SC’s McMaster denies quid pro quo in calling special session to allow redistricting
Gov. Henry McMaster denied any quid pro quo in calling a special session for redistricting in order to help Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette win President Donald Trump’s endorsement.
While speaking to news media in Summerville, McMaster responded to speculation that the White House pressured the governor into calling the special session and, in return, the president would support Evette’s bid for governor.
“The answer is it has nothing to do with that,” McMaster said.
McMaster said he has not spoken to Trump about the redistricting and denied caving to pressure from the White House or the president.
McMaster previously told the White House that state officials had no plans to take up redistricting. The attitude changed after the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a Louisiana map, which created a second majority minority district.
McMaster has since said the state should review whether the state’s map meet constitutional muster. The U.S. Supreme Court and the state Supreme Court have given their blessings to South Carolina’s congressional map, which was drawn as a partisan gerrymander. Republicans hold six of the state’s seven congressional districts.
“We want to be sure that what we have now is right,” McMaster said. “We wanna be sure and we believe it is, I believe it is … it was upheld by the Supreme Court once.”
McMaster added if the current map was challenged under the Calais decision, he believes the map would be upheld.
“That’s something that needs to be determined, and then you get into the question (of) can we represent our state better with different districts? I think the answer is yes,” McMaster said.
Also, lawmakers are under a time pressure if they want to get new congressional maps adopted, which would include moving the congressional primaries to August. Primary elections this year are June 9, with in-person early voting starting May 26. Mail-in absentee ballots have already gone out and hundreds have been returned.
“This is not done yet. It might not get done. A lot of people (are) counting on it getting done,” McMaster said. “But it takes a while even when you have a very determined legislature, you have to follow certain rules.”
The redistricting push comes as state House Republicans want to redraw the state’s congressional map to go from a 6-1 map to a 7-0 map, with the GOP holding all the state’s U.S. House seats. Trump wants GOP led states to redistrict in the middle of the decade to limit expected midterms losses.
Trump had reached out to several members of the state Senate to get the chamber to agree to take up redistricting without needing the governor to call back lawmakers.
McMaster was able to call the special session, which began Friday, because lawmakers ended their annual session Thursday without finalizing a budget and did not come to a sine die agreement, which would limit what lawmakers could take up.
With the governor calling them back, lawmakers can take up any issue they want.
As the start of the special session Friday, security was heightened around the State House, with more uniformed officers present.
On Thursday, demonstrators against a redraw held a rally outside the State House. The first day of the special session also attracted a high profile national Democrat.
U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona, and potential 2028 presidential candidate, spoke outside the chambers about the moves to redraw the maps that are intended to oust South Carolina’s only Democratic member of congress, U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn.
“What’s going on here with redistricting and trying to take away this district from Jim Clyburn and create districts where there will be no black representation is outrageous, and it’s wrong, and it’s un-American to do this,” Kelly said.
The debate in the House is expected to take days, lawmakers said, as they expect many hours on the floor Monday and Tuesday.
Friday’s opening remarks included criticism of the quick process undertaken by the Republicans in the House, who hold a supermajority.
“Whether or not we will vote for this has been a sham,” said state Rep. Justin Bamberg, D-Bamberg. “Honesty, integrity, and honor, virtues that many say they have, but I implore the people of this state in the world to look at the actions, not the words, because this entire process has been a sham in the actions, and the truth doesn’t match the words. “
This story was originally published May 15, 2026 at 5:29 PM with the headline "SC’s McMaster denies quid pro quo in calling special session to allow redistricting."
