District 1- Henry Brown (R) Blue
72% White, 19% African American, 6% Hispanic
Drops all of Horry County (Myrtle Beach) in exchange for Beaufort, Hilton Head area. Drops some heavily African American areas in exchange for more Republican Charleston areas.
District 2- Joe Wilson (R) Green
77% White, 17% African American, 3% Hispanic
This is the most gerrymandered non-VRA seat, mostly so that it can cede it's black areas to the new 7th District. It follows the SC-GA border, then winds down to the Columbia area and takes in almost all of Lexington County, where Wilson's home is located. AA population drops almost 10% and this district is much safer for Wilson.
District 3- TBD (successor of Gresham Barrett) Purple
78% White, 14% African American, 5% Hispanic
Includes all of Oconee and Pickens as well as northern Greenville and Spartanburg Counties and winds down to pick up some conservative Columbia suburbs formerly in Wilson's district. This district includes Barretts home but may or may not contain the home of his successor, which could be problematic if he or she is from Anderson County. Black population drops 6%
District 4- Bob Inglis (R) Red
70% White, 22% African American, 5% Hispanic
Includes all of Anderson Couny and the cities of Greenville and Spartanburg. By far this is the least gerrymandered district in the state. Because it now grabs Aiken County and due to growing minority populations in North SC, the African American and Hispanic populations actually go up in this district slightly.
District 5- John Spratt (D) Yellow
75% White, 18% African American, 4% Hispanic
I drew this district with the intend of defeating John Spratt, because I doubt that South Carolina Republicans settle for a 3-4 Delegation, especially because 2 districts are VRA. The African American vote here is nearly halved, and the district now stretches into Horry County and includes all of Myrtle Beach, a Republican stronghold. I don't know whether Spratt would win this district, but he may decide to retire rather than find out.
District 6- Jim Clyburn (D) Blue-Green
52% African American, 43% White, 2% Hispanic
This district takes in more of Columbia than before and stretches north into Fairfield, Chester, and Union Counties. To stay majority African American, and to hurt Spratt, it has now grown several oogie tentacles that slither into some of the more rural African American areas, as well as a few small cities. Don't worry though, it remains contiguous. Despite the additon of another majority Black district, the AA population only falls about 5%
District 7- NEW (D) Gray
54% African American, 41% White, 3% Hispanic
I'll admit, this district is awfull, but maybe not as awful as it looks at first glance. It starts by taking in the Black neighborhoods of Charleston and North Charleston, the takes in as many black majority tracts as humanly posible without going into Columbia. I tried to salvage some integrity for this map, so I made sure that there were no oogie tentacles like in the 6th, so give me credit for that at least.
What does everyone think? Are they legal?
Update- Based on comments and criticism, I've totally redrawn my map, this time giving Spratt the African American majority seat instead of creating a new one. This district is a thousand times less gerrymandered than the last, so I think you'll all like it much better.
Spratt's New District is exactly 50% Black
While Clyburn's is about 55% Black.
To compensate for lost population, Clyburn's district takes in more of both the Charleston and Columbia areas.
The new 7th district follows the North Carolina border from Spartanburg to Myrtle Beach, taking up much of what was Spratt's District. The other districts remain almost unchanged, although the first and second become a few percentage points more white. I tried very hard to split as few counties as possible, and even though it may look bad, many counties remain compact in even the 5th and 6th Districts. |
