The Republican-controlled South Carolina House plans to try and return for a special session to consider whether to redraw the state's congressional map that currently favors the GOP 6-1.
But House GOP leaders emphasized Tuesday a return does not guarantee the legislature actually follows through with redistricting.
There's "been no promise whatsoever," Hiott told reporters, reiterated by House Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter. "We have opened up the process to take a look at the maps. But the first step in doing that is we've got to amend (the) sine die (resolution)."
The move would enjoin South Carolina to other southern states that have face renewed pressure by the White House and President Donald Trump to undergo mid-decade redistricting.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Louisiana's congressional map as a "racial gerrymander," in what critics called a gutting of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the landmark law that has enabled minority-majority districts to be drawn and protected by the courts.
For months, even in recent days as states around the country had engaged in mid-cycle redistricting, South Carolina's Republican leaders were clear on the debate over whether to redraw the state's seven congressional districts: they weren't interested.
That may, at least in one chamber, have changed.
Lawmakers are still in session, which officially ends May 14.
And, since February, a sine die resolution proposal passed by the Senate has ben sitting in the House without any action.
The resolution adopted by the Senate is currently a so-called "clean" version, limiting post-May 14 work to issues such as the budget, conference committees, appointments and gubernatorial vetoes.
With an agreement in place, the General Assembly can dictate what it does, and when it does it, when lawmakers return after May 14.
Without one? The governor is free to call lawmakers back — he just can't tell them what to do.
The House plans to try and amend the resolution Wednesday by adding redistricting to it, requiring two-thirds of the chamber with a GOP supermajority to agree.
The Senate would then have to also agree to the change — what Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, said Tuesday he could not say would happen.
Early Tuesday, Gov. Henry McMaster appeared to leave the redistricting question up to the General Assembly to answer.
He said he didn't intend to pressure lawmakers, but said he wanted to ensure that South Carolina's map complied with U.S. and state constitutions and that lawmakers factored in what redistricting could mean for the election schedule.
South Carolina's statewide primary elections are fast approaching.
Voter registration ends by early next week, early voting begins in late May and the primaries are on June 9. Ballots have already been printed, and absentee ballots have also already been mailed to military and overseas voters.
Redrawing the maps runs the risk of delaying South Carolina elections, but it likely includes reopening candidate filing.
McMaster would not say Tuesday whether he would support legislative efforts to redraw the maps.
"I'm not really too concerned about what other states are doing," McMaster said, noting he does not have the authority like other governors to move elections.
Statehouse leaders have also considered other redraw risks.
South Carolina's map could become more competitive, they say.
"I think we need to be careful about this because in an effort to go to 7-0, we very well could go to 5-2, because the the population in South Carolina, the breakdowns are not what a lot of people would expect it to be about how easy it is just to draw seven congressional districts," Massey said last week. "That's not easy at all. In fact, I think you risk losing a Republican if you try to get too cute with it."
Massey reiterated those concerns Tuesday, including to Trump who Massey said he spoke with twice.
Describing the short conversation as cordial, Massey said he repeated his concerns to the president, who asked for lawmakers to review the map.
This is a developing story. It will be updated.
