Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C. is pushing South Carolina to redraw its congressional map to eliminate the state’s only Democratic-held seat, currently represented by longtime congressman, Rep. Jim Clyburn. Citing Republican supermajorities in the state legislature, Norman argued it’s time to make South Carolina’s congressional delegation fully red. Norman is running for governor in 2026.
“We have Republican supermajorities in South Carolina,” Norman told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. “Let’s use them to create more competition in our congressional seats. I have no doubt Republicans can be successful in every part of our state.” He added that a GOP-controlled 7–0 delegation would give Republicans a better chance at holding the House to help advance Donald Trump’s agenda in Congress.
“Jim Clyburn is a nice man, and I respect him,” Norman said. “But he is a liberal Democrat who helped put Joe Biden in the White House. That’s not the kind of representation South Carolina needs.” Clyburn has served in Congress since 1993 and spent many years in leadership positions, including as Majority Whip from 2007 to 2011, and again from 2019 to 2023. Clyburn is also credited with helping deliver Biden’s crucial 2020 primary win in the Congressman’s home state. He was re-elected in 2024 by more than 20 points, and his D+13 district has long been considered safely Democratic.
“Norm is looking for some attention, and I suspect this is the way of trying to get it,” Clyburn said during an interview with CNN’s Victor Blackwell on Wednesday night. “I’m not concerned at all. I know the people of South Carolina very well. I know Ralph Norman very well. I know the governor of this state very well, who is as partisan of a Republican as he can be, but he’s as fair of a Republican as he can be. Norm doesn’t believe in fairness.”
Start your day with essential news from Salon.
Sign up for our free morning newsletter, Crash Course.
Clyburn’s district was originally drawn as a majority-Black district in the 1990s to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court recently upheld the GOP’s previous redistricting efforts in the 1st District, ruling they were partisan but not racially motivated.
Norman’s call mirrors Republican efforts in other states, including Texas, to redraw congressional maps ahead of 2026, sparking a broader redistricting race between red and blue states. Clyburn argued that Democrats indeed have no choice but to respond.
“If you look back all the legislation that we’ve proposed, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act and other bills that we’ve proposed on the Democratic side, we have always proposed bipartisan commissions to draw the lines. That’s what we’ve done, and that’s where we are,” he said on CNN. “Now, I’ve never been all for that simply because I knew that we would get to this point when you might have to use politics in order to offset this stuff, and that’s what’s going on now. If Texas [does] what they say they’re going to do, California is going to follow suit, New York, Illinois. And I guarantee you that we are going to fight fire with fire. That’s what we’ve got to do.”
