for instance.

Republicans have said the new districts are simply about boosting their party ahead of crucial midterm elections.

Here's a look at how Black areas have been changed by the redistricting rush:

Texas

Texas moved first, responding to Trump's call to redistrict with a new map that shifts five seats toward Republicans. The new map has already led to a loss of Black congressional representation in the Houston metro area.

Black voters were shuffled around Houston, with much of the previous 9th Congressional District becoming the new 18th District.

That includes majority-Black neighborhoods in Houston like Sunnyside, suburbs like Missouri City and north through the Third and Fifth Wards. Many precincts in these places voted for Harris in 2024 with up to 80% support.

This redistricting pitted two Black Democratic incumbents against each other. Rep. Al Green, who represents the 9th District, lost to Rep. Christian Menefee in the May Democratic primary runoff for the new 18th District.

Many historically Black areas in the northern suburbs, such as Independence Heights and Greens Landing, moved from the 18th District into the 29th, a district that had been 15% Black and is now about a quarter Black.

Voting Rights Act ruling

In late April, the Supreme Court's conservative majority struck down Louisiana's congressional map, calling it an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. The decision weakened the Voting Rights Act's protections against racial discrimination in redistricting, and has been followed by the dismantling of largely Black districts in Florida, Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee.

Florida

In May, Florida Republicans enacted new districts, hoping to help their party gain four seats in the House of Representatives.

The 20th District, which had the largest Black population in the state, was a target. In line with the Supreme Court's decision on the Voting Rights Act, Gov. Ron DeSantis called the claw-shaped 20th an unconstitutional racial gerrymander that needed to be reworked.

The new 20th District is more square-shaped, with a Black share of the population that's 45%, down from nearly 53% before.

The northern part of the district included majority-Black neighborhoods in Belle Glade, Riviera Beach and West Palm Beach, which went around 70 points toward Harris in 2024. Belle Glade joins the 22nd District, while the latter two neighborhoods join the 23rd District. Both have significantly smaller Black populations, at 15% and 26%, respectively.

Louisiana

Louisiana's new map eliminates one of its two Black-majority districts. The previous 6th District stretched diagonally across much of the state, picking up Black voters along the way.

Shreveport, where Harris voters outnumbered Trump voters three to one, is now absorbed into the predominantly Republican northwest part of the state, which is less than a third Black.

Baton Rouge is split between the 2nd District and the 6th District, with many of the city's Black areas merging with New Orleans to form the state's remaining majority-Black district, the 2nd.

Alabama

Alabama's 2023 redrawing, which was struck down by a lower court as intentionally discriminatory, is now back active after the Supreme Court allowed its use. Like Louisiana's new map, it eliminates one of the state's two majority-Black districts.

The map removes the district that started at Mobile in southwest Alabama and cut east to the Georgia border.

Mobile and Montgomery, two majority-Black cities that are reliable Democratic-leaning areas, are now separated into the 1st District and the 2nd District, which are only 27% and 42% Black, respectively. Montgomery is now in the same district as some of the strongest Republican precincts in the southeastern part of the state, going between 70% and 80% toward Trump. Mobile's district now includes Baldwin and Washington counties, majority-white areas where Trump voters outnumbered Harris voters nearly four to one.

Tennessee

In Tennessee, Republican lawmakers removed the state's only majority-Black district.

The 9th District, which was 62% Black and concentrated around Memphis, was cracked, with the Memphis area now split into three districts.

The new 9th is mostly absorbed into Shelbyville, suburban Nashville and parts of southern Tennessee, cutting the Black population in the district almost in half, to just under 33%.

The rest of the Memphis area is split into two other districts: the 5th and the 8th. They follow the same formula of merging predominantly Black areas of Memphis, which lean Democratic, with mostly white, mostly rural areas of the state that have strong Republican footholds, and both end up being less than 30% Black.

North Carolina

North Carolina's redistricting occurred in 2025, with the 1st District redrawn to help Republicans gain a seat in the House.

A competitive district with the highest Black population in the state at around 42%, the seat was merged with counties on the eastern shore of North Carolina that have gone solidly Republican in the last few elections, like Carteret, Hyde and Beaufort counties. The district is now about 34% Black.

The 1st District had included the predominantly Black areas of Wilson and Goldsboro. The new boundaries now put Wilson and Goldsboro into the 3rd District, a district that is now 31% Black.

Methodology

This analysis relies on population data from the 2020 census. Previous district boundary maps come from the Census Bureau. New boundary maps were sourced from state government websites.

For the maps, each dot represents 250 people, and dots are distributed randomly within a census block. Dots are color-coded according to how respondents self-identified: Black (non-Hispanic), White (non-Hispanic), Asian (non-Hispanic), Hispanic. Respondents who selected two or more races are grouped under "Other and multiple."

Figures in the tables reflect both respondents who are Black alone and those who are Black in combination with another race. The Voting Rights Act requires states to account for both categories when drawing boundaries. They are calculated by adding all census respondents who selected Black as one of or their only race.

Census data was collected at the block-level, then totaled up to the district level for each set of maps.