(Photo from Cheikh Taylor on Facebook)
- Mississippi Democratic Party chairman State Rep. Cheikh Taylor said those opposed to the ruling will practice nonviolence, such as boycotts, to protest the court’s decision. He says it could lead to the loss of 17 seats in the Mississippi House of Representatives and 7 seats in the state Senate.
The chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party said Tuesday that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to vacate a lower court’s ruling regarding legislative redistricting will be met with pre-Voting Rights Act era tactics.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated an order from a three-judge panel that forced legislative redistricting in 2025 under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in light of its ruling in Louisiana v. Callais. The resulting special legislative elections held last year saw Republicans lose their supermajority in the state Senate.
The Callais case, recently decided by the nation’s highest court, found that race could not be used as a determinative factor in drawing districts, changing the evidentiary standard required to sustain an alleged racial discrimination claim under the Voting Rights Act.
READ MORE: U.S. Supreme Court vacates Mississippi’s legislative redistricting order
Democratic Party chairman State Rep. Cheikh Taylor said people opposed to the ruling will practice nonviolence, such as boycotts, to protest the decision, which he says could lead to the loss of 17 seats in the Mississippi House of Representatives and 7 seats in the state Senate.
During a press conference in downtown Jackson at the party’s headquarters, the Democratic Party chairman called the ruling “a defining moment” in political history.
“Mississippi barely climbed out from under federal oversight, and the first chance our leadership gets to start testing the boundaries of black voting power, they take it. They don’t even pretend otherwise,” he said.
The Democrat-backed protests will start on Wednesday, with Congressman Bennie Thompson (D) speaking at the state Capitol about the recent ruling and its impact on black voting districts in Mississippi. It is widely believed that Mississippi lawmakers will also take up congressional redistricting between now and next year’s legislative session, as supported by Governor Tate Reeves (R) who recently said it is not if but when Thompson’s “reign of terror” over the 2nd Congressional District is coming to an end.
Party chairman Taylor said it is too soon to determine a long-term plan, “but the first act will be to litigate in court.”
When asked if the City of Jackson could see the same fate as Memphis, where Tennessee lawmakers divided the city into separate districts, Taylor said he hopes the capital city remains in one.
“It doesn’t need to be the tale of two cities,” Taylor said.
He added that Thompson has faced gerrymandering three times during his more than three decades in Washington.
Democratic strategists took to the airwaves Monday, saying the party needs to figure out how to attract white, middle-class voters under its label. Taylor admitted that it is a fair assessment and said the way to do that is through good policies that lift everyone up.
“We need policies that will bring us together,” he said.
Taylor sidestepped questions about what the party is going to do differently to attract new voters, saying suggestions have been to increase fundraising and recruit younger candidates.
The Mississippi Democratic Party’s push for boycotts comes on the same day that the NAACP called on black athletes and fans to boycott the college athletic programs of public universities in states like Mississippi that are taking steps that the nation’s oldest civil rights group says are restricting black voting rights.
