- Reeves said the current legislative district maps “no longer have any validity” following the Callais decision. Qualifying for legislative elections begins January 2.
With the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Callais v. Louisiana, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves (R) is considering the right time to call a special session for lawmakers to take up legislative redistricting ahead of the start of qualifying for next year’s elections.
“I’ve been giving serious consideration on calling a special session on redistricting since one minute after Callais decision came out,” Reeves told reported at the Neshoba County Fair Thursday.
He said the map that the current legislators ran under, specifically those that forced special elections last year, “no longer have any validity.”
The NAACP challenged the prior legislative district maps on behalf of 14 individuals who claimed black voting strength was being diluted in certain areas of the state. A federal three-judge panel ordered mid-term legislative redistricting be done to allow for higher black voting age populations in North Mississippi, namely DeSoto County, along with Pine Belt senate and house districts. A total of 15 special elections followed in November 2025. Those elections resulted in Republicans losing their supermajority in the state Senate.
The U.S. Supreme Court vacated the order from the federal three-judge panel following the Callais decision, which found that race could not be used as a determinative factor in drawing districts and changed the evidentiary standard required to sustain an alleged racial discrimination claim under the Voting Rights Act.
The governor said the new legislative maps used in the 2025 special elections were “drawn under principles that are not constitutional.”
“Yes, I’ve spent a lot of time giving serious consideration to [calling a special session],” Reeves said. “I expect it to happen. I’m not going to tell you a date today because I don’t know a date today.”
He said there are a number of other issues to also consider before he calls a special session, including correcting the reauthorization of the state’s youth courts that lapsed after legislative wrangling at the end of the regular session this year and perhaps taking another look at legislation to expand education freedom could be up for consideration.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have lawmakers working on redistricting on select committees ahead of a likely special session call. Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann (R) told attendees under the Founders Square pavilion Wednesday that redistricting is coming to Mississippi and Speaker Jason White (R) also referenced the need to update the maps later this year in his speech on Thurssday.
Lawmakers who spoke with Magnolia Tribune believe the governor will call them back to the Capitol this fall, perhaps even after the November General Election, to set the new legislative district maps ahead of the January 2 opening of qualifying. They will then look to take up congressional and state Supreme Court redistricting during the 2027 session.
Governor Reeves has previously said that he expects lawmakers to redistrict the state congressional seats with an eye on ending the “tenure of Congressman Bennie Thompson’s reign of terror” in the 2nd Congressional District.
“It is not a question of if; it’s a question of when,” Reeves said in May.
With Mississippi having held its congressional primaries before the Callais decision, Reeves has held off on calling a special session to redistrict congressional seats, saying he has been working closely with the White House on what a congressional redistricting plan would look like.
Frank Corder
