[Facing the possibility of an unsafe district, South Carolina’s
most powerful Democrat sent his aide to consult with the GOP on a
redistricting plan that diluted Black voting strength and harmed his
party’s chances of gaining seats in Congress.]
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HOW REP. JAMES CLYBURN PROTECTED HIS DISTRICT AT A COST TO BLACK
DEMOCRATS  
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Marilyn Thompson
May 5, 2023
ProPublica
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_ Facing the possibility of an unsafe district, South Carolina’s
most powerful Democrat sent his aide to consult with the GOP on a
redistricting plan that diluted Black voting strength and harmed his
party’s chances of gaining seats in Congress. _

,

 

The meeting was arranged in secret. On Nov. 19, 2021, the chief of
staff for South Carolina’s Senate Judiciary Committee texted Dalton
Tresvant, a key aide to Rep. Jim Clyburn
[[link removed]],
the state’s most powerful Democrat.

“Hey Dalton - Andy Fiffick here,” he said. “We wrapped up some
morning things quicker than we thought, so if you want/can come
earlier than 1:30 we’re available.”

The state legislature had begun the crucial task of redrawing voting
district lines after the 2020 census. Even small changes in the lines
can mean the difference between who wins office, who loses and which
party holds power. As the process commenced, Clyburn had a problem:
His once majority Black district had suffered a daunting exodus of
residents since the last count. He wanted his seat to be made as safe
as possible. Republicans understood the powerful Black Democrat could
not be ignored, even though he came from the opposing party and had no
official role in the state-level process. Fortunately for them,
Clyburn, who is 82 and was recently reelected to his 16th term, had
long ago made peace with the art of bartering.

Early in South Carolina’s redistricting process, an aide to
Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn delivered a map to Republicans that
outlined the lawmaker’s desires. Credit:South Carolina Senate

Tresvant made his way to the grounds of the antebellum Statehouse, a
relic still marked by cannon fire from Sherman’s army. The aide
carried a hand-drawn map of Clyburn’s 6th District and presented it
to Fiffick and the other Republican committee staffers who were
working to reconfigure the state’s congressional boundaries.

Some of Tresvant’s proposals appealed to Republicans. The sketch
added Black voters to Clyburn’s district while moving out some
predominantly white precincts that leaned toward the GOP. The
Republicans kept Tresvant’s map confidential as they worked through
the redistricting process for the following two months. They looped in
Tresvant again near the end, according to public records obtained by
ProPublica.

The resulting map, finalized in January 2022, made Clyburn’s lock on
power stronger than it might have been otherwise. A House of
Representatives seat that Democrats held as recently as 2018 would
become even more solid for the incumbent Republican. This came at a
cost: Democrats now have virtually no shot of winning any
congressional seat in South Carolina other than Clyburn’s, state
political leaders on both sides of the aisle say.

As others attacked the Republican redistricting as an illegal racial
gerrymander, Clyburn said nothing publicly. His role throughout the
redistricting process has remained out of the public view, and he has
denied any involvement in state legislative decisions. And while
it’s been clear that Clyburn has been a key participant
[[link removed]] in
past state redistricting, the extent of his role in the 2021
negotiations has not been previously examined. This account draws on
public records, hundreds of pages of legal filings and interviews with
dozens of South Carolina lawmakers and political experts from both
sides of the aisle.

While redistricting fights are usually depicted as exercises in raw
partisan power, the records and legal filings provide an inside look
that reveals they can often involve self-interested input from
incumbents and backroom horse trading between the two parties. With
the House so closely divided today, every seat takes on more value.

South Carolina’s 2021 redistricting is now being challenged in
federal court
[[link removed]] by
the NAACP. The organization contends that Republicans deliberately
moved Black voters into Clyburn’s district to solidify their
party’s hold on the neighboring swing district, the 1st. A
three-judge federal panel ruled in January
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aspects of the state’s map were an unconstitutional racial
gerrymander that must be corrected before any more elections in the
1st District are held.

But Clyburn’s role already has complicated the NAACP’s case. The
judges dismissed some of the group’s contentions partly because
Clyburn’s early requests drove some of the mapping changes. The
Republicans are now appealing the ruling to the Supreme Court, which
has yet to decide if it wants to hear oral arguments in the case.

The redistricting process was the first South Carolina has undertaken
since a series of Supreme Court rulings made it easier for states to
redraw their districts. In 2013, the high court significantly
weakened the Voting Rights Act
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removing South Carolina and other Southern states, with their history
of Black disenfranchisement, from Department of Justice oversight. And
in 2019, the Supreme Court opened the door to more
aggressive gerrymandering
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barring federal court challenges on the basis of partisanship. But it
can be illegal to draw lines based on race. Republican gerrymanders
in Florida
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Texas and several other states have recently been challenged for
targeting Black voters.

The fight over the South Carolina redistricting has exacerbated racial
wounds in a state where the growing white population now accounts for
about 68% of residents, up from 66% a decade ago
[[link removed]]. Driven by the immigration of
white retirees and a slow emigration of Black people, the state’s
Black population has dropped over the years to just over a quarter of
its 5.2 million residents. The GOP now controls all major state
elected offices except for Clyburn’s seat.

Clyburn’s role highlights an underbelly of the redistricting
process: In the South, Black Democratic incumbents have often worked
with Republicans in power to achieve their own goals.

Few state Democrats will criticize Clyburn by name on the record.
Bakari Sellers, 38, a former state Democratic lawmaker who once served
on the redistricting committee, said, “There is a very unholy
alliance between many Black legislators and their Republican
counterparts in the redistricting process.” Clyburn’s district
“is probably one of the best examples.” Moving that many Black
voters into Clyburn’s district meant “we eliminate a chance to
win” in other districts, he said.

“I’m not saying that we could win, but I’m saying we could be
competitive, and people of color, those poor people, those individuals
who have been crying out for so long, would have a voice,” Sellers
said.

Clyburn speaks in the deep baritone of a preacher’s son, but his
voice rises in anger when the subject turns to criticisms of his
involvement in redistricting. Unfounded, he says.

In an interview, Clyburn said the redistricting plan signed by the
Republican governor in early 2022 proves he did not get all that he
wanted, mainly because his district lost its majority Black status. On
questions about Tresvant’s work, a Clyburn spokesperson acknowledged
that the office had “engaged in discussions regarding the boundaries
of the 6th Congressional District by responding to inquiries” but
did not answer detailed follow-up questions about his role. Tresvant
did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

“Any accusation that Congressman Clyburn in any way enabled or
facilitated Republican gerrymandering that wouldn’t have otherwise
occurred is fanciful,” Clyburn’s office said in a statement,
calling the notion a “bizarre conspiracy theory.” Clyburn agrees
with the decision of the three-judge panel and “hopes it will be
upheld.”

Backroom Deals

Clyburn’s district, the 6th, itself resulted from what political
experts would later describe as a racial gerrymander. After the 1990
census, a federal court imposed a plan that gave South Carolina’s
Black population, then about a third of the state, a fair shot at
electing a member of Congress. It hadn’t done so since 1897.
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The 6th’s boundaries brought in Black people from across the state
to create a crescent-shaped district. Black people made up almost 6 in
10 residents. National Democratic Party strategist Bill Carrick, then
a South Carolina campaign consultant, said race guided the GOP. “It
was like the Republicans decided, ‘Let’s see how many African
Americans we can put into one district — instead of our own,’”
he said.

This redistricting technique is known as “packing.” Packing can be
a double-edged sword, giving underrepresented communities a voice but
also limiting them to one — and only one — member of Congress.
Clyburn, the first Black person in modern times to head a South
Carolina state agency, won the seat in 1992. He rose to prominence in
Washington, climbing to the post of House majority whip by 2007. His
2020 endorsement helped Joe Biden seal the Democratic presidential
nomination, and he was recently named a co-chair of Biden’s 2024
campaign.

Clyburn’s stature within the state was unparalleled. He had learned
early in his career the value of backroom negotiations, at first
dealing with staunch segregationists running the state government. His
role in Washington required negotiating with GOP leaders to pass
legislation though he would publicly criticize them when they rejected
Democrat’s initiatives, like new voting rights proposals.

He is best known back home for delivering federal money. Clyburn’s
name is emblazoned on taxpayer-funded structures all over the state,
including a Medical University of South Carolina research center and
an “intermodal transportation center” (otherwise known as a bus
station) in his hometown, Sumter.

Clyburn also was willing to help local Republicans. When the family
business of George “Chip” Campsen, a top GOP state leader, had a
dispute with the National Park Service over how much it owed the
federal government, Clyburn co-sponsored a Republican lawmaker’s
bill to pressure the service into mediation. The parties then settled
in 2002 on favorable terms to the Campsen family company. Clyburn’s
office said he did nothing improper. (Campsen did not respond to a
question about the deal.)

Clyburn’s ties with Republicans have come in handy during the
previous redistricting battle. Clyburn has repeatedly angled to keep a
majority Black constituency, according to documents and political
observers.

Redistricting is meant to follow clear principles. Each congressional
district’s population must be as similar as possible. Maps are
supposed to be understandable, with counties and cities kept whole and
lines following natural boundaries, like rivers or highways. And the
process is designed to be transparent, guided by public input.

But it has rarely worked out that way. Despite a recent history of
moves to disenfranchise minority voters, Republicans have sometimes
been able to capitalize on individual politicians’ self-interest. In
the early 1990s, then-Republican National Committee counsel Benjamin
Ginsberg seized upon Black disenchantment with white Southern
Democrats’ gerrymanders to forge what has come to be known as the
“unholy alliance” between the RNC and Black elected officials.
Ginsburg told the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation in 1990 that
the RNC would share its redistricting tools with minorities as part of
a “natural alliance born of the gerrymander
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The upside for the Republican party is that Black voters in Southern
states could be limited to as few seats as possible.

In 1994, the GOP took over the House and the Congressional Black
Caucus reached its largest membership since Reconstruction.
Redistricting “increased the political power of both groups,” said
David Daley, author of “Ratf**ked,” a book on gerrymandering
that delves into the history of the alliance
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the GOP and Black Southern Democrats. “Republicans regained control
of the House, and the Congressional Black Caucus grew to its largest
numbers since Reconstruction.”

Clyburn is part of a generation of Black officials who lived through
the Jim Crow era and cherished the protections of the Voting Rights
Act. But many politicians who agree about the importance of the act
say that the notion that Black politicians need majority Black
districts to get elected is outdated. Because he’s been in office so
long, “Jim Clyburn could win reelection with 20% Black voters,”
said former Rep. Mel Watt of North Carolina. “He’s trying to
protect the district for the candidate coming after him.”

Despite state and local resistance, the number of elected Black
officials in South Carolina increased from 38 in 1970 to 540 in 2000
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continued growing. Yet complaints continued to flood into the Justice
Department about gross abuses of voting rights, including biased
handling of redistricting.

The last congressional redistricting overseen by the Justice
Department in South Carolina was in 2011. Then, as now, the state’s
population was booming, and it had gained another congressional seat,
which both parties hoped to claim. As is the case today, Republicans
controlled the legislature. The Democrats, however, could rely on the
Justice Department, which had to preapprove the plan, to prevent gross
abuses.

Both Clyburn and the NAACP were among those who publicly submitted
their own maps
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part of the state’s legal submission to the Justice Department.
Clyburn’s map suggested that his district include a Black voting age
population of nearly 55%, a higher level than what the NAACP’s map
recommended.

Some Democrats proposed moving Black voters out of Clyburn’s
district to create a new district, with the hope that the party could
elect a second member of Congress. The Republican House speaker
blocked the efforts.

Behind the scenes, some lawmakers believed Clyburn was working with
the speaker. On a visit to Columbia, the capital, Clyburn went to the
House map room and made suggestions to protect his position, according
to a nonpartisan former House staff member, who asked not be named
because he was not authorized to discuss his work.

During the process, Clyburn met privately
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then-Republican state Rep. Alan Clemmons, head of that year’s
redistricting panel, according to an account Clemmons later gave to
local media. Clemmons said Clyburn had Tresvant act as his “eyes and
ears,” the same role that he would take on in 2021. Tresvant
“would request specific businesses and churches be included in
Clyburn’s district,” according to a 2018 report by The Post &
Courier of Clemmon’s account.

Clemmons, now an equity court judge, declined to comment, citing the
judicial ethics code.

The 2011 redistricting plan also prompted a federal lawsuit, which
unsuccessfully challenged Clyburn’s district as an illegal racial
gerrymander. Clyburn did not testify, but in an affidavit, he accused
Republicans of making “an intentional effort” to decrease the
political influence of Black people by packing them into a single
district. He said nothing about his own behind-the-scenes negotiations
with Republican leaders.

The 2021 Strategy

Ten years later, Clyburn followed a familiar strategy when Republicans
began redistricting again. For the first time, the Justice Department
had no oversight role. This time, however, none of his actions were
public.

Clyburn’s district had lost about 85,000 people. Each new district
had to be drawn to represent 731,203 people. One obvious place to look
for additional constituents would be the 1st District, just to the
southeast along the coast. That district was overpopulated by almost
88,000. The First District was the last remaining swing district, with
a history of tight races. In 2018, a Democrat had won by about 4,000
votes. Two years later, a Republican, Nancy Mace, won it by about
5,000. If the GOP could remove enough Black or Democratic voters from
that district, it could give the party a lock on the seat.

The map Clyburn’s aide Tresvant had quietly brought to the GOP at
the beginning of the 2021 process included suggestions that would help
both Clyburn and the Republicans. His map gave his boss a larger
portion of heavily Democratic Charleston County, drawing from Mace’s
district. Clyburn’s suggested lines reflected a move of about 77,000
new people to his district, according to an expert who analyzed the
maps for ProPublica.

Not every request of his was about race. Clyburn also sought to move
an additional 29,000 people into his district from Berkeley County,
which he split with Mace. Berkeley is a fast-growing area, adding
white voters, but is also home to some of the state’s largest
employers.

Clyburn didn’t only suggest adding Democratic voters. He was also
willing to give up pockets of his district where elections were
trending Republican. One such proposal would help Republicans seal
control of the 1st. Clyburn suggested giving up about 4,600 people in
Jasper County, an area that was trending Republican as white Northern
retirees relocated there.

During the NAACP’s trial, some Republican senate aides said they did
not rely on Clyburn’s map. But the staffer for Senate Republicans
who was chiefly responsible for redrawing the lines testified that he
used it as a starting point. And then the GOP went further. As the
redistricting plan made its way through the legislature, Republicans
further solidified their hold on the 1st District. Clyburn monitored
their progress in calls to Democratic allies, according to two state
senators who spoke with him during the period.

A plan proposed by Campsen, the state senator whose family company
Clyburn helped years earlier, moved almost all of Charleston
County’s Black and Democrat-leaning precincts to Clyburn. The shift
gave Clyburn the city of Charleston, where he had deep connections,
and consolidated the county’s major colleges and universities into
his district, a political plus. The new borders for Clyburn gave him a
number of small pockets of Black voters, including about 1,500 in
Lincolnville, which juts out of the election map like an old-fashioned
door key. “The congressman was hoping to get Lincolnville years and
years ago” and finally succeeded in 2022, said the town’s mayor,
Enoch Dickerson.

As a result of Campsen’s plan, the Black voting-age population of
the 1st District fell to just over 17%, the lowest in the state. In
the 2022 election, Mace beat her Democratic opponent by about 38,000
votes — a 14 percentage point landslide, up from her 1 percentage
point in the previous election.

Clyburn said nothing publicly as some Democrats in Charleston County,
led by former Rep. Joe Cunningham, protested Campsen’s plan. On the
Senate floor, Campsen praised Clyburn and said Charleston County would
be well served by having both Clyburn and Mace looking out for its
interests.

“Jim Clyburn has more influence with the Biden administration
perhaps than anyone in the nation,” Campsen said.

As Clyburn monitored the debate, Fiffick kept Tresvant in the loop,
texting him again on Jan. 14, 2022, to share a link to the
redistricting webpage. It’s unclear why Fiffick sent it.

Campsen’s plan was approved by the legislature and signed by the
governor Jan. 26, 2022.

In the end, Clyburn didn’t get everything he wanted. Republicans
moved all of rapidly growing Berkeley County to the 1st District. The
percentage of Black voters in his district has dipped below 50%, the
threshold he long sought to preserve.

The congressman soon got to work serving his constituents. Shortly
afterward, Clyburn had Lincolnville added to a federal program
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protects historic stops along the Gullah Geechee trail. In the 2022
election, Clyburn won 62% of the vote, lower than the 68% he won in
2020 but comfortable nonetheless.

 

Consequences

Soon after the new redistricting plan went into effect, the NAACP
pressed ahead with its lawsuit against state Republican leaders,
charging that many congressional mapping decisions were based
predominantly on race. The case dealt
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more than just the changes in Mace’s district that had an impact on
Clyburn.

A three-judge federal appeals panel ruled that the plan’s division
of the 1st and 6th districts was an unlawful racial gerrymander aimed
at creating “a stronger Republican tilt” in Mace’s district. The
court said that the movement of about 30,000 Black voters into
Clyburn’s district was “effectively impossible” without racial
gerrymandering.

But the court knocked down some of the NAACP’s claims. In several
cases, it said, Clyburn had requested the mapping changes. The NAACP
declined to comment.

Antonio Ingram, an assistant counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund,
said lawyers for Republican leaders tried to shift the emphasis to
Clyburn’s early requests. He said it was “inappropriate to blame a
congressman for the General Assembly’s decision to pass
discriminatory maps.”

Republican leaders appealed the panel’s decision and asked the
Supreme Court
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reject the racial gerrymandering charge.

If the court orders that the map be redrawn, it could have ripple
effects on Clyburn’s district and other parts of the state. Although
a Republican challenger gained ground on him in 2022, he’s
considered a shoo-in if he chooses to seek reelection, no matter how
the lines are drawn.

Taiwan Scott, who lives in Mace’s district and is the lead plaintiff
in the NAACP lawsuit, said racial gerrymandering has deprived Black
voters of fair congressional representation. A small businessman in
Hilton Head, Scott said Black people are showing disapproval by
declining to vote.

“It is bigger than myself. It’s systemic,” he said.

_Marilyn W. Thompson is a reporter at ProPublica._

_ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces
investigative journalism with moral force. We dig deep into important
issues, shining a light on abuses of power and betrayals of public
trust — and we stick with those issues as long as it takes to hold
power to account.  ProPublica was founded in 2007-2008 with the
belief that investigative journalism is critical to our democracy.
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