It’s a given that Mississippi’s Republican-dominated Legislature, now that it has the blessing of the U.S. Supreme Court, is going to redraw the state’s legislative and congressional districts to more heavily favor the GOP.
The question is how lawmakers will do that without also drawing voter lines that are racially discriminatory, which remains unconstitutional.
One way might be to have more than white Republicans around the drafting table.
To their credit, both House Speaker Jason White and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann recognize this. Of the 20 legislators the two Republican leaders recently appointed to the Joint Committee on Reapportionment and Redistricting, five are Black Democrats.
Republicans will still have 75% of the vote on that committee, so don’t expect a nonpartisan result. At least, however, the interests of minority voters and candidates won’t be completely ignored.
