JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Candidates qualified Friday for two Mississippi state Senate districts that lawmakers redrew after a federal judge ruled that one of them diluted black voting power.
The moves come even as Republican state officials are asking all the judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider the ruling of a three-judge panel upholding the original judge’s order.
The lawsuit challenged Senate District 22, which stretches from mostly black and poor parts of the rural Delta into mostly white and affluent suburbs outside Jackson. The district had a 51% black voting age population and a white Republican senator, Eugene “Buck” Clarke of Hollandale.
Attorneys for the Mississippi Center for Justice and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, representing the plaintiffs, said that because of Mississippi’s history of racial discrimination, state Senate District 22 lacked a large enough black majority to give African American residents a realistic chance to elect a candidate of their choice.
U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves ruled in February that the district dilutes black voting power and ordered lawmakers to redraw it. Reeves said they could also adjust neighboring districts as needed. An appeals court panel upheld the ruling.
Legislators in late March redrew the contested district and one other. Their plan gives District 22 a 58% black voting age population by taking three Sunflower County precincts from District 13. In exchange, lawmakers moved five Bolivar County precincts from District 22 into District 13, dropping its black voting age population from 69% to 62%.
Six Democrats and one Republican qualified in Senate District 13.
Democrats contesting the Aug. 6 party primary are Tony G. Anderson, Carl S. Brinkley, Mark Buckner Jr., Charles Modley and Sarita M. Simmons. John Marshall Alexander, who qualified previously as an independent, also filed as a Democrat on Friday. Party runoffs would be Aug. 27 if necessary. Republican B.C. Hammond will face the winner of the Democratic primary in the Nov. 5 general election.
Six Democrats, two Republicans and two independents qualified in Senate District 22. Democrats include Joseph C. Thomas, Ruffin Smith, Vince “Bigg” V. Roberts, Ermea “EJ” Russell, Colton Thorton and Earl Scales. Thomas was one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit that led to the redistricting. He served in the state Senate from 2004 to 2008 when districts were drawn differently. Thomas ran against Clarke in 2015, with Clarke winning nearly 54 percent of the vote.
Republicans in District 22 include Hayes Dent and Dwayne Self, while independents include Terrence V. Edison Jr. and Calvin J. Stewart.
Neither district has an incumbent seeking reelection. Clarke is running in the Republican primary for state treasurer, while District 13 incumbent Willie Simmons of Cleveland is running as a Democrat for the central district post on the state Transportation Commission.
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