Mississippi Democratic Party Condemns Supreme Court's Callais Decision, Warns Mississippi Leaders Are Already Preparing to Use It Against Black Voting Power

JACKSON, Miss. — The Mississippi Democratic Party today issued a sharp condemnation of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Louisiana v. Callais, in which a 6-3 majority narrowed a central protection of the Voting Rights Act and upheld a ruling that Louisiana's congressional map was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. The ruling sharply limits how race may be considered in redistricting and invites state leaders to weaken districts where Black voters have been able to elect candidates of their choice.

In her dissent, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the majority's so-called "updates" to Section 2 "eviscerate the law."

That history matters in Mississippi. The state was subject to federal preclearance under the Voting Rights Act from 1965 until the Supreme Court's 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder effectively ended that oversight. Federal preclearance was not imposed on Mississippi by accident. It was imposed because for decades, Mississippi systematically denied Black citizens the right to vote through poll taxes, literacy tests, intimidation and racially discriminatory maps. Mississippi has been free of that federal supervision for barely more than a decade. Callais arrived this morning. In Mississippi, state leaders had already begun planning how to use it.

"Mississippi barely climbed out from under federal oversight, and the first chance our leadership gets to start testing the boundaries of Black voting power, they take it. They don't even pretend otherwise," said Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Cheikh Taylor. "Governor Reeves had a special session tied to this ruling ready before the ruling was even handed down. State Auditor Shad White has been on Facebook telling everyone exactly what he wants done with Bennie Thompson's district. Today's decision did not change their minds. It gave them permission. The shame of it is they think the rest of us forgot what that road looks like. We have not forgotten."

Shad White Doubles Down

State Auditor Shad White, long expected to seek higher office, has spent months publicly demanding that Mississippi's Second Congressional District, currently held by U.S. Rep. Bennie G Thompson, be redrawn once the Supreme Court ruled in Callais. He later praised Tate Reeves' plans to redraw maps as "true leadership".

White's words matter because Mississippi's Second Congressional District is the only majority-Black congressional district in the state. It is also the only district that has consistently given Black voters a meaningful opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice to Congress.

This is the same Shad White who has spent his time as auditor singling out Black-led civic organizations, attacking diversity programming at Mississippi's universities, and labeling scholarships and mentorship for Black students as suspect "DEI" spending. In the Blackest state in the country, where roughly 38 percent of Mississippians are Black, and where the Second Congressional District is the only majority-Black congressional district in the state, White has built his political profile around attacking Black institutions and Black leaders.

"Shad White is telling you in plain English what he intends to do," said Mississippi Democratic Party Executive Director Mikel Bolden. "He wants to use this Supreme Court ruling to try to undo the only majority-Black congressional district in Mississippi and remove the only Black member of Mississippi's congressional delegation. He said it on camera. He said it in writing. He is saying it again now. Anyone treating this as hypothetical is not paying attention. The plan is the plan. The only thing missing was the permission slip, and the Supreme Court just signed it."

A Promise Broken in Real Time

When Governor Tate Reeves was reelected in November 2023, he stood in front of a victory crowd in Flowood and promised to "do everything in my power to rally our fellow Mississippians." He has used some version of that line, all Mississippians, every Mississippian, our fellow Mississippians, throughout his career, including his 2020 inaugural pledge that his administration would be "an administration for all Mississippi."

His actions have consistently said otherwise. Today is no different.

Last week, Governor Reeves announced a special session set for 21 days after the Callais ruling, a session aimed at redrawing Mississippi's state Supreme Court districts after a federal judge ruled that one current district violates the Voting Rights Act by denying Black voters a fair chance to elect a candidate of their choice. The ruling came down this morning. The clock is now running on a process Reeves planned in advance, for an outcome he openly anticipated, with consequences that will fall hardest on Mississippians whose voting power has been protected by the very law the Supreme Court weakened today.

"Governor Reeves told Mississippi he would govern for every one of us," Chairman Taylor said. "He has confirmed yet again that when he says all Mississippians, he does not mean all Mississippians. Some Mississippians get a special session. Others get pushed out of the maps. That is not leadership. That is the same playbook this state was put under federal supervision to stop, dressed up in 21st-century language."

What Comes Next

The Mississippi Democratic Party will fight every effort to use the Callais decision as cover for racial gerrymandering in this state, whether those efforts target judicial districts, congressional districts, legislative districts or any other map that determines whose voices count. The party is calling on Mississippians of every race, party and region to recognize what is being attempted in their name and to make their voices heard in the special session, in their legislative districts and in November.

"This is not 1965, and it is not 1890, and Mississippi is not going back," Bolden said. "Our leadership wants to act like the Voting Rights Act was a temporary inconvenience. It was not. It was the floor. It was the bare minimum the federal government had to impose to make this state stop doing the very thing Shad White is on Facebook today bragging about wanting to do again. We are going to remind every Mississippian what that history actually was, who actually fought to end it, and what it costs all of us when we let it come back."

The Mississippi Democratic Party urges every Mississippian, regardless of party, to register to vote ahead of the upcoming SHIELD Act restrictions, contact their legislators about the coming special session and prepare to make their voices heard in November.

The Mississippi Democratic Party is committed to building a Mississippi where every voice is heard and every vote counts.