This outcome further solidifies the narrative that a Republican Supermajority South Carolina Senate blocks Clyburn redistricting.

The South Carolina Senate voted 29-17 on May 12 against amending its sine die resolution to allow a post-adjournment session on congressional redistricting — two votes short of the two-thirds majority required [SC Daily Gazette, 2026; Washington Examiner, 2026]. Five Republicans joined every Democrat in voting no [Washington Examiner, 2026]. One of them was Sen. Greg Hembree, R-Little River, who represents Horry and Dillon counties [scstatehouse.gov].

“Blocks” is the word every major outlet used, and it is accurate as far as it goes [NBC News, 2026]. But the merits of any redrawn map never reached the floor. What the Senate killed was the procedural vehicle — the amendment that would have let lawmakers come back after the May 14 adjournment and take up a map at all [SC Daily Gazette, 2026].

Watch Lt. Governor Pam Evette here as she is grilled on redistricting and can’t get her facts right

The implications of this vote are significant, as it highlights how the South Carolina Senate blocks Clyburn redistricting and showcases the division within the state legislature.

Understanding How the South Carolina Senate Blocks Clyburn Redistricting

We covered the House vote May 7 in [Will South Carolina Redistrict Jim Clyburn’s U.S. House Seat?]. That story ended on a question — whether the Senate would clear two-thirds. The answer arrived Tuesday: not even close, and the local fingerprints are on the no side.

The redraw is paused, not dead. Gov. Henry McMaster can still call a special session, and if he does, the math changes [WIS-TV, 2026; WMBF News, 2026].

### 1. The vote — what 29-17 actually means.

A 29-17 tally sounds decisive. On this question, it is two votes shy of the supermajority needed [Washington Examiner, 2026]. The amendment needed 31. It got 29.

There was no map on the floor. There was no roll call on dismantling Rep. Jim Clyburn’s 6th Congressional District. What the Senate refused to do was give itself permission to come back after sine die — the formal end of the legislative session — and take up redistricting at all [SC Daily Gazette, 2026]. That is a meaningful refusal. It is not a defeat on the merits, because the merits were never the question.

The distinction matters for what comes next. If the Senate had voted down a specific map, the redraw would be functionally dead. Because it killed only the procedural vehicle, the May 7 draft could come back unchanged in a special session [SC Public Radio, 2026].

**So what does this mean for you?** Read past the verb. The Senate refused to extend its own clock. It did not vote on whether your district stays or changes. Those questions are still on the table — just temporarily off the calendar.

### 2. The five Republicans — and the Horry County hook.

The five no votes: Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield; Sean Bennett, R-Summerville; Chip Campsen, R-Isle of Palms; Tom Davis, R-Beaufort; and Greg Hembree, R-Little River [Washington Examiner, 2026; FITSNews, 2026]. Without all five, the amendment clears 31.

Hembree is Horry County’s. He has held Senate District 28, covering Horry and Dillon, since 2013 [scstatehouse.gov]. He cast the kind of vote that requires a senator to walk home through his own primary base and explain it. He has not issued a public statement. The channel has put that question to his office.

Massey did the talking for the no side, and his arithmetic is worth reading. “We are the most gerrymandered Republican state in the country already,” he told reporters [Post and Courier, 2026]. He warned that overreach could flip a 6-1 GOP delegation to 5-2 in a bad cycle: “Trying to go to 7-0, I think, is extremely risky” [SC Daily Gazette, 2026]. He pointed to the calendar too: 8,000-plus absentee ballots were already in the mail, including from active-duty military, and redrawing now would “discard those ballots [Post and Courier, 2026; CNN, 2026].

Campsen, whose Lowcountry district would have absorbed pieces of a redrawn map, was blunter. “It’s almost impossible for us to even pull this off without tremendous error,” he said. “If adopted, there will be endless complaints because it was drawn by people with no concept of communities here” [Washington Examiner, 2026].

You can read this two ways. A Trump-aligned Republican sees five senators defying a presidential Truth Social post — “BE BOLD AND COURAGEOUS” went up May 11 [Washington Examiner, 2026] — and a betrayal, the word Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette used the same afternoon [WPDE, 2026]. A conservative who remembers what bad gerrymanders cost the side that drew them reads Massey’s math and sees prudence. Voters in District 28 get to decide which read is Hembree’s.

**So what does this mean for you?** Your state senator cast one of the most consequential Republican votes of the session. He owes you a paragraph of explanation. His office number is on the Statehouse website. The question is not whether you agree with the vote — it is whether he will tell his constituents why he cast it.

### 3. The map that scared the Senate — including the SC-7 piece we missed.

Chapter 1 reported, accurately as of May 6, that no published map put Rep. Russell Fry’s SC-7 — Horry County’s district — on the redraw list. The map released the next day changed that. The May 7 draft would have pulled part of Charleston County into SC-7 alongside Horry, Georgetown and the existing Pee Dee counties [SC Public Radio, 2026; Live 5 News, 2026]. The Senate killed the map before it could become law, but the record should be clear: Horry County was on the table.

The bigger surgery was to SC-6. The draft would have eliminated the 1992-vintage Clyburn district as a minority-opportunity seat and stretched a redrawn 6th from the North Carolina border to Charleston, picking up three counties Trump carried in 2024 and shedding four that went for Harris [SC Daily Gazette, 2026; NOTUS, 2026].

That is the map that produced Campsen’s “no concept of communities here” line — and the map a Republican counting long-term noses might not defend in the next round of statewide races. Both reads can be true at once.

**So what does this mean for you?** When the next map appears, read it before you take a side. SC-7 was on the last one. Assuming it will not be on the next one is exactly the mistake chapter 1 made.

### 4. McMaster’s leverage — paused, not dead.

With the sine die amendment gone, the legislature cannot come back on its own. The only path to a redraw before the 2026 elections runs through the governor’s office [WIS-TV, 2026].

McMaster has so far declined to call one, saying only that “it would be appropriate for the General Assembly to ensure that South Carolina’s congressional map still complies with all requirements of federal law and the U.S. Constitution” [WIS-TV, 2026]. Attorney General Alan Wilson called the Senate vote “a missed opportunity for South Carolina” and pushed McMaster to convene a session [WPDE, 2026]. Evette called it “a betrayal of the people of South Carolina and a direct defiance of President Trump’s clear call [WPDE, 2026].

The math of a special session is the part most readers will not have heard. The sine die amendment required two-thirds — 31 votes [Washington Examiner, 2026]. In a session called by the governor, redistricting could pass by simple majority [Townhall, 2026]. Twenty-nine senators voted no this week; under simple majority, the redraw needs only 24. Hembree’s vote, and the four Republicans next to him, become both more decisive and more politically expensive.

The legislature adjourns sine die at 5 p.m. Thursday, May 14 [SC Public Radio, 2026]. Everything after that runs through the governor’s office.

**So what does this mean for you?** The story is not over. If McMaster calls a session, the same five Republicans face the same vote under harder math. If he does not, the 2026 election runs on the current map. The next move is one phone call away — and that phone is in Columbia, not Washington.

### 5. What happens in Horry County now.

Under the current rules and map, Horry County votes on June 9 as planned. A House subcommittee voted May 8 to push the congressional primary to August 11, but that delay was anchored to a redraw that did not happen [Fox Carolina, 2026]. Without a new map, there is no reason to move the date — though the legislature has not yet formally said so.

SC-7 stays as drawn in 2022 — Horry, Georgetown, Florence, Marion, Dillon, Marlboro, Darlington and Chesterfield. Russell Fry’s seat is not in play this cycle. The Pee Dee counties bordering Horry County are not getting moved into a redrawn SC-6 in the next 28 days, and voters there will not wake up in a new district before early voting. The single biggest local cost chapter 1 flagged is, for now, off the table.

What is not off the table is the political question. Rep. Jim Clyburn said the fight will not change his plans: “The voters will have the last word on this, and I don’t know why people think I cannot get reelected if they redistrict South Carolina [The Hill, 2026]. Jace Woodrum of the ACLU of South Carolina said “the lawmakers pushing to rig our maps are not out of tricks yet” [WPDE, 2026]. SC GOP Chair Drew McKissick said Republicans “should not be embarrassed about competing within the same legal framework that Democrats have been operating under for years [WPDE, 2026]. Three confident voices, three theories of what happens next.

**So what does this mean for you?** Watch McMaster. Watch Hembree’s office. The fight over your congressional map is paused, not finished — and the people most certain about how it ends are still the ones least worth listening to.

The Senate vote was the first hard count of where this redraw stands. McMaster has the next one. June 9 is 28 days out. If you want to know where your elected officials land before they vote again, this is the week to ask.

### Further Reading

South Carolina Senate blocks Clyburn redistricting – NBC News — https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/south-carolina-state-senate-rejects-effort-tackle-redistricting-pressu-rcna344815

South Carolina Senate blocks Clyburn redistricting – Roll Call —https://rollcall.com/2026/05/12/south-carolina-state-senate-stymies-redistricting-effort/

– CNN — https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/12/politics/south-carolina-redistricting-jim-clyburn

– SC Daily Gazette (May 12) — https://scdailygazette.com/2026/05/12/senators-reject-white-house-push-to-redraw-scs-voting-lines/

South Carolina Senate blocks Clyburn redistricting – SC Daily Gazette (May 7 map) — https://scdailygazette.com/2026/05/07/house-gop-releases-white-house-map-of-sc-voting-lines/

South Carolina Senate blocks Clyburn redistricting – Democracy Docket — https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/south-carolina-redistricting-lawmakers-reject-gerrymander-in-blow-to-trump/

– Washington Examiner — https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/congressional/4565459/south-carolina-republican-redistricting-clyburn/

– FITSNews — https://www.fitsnews.com/2026/05/12/s-c-senate-rebukes-donald-trump-rejects-redistricting/

– WPDE (reactions) — https://wpde.com/newsletter-daily/reactions-filter-in-after-sc-senate-fails-to-advance-redistricting-efforts

South Carolina Senate blocks Clyburn redistricting – SC Public Radio (May 8 map) —https://www.southcarolinapublicradio.org/sc-news/2026-05-08/the-state-house-gavel-house-drops-proposed-redistricting-map-senate-gop-leader-remains-unconvinced

South Carolina Senate blocks Clyburn redistricting – SC Public Radio (May 12) — https://www.southcarolinapublicradio.org/sc-news/2026-05-12/the-state-house-gavel-trump-closely-watching-whether-sc-lawmakers-act-on-redistricting-in-final-week

South Carolina Senate blocks Clyburn redistricting – WIS-TV — https://www.wistv.com/2026/05/12/live-sc-lawmakers-again-consider-redistricting-proposal/

South Carolina Senate blocks Clyburn redistricting – WMBF News — https://www.wmbfnews.com/2026/05/12/live-measure-bring-sc-lawmakers-back-special-session-redistricting-fails-senate/

– Post and Courier (Trump/Massey) — https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/sc-trump-redistricting-maps-massey-senate/article_26b3c561-c2b8-4b55-9b72-0be42a1bfb43.html

South Carolina Senate blocks Clyburn redistricting – The Hill (Clyburn) — https://thehill.com/homenews/5868640-clyburn-trump-sc-redistricting/

South Carolina Senate blocks Clyburn redistricting – Live 5 News (May 8 map) — https://www.live5news.com/2026/05/08/state-house-lawmakers-consider-first-draft-redistricted-congressional-maps/

South Carolina Senate blocks Clyburn redistricting – ACLU of SC Statehouse Dispatch — https://www.aclusc.org/news/statehouse-dispatch-may-11-2026/

South Carolina Senate blocks Clyburn redistricting – SC Statehouse — Hembree bio — https://www.scstatehouse.gov/member.php?code=0819318084

South Carolina Senate blocks Clyburn redistricting – Ballotpedia — Greg Hembree — https://ballotpedia.org/Greg_Hembree