The non-partisan Cook Political Report moved five House races towards Democrats after the United States Supreme Court ordered Alabama to redraw their congressional map which unlawfully dilutes the voting power of the states Black population.
Cook Political Report shifted its rating for Alabama’s first and second congressional district from “Solid R” to “Toss up”. The forecaster also moved Louisiana’s fifth and sixth district races from “Solid R” to “Toss up” as well. All those districts are currently represented by Republicans in the US House of Representatives.
North Carolina’s first congressional district, which is represented by Democratic Rep. Donald Davis, was moved from “Toss up” to “Lean D”.
In a 5-4 decision on Thursday the Supreme Court struck down the Republican drawn congressional map in Alabama for violating the voting rights act.
This means that the map of Alabama’s seven congressional districts, which were drawn to heavily favor Republicans, must now be redrawn to include an additional Black majority district to account for the state’s 27% Black population.
“The landmark decision in Allen v. Milligan could reverberate across the Deep South, leading to the creation of new Black-majority, strongly Democratic seats in multiple states,” Cook Political Report senior editor David Wasserman wrote.
