By Scott Graber
It is Saturday and this morning I have my coffee, my laptop, and a front-row seat on the on-going redistricting debate in the South Carolina Senate.
It started on Tuesday, May 19, 2026.
On Tuesday I watched these internet-broadcasted proceedings — first in the S.C. House of Representatives — with Lolita Huckaby. We sat on bar stools in my small, linoleum-tiled, 50s-era kitchen.
Lolita came of age in Rowland, N.C., within sight and shadow of the huge sombrero at South of the Border. She grew up in the segregated South that came with Black servants.
I was an “Army brat” but I spent every summer with my maternal grandparents who lived 30 miles south of Rowland, N.C., in Florence, S.C. They, too, had house servants.
I did not know Lolita in those early, innocent days but I do know her childhood included what we both believed was a warm and loving relationship with the Black ladies who made our beds, ironed the sheets and boiled our early morning grits.
But then, of course, came the discovery that these women lived different lives. In my case that happened when I went (with my grandmother) to the ramshackle house where her servant lived.
To this day I can remember walking into a dark, over-heated, baby-packed room smelling of bacon grease. I remember seeing a pan of congealed grits on a pot bellied stove and also recall that I could see the ground through the floor boards.
Lolita remembers a similar experience when she went with her mother to the shack where Jettie lived, in a mobile home, that included various relatives, free-ranging chickens and a yard filled with piglets.
These visits were infrequent but left us both with the feeling that “This isn’t right.”
Right after graduation from UNC Chapel Hill, Lolita covered the North Carolina Legislature where white men presided in that rule-making arena. Once here in the Lowcountry, she was a reporter at the Beaufort Gazette and I, for 10 years, wrote a Sunday column in that same newspaper.
Both of us remember issues in those long gone days — the Republican-led attacks on the Beaufort County School Board; the efforts to remove the Confederate flag from the State House; and the deal between the Black Democrats and the White Republicans that insured that S.C. Blacks had a vote — a single vote — in the US House of Representatives.
We both remember another deal involving the S.C. House District map — where Black Democrats got four (or five) additional seats in the House. In return for those seats they ceded complete control of the S.C. House to the White Republicans.
Some may condemn these deal-making Black Democrats, but after 100 years of disenfranchisement, those leaders were desperate for some kind of voice in the U.S. House, so they settled for a single Black seat in Washington.
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
By Wednesday, that singular voice, and Jim Clyburn’s influence, were in jeopardy. We knew that Donald Trump had called our Governor, Henry McMaster, telling him he wanted that single seat in Republican hands. And by Wednesday the Republican led effort to eliminate this single Black seat was now in the Senate Judiciary Committee where the public was finally given an opportunity to speak.
During these deliberations, one man got up and said “Look, this is just partisan politics. We won and now we’re ‘spiking the football’ — we’re going 7 and 0.”
But a woman from Charleston responded, “No, what you’re doing is re-drawing the map based on fear of Donald Trump,”making the point that the Executive was telling the Legislative what to do, and this was eviscerating the separation of powers concept based on your “fear of the President.”
“Are you calling us cowards?” a Republican committee member said to the one of the speakers, who happened to be a high school student.
Friday, May 22, 2026
By Friday the map-changing legislation was on the floor of the S.C. Senate, where it became clear to everyone that it was going to be difficult to get a new map approved before Tuesday, May 26, when early-voting (using the old map) would begin throughout the State.
During Friday’s debate the Democratic Senators with help from five Republican Senators decided to have lengthy — on the record “discussions” that detailed the rushed and allegedly flawed effort by their Republican kindred to redraw the map and remove Rep. Clyburn.
One of these on-the-record discussions talked about what went into the last redistricting effort; that question-and-answer colloquy between the Senator from Horry County, Luke Rankin, and our own Tom Davis from Beaufort County.
The Senators talked about the 2021, two-years-long effort with community input, multiple map revisions, multiple committee meetings and lengthy debate in the House and Senate. They talked about the fact that there were meaningful amendments made by the Senate and the House before passage of the last redistricting bill. They talked about the fact that this map had been found constitutionally sound by the United States Supreme Court.
These two men also talked about the lack of accurate census numbers; the fact that the current map-maker is a Republican-leaning vendor; the fact that the new map has had little public input; and Davis gave a long discourse on separation of powers, both “vertical” and “horizontal,” saying the founders of this country never believed a state legislature would willingly delegate its redistricting power to a sitting President.
All of which signaled to those of us watching that these might be important issues when the South Carolina Supreme Court examined this new map in connection with the appeal that was coming — maybe as soon as next week.
Later on Friday, there was another, on-the-record colloquy between Senator Brad Hutto from Orangeburg and our own Tom Davis.
Senator Davis asked about the appeals process in the event the new map is adopted — there seemed to be no question that an appeal would immediately follow passage of the bill.
Hutto said that the appeals (one in the State Supreme Court and the other in the U.S. District Court) would probably involve injunctions to stop use of the new map, or to enjoin the June primary.
One got the impression that the primary effort would be to stop the use of the new map — showing that it was rushed, used old census data, amd discouraged amendments and meaningful involvement by the public.
The two Senators talked about a timeline that anticipated a final vote on Monday, May 25; the appeals filed on Tuesday; legal briefs due 24 hours after that; a reply brief due 24 hours later; and, finally, a hearing before the Supreme Court as early as Saturday, May 30, 2026.
Saturday, May 23, 2026
One is struck by the elaborate courtesy that is part and parcel of of the Senate proceedings,
“And for what reason does the Senator from Horry rise?” the Speaker would ask.
“And would the Senator from Horry entertain questions from the Senator from Orangebug?”
And so began the deliberations on Saturday morning. What we didn’t see and didn’t hear were the conversations happening between certain Senators taking place off the floor — discussions that may have been less congenial and more candid than what appeared to be happening in the “well.”
On Saturday afternoon, Majority Leader Sen. Shane Massey rose, was recognized and made a motion for adjournment — preserving the presentation of all amendments that had been scheduled — with resumption of deliberations on Tuesday morning at 11 a.m.
Massey’s motion passed and the fighting, for the moment, was over.
Massey’s motion was a “thunderclap” that mentioned a possible cloture vote on Tuesday which then would lead to a third and final reading. I would later learn that cloture would require a two-thirds majority of the Senate.
I would also learn that if cloture happens the amendments still have to be heard — each of the opposing senators having the right to talk for an hour.
All of which meant that the third and final reading would (probably) not happen until Wednesday, May 27, 2026.
But by Wednesday, early voting in the primary election would be underway and it seemed unlikely any court — State or Federal — would stop this June primary election — an election using the old map — and thus invalidate the votes of thousands of South Carolinians.
Disclaimer
This article was submitted for publication on Monday, May 25, 2026, prior to the legislative actions on the Senate floor on May 26, 2026. This writer could not divine what may happen when the Senate reconvenes on Tuesday and he apologizes for any inconsistent assumptions that may be contained in this article.
This writer also acknowledges the invaluable assistance of Lolita Huckaby in the writing and editing of this article.
Scott Graber is a lawyer, novelist, veteran columnist and longtime resident of Port Royal. He can be reached at cscottgraber@gmail.com.