Senate

Senate Democrat on redistricting: ‘Politicians are picking their voters’

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by Ashleigh Fields - 05/03/26 11:57 AM ET

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by Ashleigh Fields - 05/03/26 11:57 AM ET

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Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) on Sunday slammed the Supreme Court for striking down Louisiana’s congressional maps this week, arguing the national redistricting push is allowing lawmakers to choose their voters rather than upholding the democratic process.

“Gerrymandering turns our elections on its head, so that rather than the people picking their politicians or their public servants, the politicians are picking their voters,” Warnock said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.”

Warnock’s comments follow the high court’s decision earlier this week that determined Louisiana’s majority Black district was illegal, drawing back protections under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

The provision has been used to justify redistricting efforts aimed at protecting the voting power of minority groups, and it specifically outlaws any voting practice that creates hurdles to voters “on account of race or color.”

Warnock said, “what happened this week is nothing less than a massive and devastating blow, not only to our democracy, but particularly to people of color in the South. This question about intent is on its head, misleading, and it ignores our history.”

“We had 100 years after the 15th Amendment was passed, which, on paper, gave Black people the right to vote, but with supposedly or putatively race neutral methods. For 100 years, the right to vote was denied,” he told host Margaret Brennan.

The Senate Democrat said the high court “hobbled” Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act in its 2013 ruling in Shelby v. Holder, adding that, since the, the country has seen the racial voter turnout gap grow “wider and wider, not smaller.”

“We will see a devastating impact as a result of this, and now, more than ever, we’ve got to stand up and fight for our democracy,” Warnock said of this week’s Supreme Court ruling.

Warnock called the decision “21st Century Jim Crow tactics in new clothes” and slammed efforts to purge Black and Brown citizens from voter rolls and issues with altering precincts.

“And now — as a result of the decision this week — they’re saying that even when you show up, we have— we have given the green light so that politicians can play games with the lines, so that even when you overcome those barriers and show up your voices will be muted…,” Warnock said in the segment.

“I think that the court sadly poured fuel on this redistricting arms race,” he later added.

Warnock pointed to his Redistricting Reform Act that would establish independent redistricting commissions and end mid-decade redistricting as a way to mitigate partisan gerrymandering.

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