New Jersey governor is down to join redistricting wars, following Supreme Court gutting of Voting Rights Act

New Jersey could join the crop of blue states currently considering new congressional maps in light of the US Supreme Court’s ruling that effectively vanquishes protections for racial minority districts.

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill told CNN that “we’ll take the measures we have to take” when asked if the state should redistrict in response to red states’ plans to eliminate minority districts after the SCOTUS ruling, and at President Trump’s urging.  

“Right now, we are looking at what’s going on and making sure that people know that the voting system is fair,” said Gov. Sherrill. “If Trump is going to try to attack fair voting across the country, then New Jersey is going to stand up so that we can create, you know, a counter-balance to whatever he’s doing.”

She acknowledged that there were “some constitutional limitations” that would prevent New Jersey from implementing it this year. 

New Jersey’s current congressional map that went into effect in 2022 was created by a bipartisan committee, which drew nine districts for Democrats and three for Republicans. 

The next round of redistricting is currently scheduled for after the 2030 census. But to bump it up earlier, state lawmakers would have to pass a constitutional amendment with approval from two-thirds of the legislature. After that, the measure would still need clearance via a voter referendum. 

However, Gov. Sherrill said she’d “certainly be willing to work with the legislature to do that.”

Several Democratic states are currently mulling how to pull off mid-decade redistrictings given that Republican states have announced plans to take advantage of the recent Louisiana v Callais ruling to eliminate Democratic seats. 

The SCOTUS ruling effectively nullified the Voting Rights Act provision that protected districts where minority voters would have the opportunity to elect candidates that best reflected their interests. 

Red states such as Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee and possibly South Carolina are now moving to get rid of those districts – even though some of them only have one, single minority district to begin with. Trump is pushing red states to do this in hopes of increasing a Republican advantage in Congress to carry out his agenda. 

However, for New Jersey to “counter-balance” this, the complications rest beyond just constitutional limitations. Democratic leaders in the state fear that redrawing districts could inadvertently decrease and dilute minority voting power by splitting up those voters, especially if added across Republican districts.

As Fairleigh Dickinson University law professor Dan Cassino told the New Jersey Monitor: “This becomes an intramural fight between Democrats.” 

“In other states where there’s less of an issue of minority representation, it’s not as big an issue,” said Cassino. “If you’re a whiter Democratic state, it’s not as big an issue. In New Jersey, this would be Democrat-on-Democrat violence.”

But redistricting is not New Jersey’s only “counter-balance” strategy. State lawmakers recently passed the  “John R. Lewis Voter Empowerment Act of New Jersey” – a state-level voting rights act created in response to the Trump administration’s encroachments on state elections rights. 

While not signed into law yet, the bill could possibly be imperiled by the Louisiana v. Callais decision. But Gov. Sherrill has passed other measures such as extending the early voting period, which starts this month. 

“As President Trump attempts to undermine elections and make voting harder through his unconstitutional Executive Order, we will take every step to protect the integrity of our elections and ensure they are more accessible for New Jerseyans,” said Gov. Sherrill in a press statement announcing the early voting expansion.