Alabama lawmakers pass plan for new House primary as state pushes to redistrict

Republicans in Alabama approved plans Friday for new primary elections if courts allow a set of GOP-drawn House districts to be used in the midterms, a move that could eliminate one of the state's two Democratic seats. The legislation, which was passed by lawmakers this week and quickly signed into law by Republican Gov. Kay Ivey on Friday, is part of an effort by Republicans in multiple southern states to respond to last week's Louisiana v. Callais Supreme Court ruling, which weakened the Voting Rights Act. The new Alabama law would effectively set aside the state's May 19 primary results for some congressional seats and direct the governor to schedule new primaries, if a court issues a ruling that allows the district lines to change. A court injunction from last year requires Alabama to use its existing congressional map until after the 2030 census. That map — which has five GOP-leaning districts and two Democratic-leaning districts where Black voters are a substantial portion of the electorate — was drawn by a court-appointed expert in 2023, after the Supreme Court and a lower court rejected two earlier maps crafted by state lawmakers, finding they violated the Voting Rights Act. But last week, the Supreme Court significantly narrowed Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which had historically required states to draw majority-minority districts in some circumstances. …