James Clyburn

You can’t really think about South Carolina or national politics without thinking about Representative Jim Clyburn. First elected to Congress in 1992, Clyburn twice served as majority whip and had a big hand in rescuing Joe Biden’s flailing 2020 presidential campaign. His annual fish fry is a folksy, can’t-miss test for presidential hopefuls, like Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and Representative Ro Khanna, who attended this year.

The 85-year-old Democratic powerbroker won his primary Tuesday in South Carolina with 90% of the vote. But his victory came as Republicans, enabled by the Supreme Court justices appointed by their party, have redrawn districts to blunt Black representation throughout the South, where the majority of Black Americans live. The GOP’s anti-democratic gerrymandering ahead of the midterms will accelerate in advance of 2028, further imperiling seats like Clyburn’s — majority-Black Democratic seats in the South.